It's the week dedicated to team commitment

Each year — under head coach Matt Rhule’s direction — the week prior to the official start of spring football practices is known as Team Commitment Week. That week is this week.

Photo courtesy Nebraska Athletics

It’s Team Commitment Week at Nebraska.

Each year — under head coach Matt Rhule’s direction — the week prior to the official start of spring football practices is known as Team Commitment Week. It’s a week of team bonding for the Huskers, filled with activities and events — competitions included — intended to ease the team into the work ahead.

We haven’t gotten much about the week this year, a noticeable difference from the past couple of years. For example, Nebraska put out videos throughout the week to keep fans in the loop — like this one posted from Day 2 in 2023. In 2024, we were mostly kept up to date via the coaches and players. 

So far in 2025, we’ve received a set of photos on Tuesday and a video about movie night. It’s the set of photos, however, that gives us the biggest insight into what’s been happening this week.

The dunk contest is back, as well as a home run derby of sorts. We have pickleball and bags, too. From the little we’ve been shown, it looks like the team is having fun with it as always.

The timing works too. Nebraska will head out on spring break next week, returning to kick off spring ball the week of March 24th.

It’ll be here before we know it, but for now — Nebraska is right on track with its schedule.

No more spring league.

One thing that won’t return for the 2025 spring ball is Nebraska’s “Spring League.” We covered it a bit in 2025, tracking who was ahead between the three groups.

Rhule set up the Spring League in 2024 to form competition. That was needed one year ago, and not so much today. Rhule said earlier this week that the Spring League “was more for a specific time and place last year.”

That has since changed, with a great focus on development. Plus, new coaches bring a “fresh set of eyes.”

“We’re past the point of potential now,” Rhule said. “It’s about who produces.”

But not all things have changed.

Sure, we don’t have a spring game and there’s no weekly team competition through spring, but not everything is different. Rhule was clear that the spring schedule would still be the same.

“These are still young players that have to become good players,” he said.

Maybe mat drills helped?

We talked about mat drills a couple of weeks ago. Rhule’s mat drills are hard, we’ve been told. We’ve been shown a little about how it all looks over the last two years — like this video from 2023 — but it’s hard to really know how to compare it to anything else. 

Newcomer Rocco Spindler — who transferred to Nebraska from Notre Dame — gave us some insight into just how difficult Rhule’s mat drills are.

“I even told my parents, ‘I did not know that they take mat drills this seriously,'” Spindler said on Tuesday. “It was really tough to get through and attack it. It’s legit. It’s a hard program to be part of. That’s why when it gets down to 105 guys, it’ll be the right 105.”

Spindler said the three weeks of mat drills were challening on the team, noting he never really experienced something similar at Notre Dame.

Dane Key, who transferred to Nebraska from Kentucky, felt similarly to Spindler about the whole thing.

“Just experiencing it on Day 1, I think I went back and told Coach (Daikiel) Shorts, ‘Yo, what did I get myself into?'” Key joked. “But, ultimately, it’s going to make me have a stronger mentality. I’m super glad Coach Rhule makes us do that because it shows who wants to be part of this team and who has that mentality to play on Saturdays.” 

And then there’s Dasan McCullough, the son of Las Vegas Raiders running backs coach Deland McCullough. He gets why mat drills are a thing, and he believes Nebraska is going to be better because of it.

“Mat drills are made for you to struggle and get closer with your guys on the team,” he said. “I felt like it was a struggle, but everybody needed to go through it. I mean, it just got us closer as a team.

“In reality, that’s what it’s for. Those two, three weeks of going through it is really just picking up the guy next to you, competing with the dude next to you. It’s basically the players versus everybody, players versus the coaches, the staff. 

“It just made us stronger.”

As always, time will tell.

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Now here we are just ahead of Nebraska’s spring break. The quiet before the storm. Nebraska’s Pro Day is scheduled for Tuesday, March 25 too, so it’ll get busy fast in the coming weeks.

Until then, we can just sit and wonder what the three Spring League teams would have been named this year — you know, if that had continued.