So much for working in Nebraska backup quarterback TJ Lateef slowly.
When Nebraska traveled west to take on UCLA on Saturday, head coach Matt Rhule and offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen apparently didn’t change a darn thing when it came to how they schemed the offense.
While the game was highlighted by long, successful drives by both teams, Nebraska was able to find the end zone one more time than the Bruins to earn the 28-21 win, moving the Huskers to 7-3 on the year.
What’s even more impressive is a drive where Nebraska didn’t score. The Huskers were handed the ball back with 4:54 left in the game and a seven-point lead. UCLA had two timeouts and the 2-minute warning, which meant Nebraska and Lateef were going to need to put together at least a few first downs if they wanted to be able to kneel this one out.
That’s exactly what Nebraska did, and it didn’t come by just handing off the ball to Emmett Johnson (we’ll get to him in a moment). Instead, the Huskers stayed multiple and made sure the Bruin defense knew that NU wasn’t just trying to “run” out the clock. In the end, Lateef threw a couple of passes en route to Nebraska’s 28-21 win, and Rhule said that was all by design.
“If you have any idea how we feel about him, at the end of the game, game on the line – we’re throwing the football,” Rhule said. “A lot of people wouldn’t do that, but we’re doing that. It’s because he’s earned that. I don’t believe you give people confidence – they earn it, and they deserve it.”
After his final kneel-down of the game, Lateef held tight onto that game ball because it was not only his first win as a starting quarterback at Nebraska – he did it in the Rose Bowl, which is just a 25-mile drive to Lateef’s hometown of Compton, CA.
“I was just really trying to soak the whole moment up,” Lateef told reporters after the game. “It was crazy. I was really just trying to soak it in. It was my first time playing in the Rose Bowl, so I was just trying to soak it all up. It was a blessing. It was nice.”
It was also nice for Nebraska to bounce back from its heartbreaking loss to USC at home the week prior. Nebraska had the Trojans right where they wanted them before the season-ending injury to Dylan Raiola. Lateef came in, but with little game planning and few reps with the starting unit, Nebraska wasn’t able to put anything together in time to secure the win.
That certainly added to the hunger for Lateef, who spent the entire next week on overdrive to get ready for the UCLA game. It was truly one of those in the facility first, out of the facility last type of weeks for the true-freshman signal-caller, and when practices showed up, his teammates certainly noticed.
“I’m super proud of him,” Johnson said during Nebraska’s postgame press conference. “Everybody on this team knows that he started off the week of practice – he was really focused on the little details, and I just remember we had a team compete early in the week, and he told coach the next day of practice, he said, ‘Can we do team compete again?’ That just shows the competitor he is, and that showed tonight on the field.”
Because of that level of preparation, Rhule and company were able to essentially game plan as if it was still Raiola under center. Obviously, Lateef offers a little bit more than Raiola in the running game when it comes to his scramble ability and being a threat when it comes to designed runs.
However, where the game plan really benefited Nebraska’s coaching staff was when it came to play concepts. According to Rhule, they didn’t have to back off at all when it came to maintaining the aggressive play-calling they’ve been used to over the past few months.
“I just kept saying to him, you’re not a dual threat player – you’re a triple-threat player,” Rhule said of his conversations with Lateef. “You’ve got an arm, you’ve got feet, and you’ve got a brain. I think that’s really important. You don’t want to go out there and run around and create havoc. He made the right checks, the right plays. He was really professional.”
Once the game flow started to take shape, Rhule said his confidence in Lateef and their game plan only grew after each snap.
“There wasn’t a time where I thought he was not on time or trying to do too much,” Rhule said. “We kept calling play-action passes, and he was checking to the run, and I mean just something (that’s a) really mature version of a young player. I think it does speak to his maturity.”
It’s also easy to stay on schedule when you have a workhorse back like Emmett Johnson in the backfield with you. The junior running back rumbled for 129 yards and a touchdown in the win, but he also pulled in three receptions for 103 yards and two touchdowns in the passing game. Johnson was certainly Lateef’s safety valve, scoring on touchdown catches of 56 and 40 yards.
Throughout the game, Johnson said, there were multiple times where Lateef would check it to him based on what the defense was giving him; however, it was a play early on in the game where Lateef chose to keep it himself on a play-action call that let Johnson know Lateef was more than ready for the bright lights in Pasadena.
“Shoot – it’s just execution at the end of the day,” Johnson said of both his and Lateef’s performances Saturday night. “They’ve got to execute. I mean, they trusted me to throw the ball, so I’ve got to execute.”
Lateef now has two more regular-season games ahead of him before leading Nebraska out for a bowl game. Next up is a very welcome bye week for the team before they head toward the other coast to take on Penn State, which nearly knocked off No. 2 Indiana on Saturday.
Nonetheless, the “rookie” nervousness has been shaken off for NU’s true freshman quarterback. However, even he said having his first game so close to where he grew up was a dream come true.
“It was a culture shock,” Lateef said. “It was like ‘Whoa.’ It just hit me. It hit me quick, but that’s what practice is for. I got the opportunity to have a great week of practice, so that’s why it was on display tonight. (I) just had a what’s next mentality. Just breathing, taking it one snap at a time and just trying to execute to the best of my ability.”
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