The Nebraska Cornhuskers travel to East Lansing on Saturday to take on the Michigan State Spartans. The Spartans are currently 2-6 (0-5) on the season and have been playing under an interim coach after Mel Tucker was fired after two games.
Rhule told the assembled media on Thursday that he thinks the Spartans are a quality team that has been placed in some difficult situations this year.
“They played the number eight team in the country, they played the number two team in the country and I think they were told three days ahead of time you probably have to change all your signals before the game. So, I can’t count that against them. They were beating Iowa in the fourth quarter, they were beating Rutgers in the fourth quarter and it was a three-point game in the fourth quarter against Minnesota.”
Nebraska enters the game, having gone undefeated in the month of October with a chance to become bowl-eligible on Saturday. Rhule believes that there are similarities between the Spartans and Cornhuskers.
This is kind of who we are, it was a four-point game in the fourth quarter, it was a seven-point game in the fourth quarter for us in some games. They fight, they battle, they have excellent players. (Nate) Carter is as good of a back as we’ll see all year long. The personnel on defense is outstanding, number eight is dynamic on defensive tackle that we’ll see in the league. They have really good players, really good coaches, they’re playing for each other and I have a lot of respect for them.”
Nebraska and Michigan State will kickoff from Spartan Stadium at 11:00 a.m. The game can be viewed on FS1.
Find a photo gallery of Nebraska’s first eight games of the season below.