Huskers Coach Matt Rhule Talks About Lonely Times for Injured Players

Rhule answered the question about Gottula but went deeper. He talked with great insight about the plight of injured players.

“He looks great,” Rhule said about Gottula. “I saw him in the hallway. Even just his mass, size, strength, all of that.

“One of the unique things about when you get injured like that, it’s such a lonely time. You go from like being out there and playing, to all of a sudden now you’re walking around with your arm like this [holding his arm in an imaginary sling], or you tear your ACL, tear your knee.

“You’re crutching around. People have to help you get your lunch. They have to carry your tray for you. People have to help you get to class.”

Players can’t feel any more removed from the excitement of Saturday afternoon than when they are hobbling around campus. For some, their season might be over. They don’t know if they’ll ever play college football again, or perform at their pre-injury level.

“It just becomes a really, honestly, a lonely time,” Rhule said. “I always felt that when players go through that, if they get to the other side of it, they’re so much more mentally tough.

“They actually sometimes are so much more physically developed because while other guys are practicing, they’re still lifting, they’re still doing all these things. They’re working on all these little other muscles that maybe they hadn’t worked before.

“And they truly learn what process is. When you go from like, hey, I just need to squeeze a ball. If I can squeeze the ball, that’s a good first day.

“Or I have to do a leg raise to move my foot one inch. Instead of thinking everything happens at once, you start to learn that life goes in small steps, gradual improvement.”

College football’s priorities

Imagine the mixed emotions. One day you’re charging onto Memorial Stadium before 85,000 fans, to another day when you’re quietly trying to squeeze a ball … or trying to lift your foot one inch in physical therapy.

On game day, coaches and players can’t worry about the injured. They have more immediate concerns. Their life’s work is right in front of them. The goal is winning the game.

Injured players are on crutches, in walking boots, wearing casts and slings. Such is the price paid when you play college football. There is physical pain, and the pain players feel when they are helpless to do what they want to do more than anything: play football and help the team win.

It’s their life’s work, too.

There are few cheers for the injured, who often are on the sideline on game day wearing Nebraska jerseys but without pads.

You can’t invent more of a contradiction. Game day’s hysteria right next to the sadness of those watching from the sideline. All dressed up and nowhere to go.