Joel Klatt sees rebuilding Nebraska as a 'monumental task' for Matt Rhule

The rebuilding job at Nebraska could be a “monumental task” for head coach Matt Rhule, according to Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt.

Rhule once took over programs in Temple and Baylor and resurrected them to respectable and national levels. After a failed NFL stint, Rhule has his biggest challenge yet, bringing the once proud Nebraska football program back to positive national relevance.

Klatt broke it down on his podcast how Rhule stacks up the challenge beginning this season.

“We all know what had gone on, but I don’t think that we really understand the depth at which that program had fallen,” Klatt said of Nebraska. “Now obviously they might have been a worse team, you could argue, at the end of the Mike Riley era than what they were at the end of the Scott Frost era. But you also have a real culture issue, which I did not expect from Scott Frost. 

“And that culture issue led to them not being able to win close games, six straight losing seasons, 10 straight finishing outside of the top 25. Nebraska hasn’t finished in the top 25 in a decade, a decade. Like this is a total rebuild for Matt Rhule.” 

The biggest thing for Rhule moving forward is establishing a new winning culture and resting on the laurels of the past.

“This is a monumental task for Matt Rhule,” Klatt said. “We think about the job that Coach Prime has to do at Colorado, it’s a huge job … But boy, the job in front of Matt Rhule at Nebraska is so huge. And yet, in the back of my mind, I’m thinking to myself, is there anyone better for this job … 

“Temple wasn’t a juggernaut. He built them up into a very successful program. But then when he went to Baylor it wasn’t just that Baylor had fallen … Baylor was a disaster, culturally, a disaster. He went in there when no one else would touch it. No one would touch Baylor with a 10 foot pole.”

Matt Rhule has big challenge with Nebraska

Klatt made the argument and analogy of Baylor to the SMU program that received the death penalty. Rhule brought Baylor back to winning ways.

“And you look up in a couple of years and Matt Rhule had built them into a 10 game winner and an eventual Big 12 champion,” Klatt said. “So like his DNA, his ability and his track record more specifically, I think it really fits what Nebraska is trying to do, which is a total rebuild, a total revamp … Gus and I will be in Minneapolis as Nebraska takes on Minnesota on that Thursday night.

“Can’t wait for that ballgame. Then they’ve got to travel to Colorado, and rekindle that great rivalry from my childhood and all of our childhoods on the road against Coach Prime and coach Prime’s home debut in Boulder.” 

Overall, there might not be instant success for Rhule at Nebraska. It’ll be more of a slow grind that pays off, per Klatt.

“I’m not gonna say slow, but this is a little bit more of a tortoise compared to the hare at Colorado,” Klatt said. “Deion’s trying to do it as fast as humanly possible, turn over the roster. Matt’s not trying to do it that way. He’s a bit more of a tortoise and he’s trying to get to the finish line that way.”