Nebraska job a "tremendous honor" but a real obligation to help get Huskers back on top, Matt Rhule says
Nebraska Head Coach Matt Rhule joined The Next Round on Tuesday morning to discuss his first few months as the Huskers’ Head Coach, rebuilding the program, working “old school” and much more.
Here is a full breakdown of Rhule’s comments:
Nothing like a Nebraska fan
Rhule said he has never seen anything like the Nebraska fan.
“If I would have known how cool this would be, I probably would not have been so hard in the process trying to make this deliberation because this is a great state with great people,” Rhule said. “It’s a program with a great athletic director, a great University, and I’m fired up to be here.”
He went to a Husker gymnastics meet with 350-400 fans and saw Husker fans in action at men’s and women’s basketball games and track meets.
Rhule said he can’t wait to see how Nebraska fans turn out at the spring game on April 22.
“I can’t wait for next fall getting out there and third down and having the other team’s quarterback not be able to hear,” he said. “I can’t wait to go on the road and turn it into a home game. So I’ve never experienced anything like this.”
Wired to coach college football
From a young age, Rhule wanted to be a division one college football coach.
“I’m wired for this,” he said. “I’m wired for this age group, these kids, for recruiting. I love Saturdays. I love the bands, I love the student sections, I love everything.”
Even when he was coaching the Carolina Panthers in the NFL, Rhule spent most of his Saturdays watching college football. The college football game has changed, Rhule noticed, but watching on Saturdays kept him prepared to return to coach at the level.
Taking Nebraska back to the top
Rhule knows what it’s like to take a program to where it has never been before. He did it at Temple. But the coach knows it’s different to take a program back to the top.
Rhule said there are expectations at Nebraska because they know it’s possible to win back-to-back national champions. They’ve done it twice after all (1970 and 1971 and 1994 and 1995).
“That’s part of the ethos of the state,” he said. “People grew up seeing that and so there’s not a person in the state that won’t do whatever it takes to watch Nebraska get back on top, because they’ve experienced it.
“It’s a real obligation, a tremendous honor, but also an obligation to me to make sure I do it right because these people deserve it.”
Rhule’s upbringing impacts coaching
Matt Rhule’s dad, Dennis Rhule, was a high school teacher, coach and minister. He and his wife, Gloria, taught Matt to use all the gifts the Lord gave him and to serve others. Rhule has tried to do that through his coaching. His parents are doing that by spending three months at an orphanage in Rwanda.
“My way of doing it is checking breakfast and making sure kids are getting an education,” Rhule said.
Rhule said people are surprised to see him at Nebraska basketball games, women’s tennis matches or restaurants.
“I’m not here to be a celebrity,” Rhule said. “I’m just like my dad, my dad was there to serve the congregation, I’m here to serve Nebraska and be present. Be around and be there for the other student-athletes. My mom and dad are really special people and I’m trying to do the best I can to be like them.”
Although he grew up with a minister as his father, Rhule still found ways to get in trouble, he said. In fact, he was into graffiti when he was younger and “wasn’t afraid to throw hands if needed.”
His seven-year-old daughter is getting him back right now though.
Adding UCLA, USC to the Big Ten
Rhule, “a traditionalist”, misses the conferences he grew up on. But he sees the value in adding UCLA and USC to the Big Ten in 2024. The conference will be more like the NFL as it expands across the country.
Nebraska has an advantage because it is in the middle of the country and the travel to the West Coast won’t tax their bodies too much. Schools like Penn State, Rutgers, USC and UCLA will have to travel much further to get to each other.
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“Lincoln Riley is a great coach. Chip Kelly’s a great coach and those programs are up and running,” Rhule said. “So it’ll only make our conference better as we head into the 12-team playoff era.”
Rhule’s former player in the Super Bowl
Eagles outside linebacker Haason Reddick took the NFL by storm during the NFC championship game. Reddick had three tackles, two sacks and a forced fumble and recovery to help Philly advance to the Super Bowl.
Reddick played for Rhule at Temple and the head coach moved him around until he ended up at edge. Going his senior year, the light went on and he became a first-round pick. Rhule thinks that’s what happened against the 49ers in the NFC championship game, the light went on.
“And I would not be surprised if he did that in the Super Bowl,” Rhule said. “Because here’s a kid who walked on from South Jersey from Philly, played at Temple, got drafted in the first round in Philadelphia has this journey through all these things. Now he comes back, he’s all pro in Philadelphia, and he’s going to play the Super Bowl for the Eagles. I wouldn’t be surprised, man, that guy is going to write a storybook ending.”
Getting the right people, working hard
Rhule has experience rebuilding programs just like Temple and Baylor. This project with the Huskers is different.
At Temple, they had just moved up into the American Conference so the competition was harder. And the expectations were lower, not for Rhule but from the fan base. Baylor was coming off a scandal and Rhule had 45 scholarship players including four scholarship offensive linemen.
Rhule is following most of the major steps that he did at Baylor and Temple which are getting the right people in and around the program.
“It’s getting the right people, coaches recruit staff, getting everybody on the same page, having really high standards and trying to build relationships.”
Nebraska is “certainly further ahead” than when Rhule arrived at Baylor and Temple.
“But it’s been several years now with three and four wins so I don’t want to minimize that,” Rhule said. “The thing I’m trying to get our guys to do is what I did at those other places was just work every day.”
“Let’s not tweet about how good we’re going to be, let’s not talk about bowl games. Let’s just show up today and work and kind of be a little old school. And if we do that, these kids love Nebraska, they’ll find a way to have success.”
Rhule said he doesn’t want to start guaranteeing wins because that has a way of coming back at him but there is one thing he can guarantee.
“I believe this with all my heart, college football is so much better when the Nebraskas, the USCs, UCLAs are good, the Texas’s,” Rhule said. “So this is a place that should be really good and we’re gonna fight, man. We’re going to scratch and claw to get Nebraska relevant again and I’d put my money on us.”
