Greg McElroy fights for Nebraska as a College Football Playoff contender

Year Three is when a big step has been made based on the college resumé of Matt Rhule. He could now be set to do that at the third program of his career this fall with Nebraska.

Greg McElroy recently tiered the teams in the Big Ten coming into this season on ‘Always College Football’. The ‘Huskers made the playoff contender tier, along with USC, Michigan, Indiana, Washington, and Illinois, based on the improvement he thinks they’re trending to make, based on how they already grew a season ago.

“Last year, there was a lot of breakthrough when you look at 2024,” McElroy said. “You end the bowl drought, the one everyone was talking about for a really long time…Matt Rhule? He’s done a great job over the course of his tenure of getting teams to the next level in year number three. They had some pretty impressive moments, like the win against Colorado, the win against Wisconsin.”

“There’s a lot of things, I think, to like about what was built in ’24 and what can be sustained into ’25.”

This trend has shown through two previous programs for Rhule during the 2010s. Temple went from 2-10 and 6-6 to 10-4 and 10-3 from 2013 to 2016 and Baylor went from 1-11 and 7-6 to 11-3 from 2017 to 2019, bringing those college teams to 16-33 (.327) in years one and two but to 31-10 (.756) from year three on.

Nebraska didn’t make too much of an improvement from season one at 5-7 to season two at 7-6, beyond ending that eight-year bowl streak as they won the Pinstripe Bowl over Boston College. But the Huskers could now be set to make that move in season three for Rhule.

Of those things he mentioned, McElroy likes where the Cornhuskers are at on both sides of the football. That’s with both sides seeing changes as OC Dana Holgerson tries to, with a second-year star starter in QB Dylan Raiola, improve a unit that has finished towards the back of the country in offense by averaging 20.8 points and 335.9 yards of offense. On the other side, DC John Butler takes over a unit that has inversely been one of the nation’s best, allowing just 18.9 points and 310.7 yards per game.

“(Holgerson) has always been great offensively…He is a guy that wants to spread it around. He’s a guy that wants to get you in favorable situations and then run the football. And he’s also been great with quarterbacks in the past as well,” McElroy said. “He’s got a five-star guy in Dylan Raiola. He did a lot of really nice things last year, but I do think there’s another level that his game can go to and I’d be surprised if he doesn’t get there.

“They decide to kind of keep things going in that same direction (from Tony White) by promoting John Butler from within. You have a longtime mentor in Phil Snow, who’s going to kind of serve as an associate head coach.”

McElroy also thinks Nebraska has a manageable schedule, too. The Huskers open with a neutral site matchup in Kansas City before four consecutive home games into October, essentially going on to play all of their toughest games at home, besides the final road trip to Happy Valley on November 22nd. Still, all things considered, it’s a slate that, if they can make the most of their games at Memorial Stadium, could have the ‘Huskers in contention for the Big Ten Championship and potentially for a bid in the College Football Playoff.

“I think this team has a chance to have a really nice record, but they’ve got to play well there in Lincoln,” McElroy said. “If they can play well in Lincoln and pull of a couple upsets, they could very well find themselves in the mix for the Big Ten race on the line towards the middle or back end of the schedule.”

Matt Rhule has never failed to win 10-plus games in a third year or beyond as a college coach. That kind of record would be all that Nebraska needs to justify this tier as a team that could contend for a spot within the Big Ten and for the CFP.