Matt Rhule’s poignant team speech highlights Nebraska’s new video series

From moving into the dorms to team meetings and scrimmages, Husker fans can now get a behind-the-scenes look inside Nebraska football’s day-to-day operations. The Nebraska Creative and Emerging Media department’s multi-part video series “A Look N” debuted Monday night with a Hard Knocks-esque view into fall camp.

Here are some of the highlights:

Arrivals: The first episode, titled “Building a Brotherhood” begins with Nebraska players moving into the Selleck Quadrangle for the first two weeks of fall camp. Some players’ arrivals — like center Ben Scott carrying a box fan or guard Ethan Piper’s Rocky Balboa poster — show their eagerness levels to be in the dorms.

The episode also shows Nebraska’s large team dinner immediately before fall camp — with players enjoying steak, scallops, lobster, shrimp and mashed potatoes from local restaurant Casa Bovina.

Tight ends: When Nebraska begins practicing, the episode briefly follows new tight ends coach Josh Martin. As Martin reminds players about “dominant contact” while driving their knees through blocks, he appears just as comfortable as when he rips into his tight ends from missing their assignments soon after.

One of the players in his room, sophomore Thomas Fidone II, agrees.

“The first thing he said was basically, ‘Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready,’” Fidone said of Martin. “It’s very apparent that he stayed ready. He took over the tight ends job like he’d been coaching here for eight months; honestly, I was pretty impressed by it.”

Rhule’s speech: A portion of head coach Matt Rhule’s pre-fall camp address to the team is included in the episode, but a far more poignant moment comes when Rhule huddles the team together during one of the week’s practice. Seemingly upset about players making excuses and blaming others, Rhule’s unedited two-minute-plus speech immediately creates an emotional response from the team.

Here’s what Rhule had to say:

“Every team in the Big Ten in every meeting is talking about what they have to do to win the Big Ten; they all have goals. Every player in college football on all 130-something Division I teams is figuring out what they’ve gotta do to start. They all want to play in the NFL.

What we find is, as adversity comes and s*** gets hard, you’re one of two people. You’re either the person that when things get really hard becomes a victim and says, ‘It’s not my fault, it’s (who) I’m running with.’

If you’re talking about which team you’re running with is affecting the way you play, you’re the worst teammate there is, just so we’re on the same page. You’re disrespecting the guys on the sideline, and you’re saying, ‘I’m not good because they’re not good.’ You’re a victim.

Or, you’re one of the rare few who says, ‘I love this s***, it’s just making me better. It sucks, it hurts, my legs hurt, my back hurts, my neck hurts, I’m tired and I’ve gotta go through this to be different than everybody else.’

Which guy are you? What you’ll start to see is guys will tap out or rise up. There’s a lot of ways to tap out guys. There’s a lot of things you can blame. You can tap out a million different ways, most of the world does, in fact about 90% of the world does. Are you a 10 percenter? Are you somebody that even when you’re dying can just say, ‘Hey, I need a blow right here.’

You’re not part of the brotherhood just because you’re talented or you’re on scholarship. You’re part of the brotherhood if you sacrifice for your teammates and put them first. I want you to see that, and I am not going to worry about the guys that are not in. I’m only going to go try to win with the guys who are in.

I will not get to game week and then change who I am just to try to win a game; I’m playing with the real ones. I’m playing with the real dudes. I’m playing with the real guys.

So when it gets hard, embrace it. Embrace it, that’s what I’m doing. Those who are with me, coaches, players, staff, everybody. We go through this process to come out at the end of the season knowing we’re tough as s***. You don’t get tough by talking; you get tough by doing that and trying to kill it.”

Post-practice recovery: After head strength coach Corey Campbell reminds players to go through post-practice recovery, the episode shows the techniques used by Nebraska’s athletic medicine staff. From massages to chiropractic work and cold tubs, Nebraska players recovered quickly while drinking protein shakes.

A pair of players recovering from long-term injuries, linebacker Nick Henrich and defensive back Marques Buford, spoke of how their rehab has progressed well because of those practices.

Coordinator of football sports science Mitch Cholewinski also revealed some insight into their approach to the recovery process.

“It’s all about just trying to figure out, how can we make our athletes better whenever they come in the next day?” Cholewinski said. “Because practice is taxing. Coach Rhule talks about it all the time — practice is everything in this program and it’s the most important thing. And for us, it’s making sure that we’re recovered to be able to go on to the next practice.”