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Heinrich Haarberg speaks to ‘decluttering my mind’ within Nebraska’s offense
By Paul Harvey
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Heinrich Haarberg is getting his first season of action in his college career, and he is adjusting to life as the starting quarterback at Nebraska. That time has not been without its struggles, including 3 turnovers for Haarberg in the loss to Michigan State.
In his last 3 games, Haarberg has 4 interceptions with a pair of games with multiple interceptions. Going back to the Loss against Michigan, Haarberg now has 6 total touchdowns and 6 interceptions in his last 5 games played.
At his Tuesday press conference, Haarberg admitted he’s trying to work on not overanalyzing so much with the offense. That comes with seeing things better and processing quicker so that the QB’s mind is freed up to just go out and play.
“It’s a battle I’ve been fighting since I started playing QB as a sophomore in high school. Just as a person, I try to overanalyze stuff sometimes and it can get me into trouble,” admitted Haarberg. “But I think as I continue to grow and see things and being able to process them quicker, I don’t think it’s a bad thing to be thinking, just when it gets in the way of me doing the things I’m supposed to do, that’s when it gets in trouble. So one thing that he was talking about is just decluttering my mind. Seeing everything but not letting it get in front of me.”
Haarberg was also asked about OC Marcus Satterfield expressing a desire to see Haarberg run some people over. The QB admitted the OC would like to see his style of play from early in the season return, and Haarberg believes he is trying to do too much on some of the designed runs.
“I think he wants Northern Illinois, even Louisiana Tech Heinrich to come back out. It’s different. I try — not try, there’s certain times when I need to be able to do that, and I think these last couple of games I’ve been trying to make too much happen on some of my runs,” Haarberg explained. “Some of the designed runs — stopping my feet, trying to get back inside when I should just put the ball in 5 points of contact, dive ahead for 5 yards. I think that’s what he’s talking about.”
At the end of the day, Haarberg has delivered some bright spots with the offense as a dual-threat QB. However, there’s no denying the turnovers are still a problem, and he will need to cut down on those turnovers to get the offense clicking down the stretch.
Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.