Matt Rhule stresses need for players to push Nebraska program forward

The Nebraska Cornhuskers got back to a bowl game in 2024. Now, under head coach Matt Rhule, the Cornhuskers are hoping to take another leap forward and potentially become competitive for the Big Ten championship.

At Big Ten Media Days, Rhule addressed taking the next step as a program. That means having players step up and make the push to improve the team when they get together, since they spend the most time together as a unit.

“I think each and every day, it’s really our players,” Matt Rhule said. “Players talk to players more than we can. I get up in front of the team. I speak, I think they listen, I try to have tremendous relationships. Our coaches are great. People in the building are great. At the end of the day, the program moves forward when players are talking to players about the right things, when they take the program from Coach Rhule’s program to their program. Right now it’s their program.”

Ultimately, Nebraska appears to be in a good situation regarding its player-led approach. As Rhule joked, the players he brought to Big Ten Media Days, like Dylan Raiola and Henry Lutovsky, were ready to step up and represent the program.

“We went to dinner last night with the fellows,” Rhule said. “And they were this kind of joking, like, ‘Coach, you don’t have to come tomorrow, we’ll handle it for you,’ which I almost took them up on. You could put Dylan, you could put Henry, you could put any of them up here, and I think we would all speak the same way because we believe in what we believe.”

Nebraska was always going to be a rebuild under Matt Rhule. He got to Lincoln ahead of the 2023 season. At the time, the Cornhuskers program had been struggling in a major way. Having not gone to a bowl since 2016, Nebraska was coming off the frustrating Scott Frost tenure and looking to become nationally relevant again. By 2024, Rhule did have them winning a bowl.

“I’ve taken a lot of jobs,” Rhule said. “And when you walk into a job that hasn’t been winning, everyone tells you what’s wrong. They usually say, ‘Well, it’s this guy, it’s that guy, it’s the last coach, it’s this, it’s that.’ Good organizations win because everyone owns the product. Like, very rarely on a bad team when you take over a bad team, do you hear people say, you know what, I’ve got to do better. The reason why I believe that we’re about to make the jump that we’re going to make is because each and every day, whether it’s our administration, whether it’s the people around us, no one is saying, it’s this person’s fault, it’s that person’s fault. Everyone is owning the product.”

In his two seasons, Rhule has gone 12-13 overall at Nebraska with the Pinstripe Bowl win. However, expectations are higher than floating around .500. So, now he’s looking to take that next step while continuing to build those relationships with his players that are so valuable to him.

“Yes, we have to win more. That’s the deal,” Rhule said. “But we came into a program that we knew was going to take a little bit of time to fix. I think we’re close to fixed. In terms of something I would have told myself when I was younger, there’s a lot of things, but I think the most important thing is don’t underestimate the impact you can have on young people’s lives. I’m at a point now where guys that I’ve coached are getting married, they’re getting jobs, they’re going through good things and bad things, and every once in a while you have someone say, ‘You know what, something that I was taught from Coach Rhule or one of his assistants is helping me in my life.’ That might not be popular on sports talk radio, but it is how life works.”

Nebraska opens the season on August 28th with a neutral site game against the Cincinnati Bearcats. They’ll later open Big Ten play on September 20th, hosting the Michigan Wolverines.