John Butler Hired as Secondary Coach/Defensive Passing Game Coordinator
- Thread starter Mavric
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Wistrom Disciple
Active member
@MavricYour buddy said exactly that in the Mooberry thread which led to this.
The quote from Rhule disagrees instead stating that not only was weather a factor, but more impactful than he initially expected. Then you piped in with your usual sarcasm, "do they not have weather in Pennsylvania? He never had to play in cold weather at Penn State?" No offense to either of you, but I'll take the word of the coach on the field than armchair quarterbacks on a message board.
As @caveman99's post right before this suggest, back to the Butler hire... I like it. I hope he's able to fit his teaching into how Tony White calls a defense. On paper, it looks like most of the teams we are facing will not consistently have passing as a strength so if we can stop the run well again, we should have a good chance to win nearly every game.
The quote from Rhule disagrees instead stating that not only was weather a factor, but more impactful than he initially expected. Then you piped in with your usual sarcasm, "do they not have weather in Pennsylvania? He never had to play in cold weather at Penn State?" No offense to either of you, but I'll take the word of the coach on the field than armchair quarterbacks on a message board.
As @caveman99's post right before this suggest, back to the Butler hire... I like it. I hope he's able to fit his teaching into how Tony White calls a defense. On paper, it looks like most of the teams we are facing will not consistently have passing as a strength so if we can stop the run well again, we should have a good chance to win nearly every game.
runningblind
Active member
Rhule is in the anti-Pelini phase right now.
People still go out of their way to avoid anyone giving Pelini any credit for anything.
Rhule is getting the benefit of the doubt on everything (for now). People are trying to find anything they can give him credit for. It doesn't matter that his first year was basically a carbon copy of what we saw the past five years. Or that recruiting is pretty average (to below average). Or that his assistant coaches can't behave themselves.
Greatest innovators in football history:
Oklahoma's wishbone
Hal Mumme's Air Raid offense
Bill Walsh's West Coast offense
Matt Rhule looks a the flag to see which way the wind is blowing
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admo
New member
Although wind and wind gust can be a difficult thing on occasion, I think it was used to pivot the real reasons for last year's team.
I took it as a way for Rhule to avoid singling out players and key positions for the real "at fault".
1. The QB struggles - Sims, Haarberg, Purdy combination
2. WR room was raw and inexperienced and suffered injuries, IGC & Washington
3. RB group lost the top 2 guys to injuries
4. Skill position - Field goal kicking and punting was totally subpar
5. Def Injuries and missing games - Henrich, Riemer, Singleton, Buford, etc
6. Injuries on offensive line (Corcoran, Piper) and bringing Teddy along
A good quick answer is to point out the wind and weather, avoid the mentioned above, and I'm okay with his response to the difficulties playing in B1G during his first year.
I took it as a way for Rhule to avoid singling out players and key positions for the real "at fault".
1. The QB struggles - Sims, Haarberg, Purdy combination
2. WR room was raw and inexperienced and suffered injuries, IGC & Washington
3. RB group lost the top 2 guys to injuries
4. Skill position - Field goal kicking and punting was totally subpar
5. Def Injuries and missing games - Henrich, Riemer, Singleton, Buford, etc
6. Injuries on offensive line (Corcoran, Piper) and bringing Teddy along
A good quick answer is to point out the wind and weather, avoid the mentioned above, and I'm okay with his response to the difficulties playing in B1G during his first year.
MacReady
New member
Some odd energy in this post. Did Rhule not autograph a jersey for you or something? I get that he is kind of walking on water around here lately, but damn. Below average recruiting? Care to enlighten us how he could improve his brand pitch to kids that haven’t seen us be relevant in their lifetime? Jeezum Crow, these recruits were in the 4th grade the last time we played in a bowl game. For nearly a decade we’ve been living down in the boiler room with Joe Dirtẽ. And it’s no secret to anyone who even casually watches the sport.
I’m not ready to anoint Rhule our Lord and Savior just yet, but c’mon man. He’s done a solid job with the local talent so far. He’s made some noise in the St. Louis area (where we’ve been dead for decades). We’ve swung and missed on some DUDES that everyone in the country is after, but just getting them on campus is saying something. Besides, now and December is a long ways away. We translate some of this momentum into W’s and suddenly this vision Rhule is selling holds a lot more weight. We aren’t reeling in any of these big fish until we prove that we’ve got a pulse on the field. Also, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but we signed a 5* QB this last off-season. And yes, I know that “It’S oNlY bEcAuSe DaDdY pLaYeD hErE!” But where did we stand with Raiola before coach got here? I’m not saying Rhule should receive all the credit, but the guy deserves some.
I’m very much in the wait and see camp. The 4 straight loses to end the season last year is still sour in my mouth. Coach definitely deserves the bulk of that blame, especially after he hand-picked JS out of the portal to be the guy. But let’s give credit where credit is due.
Also, coaches not behaving themselves is nothing new around here. And winning certainly covers-up a lot of those blemishes. Time will tell, though.
(I started this post responding to you, but realized at the end that I was rambling to myself. Time to stop feeding my neurodivergent-brain blue light and go back to bed)
teachercd
Well-known member
The anti-bo crowd still can't admit they were morons. Remember the posts "At NU, a monkey could win 9 games, it is built into the schedule" that was the mantra, over and over...then it was "Doesn't win games that matter"
Now it is...well if the weather is bad it could be hard to beat this tough gopher team!
runningblind
Active member
The weather argument has always been overblown. 
Serious though, the whole "bring those Southern teams to Lincoln in December!", bit is a bit silly, it won't make much difference. It won't help a completely over matched team win.
Pelini was a very solid coach. I was one complaining he couldn't win big games, because well, he couldn't. I also didn't really want another 9 win coach fired, that was ludicrous. We had a good thing going and we screwed it up, but it was also on the decline, let's not kid ourselves there either.
Serious though, the whole "bring those Southern teams to Lincoln in December!", bit is a bit silly, it won't make much difference. It won't help a completely over matched team win.
Pelini was a very solid coach. I was one complaining he couldn't win big games, because well, he couldn't. I also didn't really want another 9 win coach fired, that was ludicrous. We had a good thing going and we screwed it up, but it was also on the decline, let's not kid ourselves there either.
Wistrom Disciple
Active member
100% agreed. The weather being "the biggest lesson" Rhule learned was a quip to protect the players from being criticized... the fans and media do enough of that. I did like the fact that he's looking at the coaches in our conference and finding out the sort of things they use to their advantage.
I also don't understand the hate on his recruiting. Per 247, in the Big Ten team rankings, our recruiting has finished:
2020- 4th
2021- 5th
2022- 10th
2023- 5th
2024- 6th (includes Oregon & USC)
@MacReady laid it out well. The recruits today haven't seen Nebraska in a conference title since they were 7-10 years old. If we can just get over the hump and find ways to win some of our close games, I think success will snowball
into greater success. Those ways may require superb on-field play, other ways might be as silly as paying attention to more subtle things affecting the game.
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Nope. You're down the wrong path here.
You can find a more thorough explanation of my thoughts on recruiting elsewhere. But you're talking about two different things. The reasons for our recruiting being down is quite a different discussion from whether it is down or not.
According to the 247 Composite, we didn't even recruit two of the top three players in the state in the Class of 2024. And we have work to do to avoid losing the top two guys in the Class of 2025. Not sure that's a great track record.
So he's recruiting at Mike Riley's level? There's a ringing endorsement.
We only missed being the first to offer Raiola by a couple of days because we wanted to wait until he got on campus to offer him. He visited campus multiple times And he was very strongly considering Nebraska before picking Georgia originally. It's pretty fair to say the previous staff put significantly more effort into recruiting Raiola that Rhule's staff did (not that I blame Rhule for that). But thanks for the great example proving my point about people wanting to credit Rhule for everything.
Perhaps he didn't pay enough attention to the wind.
I'll take Deflections and Excuses for $1000, Alex.
I mean, it's not like there is a ton of other discussion going on. Why can we at least talk about something? :thumbs
I'm not nearly as concerned with how Butler will recruit himself. With unlimited assistants, we can get someone else to cover the recruiting part if that's not his expertise.
But we now have lost our two main guys with contacts in Florida (5 commits in 2024). And after a strong showing in Texas in 2024 (also 5 commits), we seem to be spinning our wheels there now. Those two states were nearly a third of our class last year. This year we have one and not a lot of good leads on any others. I kind of doubt Butler brings any real connections to help us out so we're kind of having to reboot the process.
teachercd
Well-known member
I think you said it...Rhule is in the honeymoon stage right now.
His recruiting is "okay" at best but most fans are so in love with him and so hurt from Frost that any guy he recruits is a guy that the staff will "develop into NFL talent"
I don't want to be Wisconsin or Iowa...where you know your best season is still 8-9 wins and if the schedule is hard at all...you know 7 wins is about the max.