Matt Rhule reflects on reason behind Nebraska’s close losses

Five of Nebraska‘s six losses in 2024 came by a single score, with the Cornhuskers unable to figure out how to win close games. Coach Matt Rhule has a pretty simple explanation.

“I think we lost a lot of those games because we just weren’t good enough,” Rhule said. “I think it’s just sometimes a great storyline to say, ‘Hey, you know what, close loss here, close loss there.’ And there’s some of it, but our focus has been on just improving as a team. Because they don’t all have to be close. Some of those games, why don’t we win by 14?”

As Nebraska heads into its third season under Rhule’s direction, the Cornhuskers are seeking a major turnaround. They don’t just want to be bowl eligible, they want to be meaningful in the Big Ten race. Maybe even the playoff picture.

But Matt Rhule believes he sees some signs that could happen. He saw them late last year.

“I saw a different mindset from our team in the Pinstripe Bowl,” he said. “We were up and they came back. We had to make a couple plays. Dylan (Raiola) made a play. Rahmir Johnson hit a power to win the game on fourth-and-2.

“And what I saw for the first time was not a lot off panic. But that panic comes from when you don’t think you control what happens. When you’re like listening to all the outside narratives and ‘we should be doing this and we should be doing that.’ And finally the team grows up and they’re like, ‘I’ve got to go make the play. And I’ve got to go pick the ball off. And I’ve got to block the punt.'”

Nebraska struggled in a few key areas last fall. Special teams gaffes were a problem. Matt Rhule referenced those.

“None of those special teams errors were coached that way,” he said. “And we take ownership of it, don’t get me wrong. But like it’s a much different feeling when you walk in with a bunch of guys that now they know they’re good. And some of them, they’re the same players. They’re just good because they’re a year into the system. And that 250-pound guy is now a 280-pound guy.”

The bottom line, though, is that Matt Rhule believes his team being a year older should cure a lot of issues this fall. That’s the nature of making progress over time.

Clean up some of those close losses and suddenly Nebraska looks like a team on the path to becoming an eventual playoff participant. It’s not that far away.

“I’m an incrementalist. I believe in just getting a little bit better every year,” Matt Rhule said. “I’ve got great news: Nothing that happened last year carries over into this year. And that’s a good thing, right? The Iowa loss at the end of the year was really, really probably painful, but sometimes it’s the pain you need. It’s the pain that spurs you forward in the offseason when guys get a little bit complacent.

“There’s no complacency at the University of Nebraska right now. Our guys understand that we’ve got good enough players. We have an excellent roster. We’re fast, we’re explosive, we’ve got veterans where we need to. We’re good on the lines. We’ve got great coaches. But we’re going to have to go perform. And that performance comes from guys owning it. Not listening to anything else, not listening to the guy in the locker room complaining. Shutting all that up and saying Husker football, it’s all about performance. It’s all about us getting it done.”