LINCOLN, Neb. — Six players on the Nebraska roster are equipped to start at cornerback, according to coach Matt Rhule. The Huskers could start any of five safeties if they had a game to play this week, 10 practices into the spring.

Depth in college football is a luxury, and it’s fleeting. The transfer portal reopens Wednesday. Don’t expect Nebraska to possess 11 starting-caliber defensive backs in two weeks.

But the coach is not sitting around until the things get churning to send his message to the Huskers.

“Everybody out there always has something better for you,” Rhule said.

Rhule faces rising expectations at Nebraska in Year 3 after his second team posted a one-game improvement over 2023 in the regular season. The Huskers’ first bowl win since 2016 gave supporters enough of a taste to grow more impatient.

After the Huskers scrimmaged Saturday morning at Memorial Stadium, Rhule made a case for Nebraska in this portal period. Not for prospects on the transfer market — but for the players already in Lincoln.

It was his most impassioned and lengthy public statement to date on the merits of staying. The timing was not accidental. The tone of his message shed light on the urgency at hand.

Last year, the Huskers endured minor losses in the spring. But they fended off efforts to break up the roster. Rhule was clear in February about his primary motivation in canceling the spring game this year. He doesn’t want to stage a showcase for programs to poach from Nebraska.

Two groups of players consider a move, he said. There are those who don’t see a path to playing time.

“We help them as much as we can,” Rhule said, noting that coaches from lower-division programs are invited to attend spring practices in Lincoln, “and I love watching them succeed.”

Then there are the players who are good enough to make it at Nebraska.

“They should stick it out and fight,” Rhule said. “I think too many people — outside people, parents, coaches — are always trying to find a better situation. But if you really are an NFL player or a great player, you’ll make your situation good enough just by getting better. And if you stay in this place, if you stay in this weight room, in this training facility, in this training table for four years, you’re probably going to get developed.

“So chasing a better situation … it doesn’t make as much sense to me.”

Listening to Rhule, it sounds like he expects an assault on his roster.

Thirty-one Huskers hit the portal in December and January. Many fit in Rhule’s first group. But the departures of about half of the 12 who landed at Power 4 programs genuinely stung the Huskers. Nebraska recovered, adding 15 transfers. It upgraded at linebacker, wide receiver, on the offensive line and the specialist positions.

Rhule plans largely stand to pat in May.

“We like this football team,” he said.

If the Huskers are forced to fill several holes after the spring, that’s time taken away from making progress toward August and with the next recruiting class. And it would negate some of what the Huskers have accomplished this spring.

“Just don’t leave because someone is saying, ‘I can get you a couple more bucks or a couple more this or a couple more that,’” Rhule said. “I think a lot of the guys who leave, they find out not all of that is true. I just try to deal with each one as it comes if they ask me. Some guys don’t ask me. Some guys do.

“We certainly take transfers, so I can’t say that guys shouldn’t transfer. But if you’re at a place like this, you should really only leave if you’re never going to get on the field.”

Offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen walked in Rhule’s shoes for 13 seasons as the head coach at West Virginia and Houston. From 2018 through 2023, Holgorsen dealt with portal stress.

Doesn’t sound like he misses it. Last week, Holgorsen was asked what he expects when the portal opens.

“You trying to put me in a bad mood or what?” he said.

He turned serious, complimenting Rhule’s message.

“We have so many kids getting so many reps,” Holgorsen said. “Nobody’s complaining. Everybody’s giving effort. Everybody’s got opportunities to play. Everybody’s got opportunities to show us what they’ve got. If I was anybody on this football team, there would not be anything I would be upset about.”

Players at Nebraska are treated in a way that’s “unreal,” Holgorsen said, in comparison to his other coaching stops. Some of that treatment involves six- and seven-figure checks.

Money is the reality, of course, across the Power 4.

But don’t let it drive decisions, Rhule said.

He doesn’t believe in quick fixes. Rhule points to Haason Reddick, a former Temple walk-on under Rhule who rose to make tens of millions per season in the NFL.

“He did it by showing up every year and just getting a little bit better,” Rhule said.

Take Rhule’s advice for what it’s worth. He’s a coach who wants to keep his roster together because he believes his team can win in 2025.

“I want to make it to the College Football Playoff,” he said. “I want to play 15, 16 games a year. And you need a lot of guys to do that.”

Six Big Ten-ready corners and five safeties? It’s a start.

“If you’re going to listen to some other college coach tell you, ‘Hey, you’ll be the starter,’” Rhule said, “then don’t call me afterwards and say, ‘Well, I wasn’t the starter.’

“Be careful of the information you’re listening to. And when you do decide to leave, do it the right way. Be honest. If guys do that, I got no issue. I’ll tell them the truth. I’ll tell them exactly where they stand.”