Matt Rhule cites tampering as reason Nebraska possibly cancels traditional spring game

Nebraska athletics director Troy Dannen surprised many in the fan base when he said the football program doesn’t expect to do a traditional Red-White spring game. While Matt Rhule didn’t say the decision was final, he said he “highly doubts” it will be like years past for one important reason.

After last year’s spring game, Rhule said some players received offers from other programs to enter the transfer portal during the spring window. Because of that amount of tampering, he wondered if it made sense to play and broadcast a traditional spring scrimmage.

Nebraska’s 2024 spring game aired on Big Ten Network, adding to an audience that included more than 60,000 inside Memorial Stadium. But after the alleged tampering, Rhule said the traditional game is very much in question this year.

“I don’t know that yet,” Rhule said Saturday. “But I’ll be honest with you, I highly doubt it. Fundamentally, I hate to say it like this, it’s really because last year, we were one of the more televised spring games and I dealt with a lot of people offering our players a lot of opportunities after that. To go out and bring in a bunch of players, and then showcase them for all the other schools to watch, that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. The word ‘tampering’ doesn’t exist anymore. It’s just absolute, free, open, common market. I don’t necessarily want to open up to the outside world. I don’t want these guys all being able to watch our guys and say, ‘Wow, he looks like a pretty good player. Let’s go get him.’

“But I don’t know yet. I don’t know anything. I just thought it was important that we at least started to broach that subject of it not being televised. At the same time, I do want to show off our players in some ways. What exactly it’ll be yet, I am not worried about anything other than recruiting right now, both the portal and into the ’26 class. Now, I have to kind of turn my attention to all those things.”

Matt Rhule points to roster limits as reason for ‘attrition’

The possibility of tampering isn’t the only reason Matt Rhule said the spring game could be canceled or even look different. He noted two key injuries last year as wide receiver Demitrius Bell and cornerback Blye Hill both went down that day. But with roster limits changing to 105 instead of 150, counting walk-ons, Rhule further pointed out the need to keep everyone healthy.

“I think injuries are a factor, but we’re still going to scrimmage in the spring,” Rhule said. “We’re still going to tackle in the spring. But last spring game was really unfortunate. We lost T-Bell, who we thought was probably going to be one of our best receivers to a non-contact injury on the turf. … And then, Blye Hill, who we thought was going to be our starting corner. Those guys never quite came around.

“When you have 150, there’s some attrition. When you have 105 and guys are being compensated now and you’re putting money behind some people, it’s a whole other set of parameters. At the same time, you have to get good. Honestly, to me, it’s about protecting the roster and protecting through that portal period. We’ll see. I hear all kinds of things about, they might change this portal period, that portal period. I think I have to just be really flexible right now.”

The spring transfer portal window is set to open for 10 days from April 16-25. Dannen said April 26 is still a date for Huskers fans to circle, but it’s unclear what the program has planned.

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