Matt Rhule ‘very confident’ with either starting quarterback at Illinois

Head football coach Matt Rhule met the media on Monday afternoon.

Head football coach Matt Rhule met the media on Monday afternoon. He was asked who would be the starting quarterback for the Huskers when they take the field on Friday.

“I feel very confident with Heinrich being the starting quarterback. That being said, I also have a lot of confidence in Jeff (Sims). That’s probably not a great answer, but we practiced last night. Jeff looked awesome. Jeff looked great. Heinrich looked great. Chubba (Purdy) looked good. I’m getting them both ready.

In five games this season, Heinrich Haarberg has started in two. He has thrown for 477 yards and four touchdowns with one interception.

Haarberg has also run the ball 51 times for 270 yards and two touchdowns. Jeff Sims has started in three games this season.

The Georgia Tech transfer has thrown for 220 yards and one touchdown with four interceptions. He has also run 30 times for 156 yards and one touchdown.

The head coach also made it clear that he saw growth from Haarberg during the Michigan loss.

“I have full confidence in Heinrich. In the midst of losing, and I know there were some bad passes and all those things, but in the midst of losing, I saw things from Heinrich that I wanted to see. I saw him compete. I saw him and Billy (Kemp IV) work well versus man, and I saw a lot of option routes. I saw some things that I think we need to add to our run game. We just have to get the run game back to what it had been doing.”

Nebraska will next take the field on Friday, October 6 at 7:00 p.m. The game can be viewed on FS1.

Find a photo gallery of Nebraska’s starting quarterbacks below.