Matt Rhule sends firm message about rebounding from loss to Michigan: 'No one cares about your feelings'

Nebraska had a ton of hype going into the contest against Michigan. The program was off to a 3-0 start and the chance to knock off a Big Ten powerhouse was a tantalizing prospect for Matt Rhule‘s squad.

It didn’t happen. Michigan pulled out a hard-fought 30-27 win, handing Rhule and his team their first loss. The head coach is making no bones now about what must be done.

“No one cares about your feelings,” Rhule said. “I was frustrated, they’re frustrated. Play better, that’s the message. Play better, practice better. No one’s coming to rescue you.”

During the team’s bye week last week, Rhule admitted that he was glued to the screen, using YouTube TV’s quad box option to stream as much of the important action as he could. He took in a lot of games.

What he saw were a lot of similarities with his team. But how those teams respond from here is what’s key.

“There’s a lot of really good teams out there that are frustrated after a loss,” Rhule said. “I watched a lot of really good football teams on Saturday and teams that were behind came back and won, teams that were ahead lost, teams lost on two-point conversions, teams lost on a field goal.”

The point? College football is a fickle beast. Don’t get what you want on one weekend and you can take that in a few different directions.

Rhule is hoping his Nebraska team takes it the right direction. Flush it and move on.

“It’s just a new age of football. There’s a lot more parity,” Rhule said. “You lose the game, correct it, move on. We’ve tried to correct it, we’ve tried to move on. I think good teams never let a game beat them twice. That can sometimes be hard to do, but there’s no time to wallow in self pity.”