Steven Sipple: In case you haven’t noticed, Husker fans, “offseason” is essentially over

Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule was in mid-sentence Saturday, discussing his quarterbacks, when he suddenly paused before continuing.

“I’m sorry, guys, I’m tired,” he said.

In case you haven’t noticed, the offseason is over. Oh, sure, Nebraska’s opener against UTEP is August 31. But when August hits — and preseason camp goes into full bloom — the offseason is essentially in our rearview mirror.

Life in a program gets real in a hurry.

It got real for Nebraska fans before August even hit. Rhule on July 30 announced Tristan Alvano , Nebraska’s starting place-kicker in 2023, had undergone a recent medical procedure to fix a groin issue and would miss the first part of camp. That’s just wonderful, jaded Nebraska fans thought, mindful of the Huskers’ abysmal record in close games in recent years.

Alvano, an Omaha Westside graduate, is now back at practice. No worries.

No worries? Yeah, right. It’s almost the middle of August. Try saying “no worries” to any football coach, anywhere. The opener looms. Heavy doses of reality, often in the form of key injuries, tend to accompany the August heat.

No worries? Watch Colorado coach Deion Sanders’ news conference Friday and tell me the man doesn’t look and sound flat-out afraid.

College football in August will do that to even the most confident of men.

Sipple: Four takeaways from Friday practice media availability

Never mind Sanders, Rhule has own issues

No question, Deion’s feeling heat. Already. Colorado’s first game is August 29 against North Dakota State. But Sanders already has an “L” this season, in a sense. He lost a dustup with a Denver Post columnist Friday. Sanders came off as scared and paranoid as he refused to take questions from veteran writer Sean Keeler.

Keeler then invoked the power of the pen. He eviscerated Sanders in a column for Saturday’s editions, writing (appropriately) that “a 4-8 coach gave a 3-9 news conference. This was Deposition Deion, a cornered and condescending man, the perennial victim who ain’t got no time for mere mortals.”

Keeler continued, “This was another side of Deion we’d heard about but hadn’t really seen yet (at Colorado).”

August, my friends, can exact a toll on coaches and bring out their worst.

Keeler continued, “This was Desperate Deion, a man who stared into the future and saw 5-7 staring back.”

Colorado, which visits Lincoln on September 7, will be lucky to get to 5-7 this coming season. OK, I get it. This is where a CU fan calls me a wise-guy hack and reminds me of the Buffaloes’ 36-14 stomping of the Huskers last September in the general weirdness of Boulder, Colorado.

You know what? I am in fact basically a wise-guy hack. But I’m smart enough to understand that while it’s sort of intriguing to watch Deion squirm, Rhule has issues of his own at Nebraska.

It’s just that Rhule isn’t nearly as obnoxious and arrogant as Prime.

In fact, Rhule isn’t even in the same stratosphere in that regard. Then again, who is?

Prochazka’s injury preludes OL struggle

But, yes, life got real in Nebraska’s camp this week. When Rhule announced Tuesday that veteran left tackle Teddy Prochazka suffered a season-ending knee injury Monday, it was no doubt a bummer throughout the program, at least for those who’ve watched Prochazka battle back from injury after injury.

Now, another one. Your heart breaks for Teddy.

Meanwhile, fellow left tackle Turner Corcoran — who had been battling Prochazka for the No. 1 job — sat out of action most of last week with a foot injury. What’s more, Henry Lutovsky , a candidate to start at one of the guard spots, is sidelined with a calf injury. He should be back for the opener. But in the meantime, NU pushed through its second week of preseason camp without three key O-linemen.

I’m told it wasn’t always pretty for the offense. Of course it wasn’t pretty. Protection of the QB was an issue. Do the math. Nebraska has a ferocious defense, perhaps a top-10 unit, and it’s led by a strong group of veteran linemen. The Huskers were this week without their top two left tackles and one of their most tested guards. No wonder Rhule was tired. Stress does that to all of us.

Make no mistake, Nebraska needs Corcoran to begin firing on all cylinders soon. Rhule said Corcoran will be “good to go” Monday. Much of Corcoran’s college career has been marred by injury. My read is he has a chip on his shoulder and is determined to finish his time at Nebraska on a strong note.

Perhaps nobody is cheering harder for him than Dylan Raiola , Nebraska’s true freshman quarterback with a rifle of a right arm and an overall precociousness that fuels genuine optimism among the Husker masses.

Put yourself in Rhule’s shoes, though. He has a five-star QB who’s a pure drop-back guy. Raiola needs decent protection or else his talent largely goes to waste. By the way, Raiola’s uncle is the offensive line coach.

I’d love to be a fly on the wall right now in the coaches’ offices.

Rhule speaks truth about QB position

Have I mentioned August can be a bear for teams all around the nation? Nebraska media once were banned by Bo Pelini from a string of August practices because a reporter called the parents of linebacker Sean Fisher seeking information on an injury Fisher had suffered in a practice. Bo thought the reporter showed a high degree of insensitivity by calling the parents immediately. The coach was incensed.

You probably can imagine.

Maybe Pelini was right. But Bo didn’t always handle the heat of August particularly well.

As the stress of August camp gets real, the hopeful and comparatively casual tones of spring seemingly evaporate into thin air. That’s why I’ve always found August to be a fascinating part of covering Nebraska football. Reality hits home like a sledgehammer.

I can’t help but wonder how Nebraska’s true freshman QBs, Raiola and Daniel Kaelin , size up everything going on around them right now. Thing is, August adversity is good for them. It’ll test them, and their coaches will watch closely.

“Honestly, the difference between the great (quarterbacks) and the average ones, in my humble opinion, is what things look like when things are going wrong, like who they are when things are going wrong,” Rhule said.

“If you’re Danny or Dylan, you haven’t had a lot of things go wrong, yet.”

This was the moment that Rhule paused and said he was tired.

It’s August, after all.

“(We’re) trying to expose them to strenuous situations to see how they respond, and they’ve done a good job responding to it,” Rhule said.

“I don’t mean to preach up here,” Rhule added, “but that’s the whole key to young people becoming men, or women.”

It’s all about handling adversity.

Rest assured, Rhule will learn plenty about his quarterbacks, and his team in general, in the heat of August — yes even when it’s cooler outside than normal.

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