Spotlight shining, Nebraska quarterback Jeff Sims aims to ‘come through’ at Colorado

LINCOLN — Jeff Sims emerged from a gray metal door and moved toward a giant cement pillar inside Memorial Stadium. The man of the moment would wait his turn to meet the press.

Nebraska defensive backs coach Evan Cooper — just finishing his media chat — came up to Sims.

“Just got asked a question about you,” Cooper said.

“For real?” Sims said. Oh, for real. The Georgia Tech transfer knows the spotlight is bigger at Nebraska, even if he tunes out social media. NU’s starting quarterback gets a disproportionate of love and heat, and Sims, who threw three interceptions in a 13-10 loss to Minnesota, took his share of the latter.

Not that any message board maestro took a harsh stance Sims didn’t have for himself. He faced the media music after the game, despondent. More upbeat on Wednesday, he still stuck to a hard line on his own play.

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“The biggest thing that frustrated me is that I didn’t come through when my team needed me,” Sims said. “Obviously, I had the two interceptions in the first half but, got to look past that stuff. You’ve got to come through when the team needs you, and that’s something I didn’t do. That kind of stuck with me.”

Sims said he demands self-accountability to put in the extra work, to watch the Minnesota game at least a few times, even as this week’s defense, Colorado, bears little resemblance to the Gophers. It helps him, he said, to process what’s next.

“I’m the type of person — I always put a lot on myself,” Sims said.

He’s not alone there. Nebraska asked a ton of the 6-foot-4, 225-pounder.

Sims ran the ball 19 times — two more than NU’s running backs combined — for 91 yards. No Power Five conference quarterback ran it more, although a few smaller-conference QBs — at South Florida, Army and Liberty — did. Offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield said he loved watching Sims truck Gopher defenders during the game.

“He ran a counter one time and two guys came and hit him and he kind of delivered a blow and popped up,” Satterfield said. “I thought it was pretty cool. He wasn’t trying to slide. We want him to take care of himself and slide when he needs to, but he was running through tackles the other night. It sounded different out there.”

And while he knew Sims ran the ball at Georgia Tech, Satterfield couldn’t tell, based on spring practice and training camp, whether his quarterback had that level of physicality. Satterfield wants to build off that.

“I thought he had an unbelievable game from a competitive standpoint,” Satterfield said.

The other stuff? Nebraska’s tried to hold the company line on the miscues. Sims’ first interception, on third-and-long early in the second quarter, was an overthrow that functioned like a mediocre punt. His second pick, thrown into the end zone just before half, appeared to be a misread; Sims had tight end Nate Boerkircher open just past the goal line, but threw, on a line, a pass to Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda instead. A Gopher gobbled it up.

The third interception — the one Sims cited — was snatched out of the air by Minnesota safety Tyler Nubin, who watched Sims’ eyes and stepped in front of a laser thrown at Billy Kemp, the No. 1 NU receiver who did not have a catch.

Satterfield referenced “we” when talking about turnovers. Besides Sims’ three interceptions, Anthony Grant lost a fumble while Nebraska led 10-3 in the fourth quarter.

“Too many times people isolate the individual,” Satterfield said. “It’s layers of coaching and training that we have to continue to do each day.”

The OC said he was surprised by the noise in Huntington Bank Stadium and lamented that so many drives started in the Minnesota student section. NU heads Saturday to Colorado, which is likely to be just as loud — and probably more hostile.

What’s more, Nebraska will likely need its offense to produce more than it did at Minnesota, given CU scored 45 points in its season-opening win. There’s less margin for error this week than last. The good quarterbacks, coach Matt Rhule said on Monday, bounce back from three-pick games.

Sims will try to do the same, knowing the spotlight is bright. He’s been around the block, even if he’s new to Nebraska.

“It’s football,” Sims said. “It’s college football. They told me, like any other coach would say, we’ve got a game next week, so you can’t dwell on it too much. You’ve got to learn from what you did wrong, build on what you did right, go out there and fix mistakes.”

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