Matt Rhule shares his favorite experience from being at the Kentucky Derby

Nebraska coach Matt Rhule has had a busy offseason, making a number of unlikely appearances at various events. He recently had a chance to take in the Kentucky Derby.

He came away impressed by the entire affair. It wasn’t his first time seeing a live horse race, but it was his first time at the Derby.

“I would say it was my first time there. I’d been to the Preakness before,” Matt Rhule explained. “I would say that we were able to walk down into the paddock area and I got to meet some of the, randomly, some of the owners of some of the horses. And they’d stop us. Met some wonderful people from Tulsa and their horse was like 23-1 or something like that in the 11th race.”

Sovereignty, of course, would win the race, one of the favorites going into the event. He opened up the morning line odds at 5-1 to win.

For Matt Rhule, though, it was less about the race itself and more about the experience. He had a chance to interact with a lot of successful people in a different field.

“Just talking to them, because what we do obviously is we’re trying to build excellence in the football program,” Rhule said. “And they’re trying to be the best of the best, trying to be excellent in horse racing. So just meeting those people.”

Then there was just the natural element of it all. Matt Rhule had a real appreciation for the animals themselves.

“And then seeing the horses up close. Seeing the slop that they had to run in. Such beautiful animals,” he said. “I went and spoke at the Broyles Awards and went down to victory circle there at Oaklawn the day we were there, so I love horses. But I thought that was really, really cool just seeing that atmosphere and meeting the people behind it.”