Matt Rhule to stay at Nebraska

[SuperBigFan69]

What are your thoughts? Personally, im not a huge fan of this, particularly when Nebraska is likely to finish the year with a 6-6 or 7-5 record. I don't think a .500 coach after year 3 is worth extending.

But at the same time, looking for a potential new coach, if Nebraska fears he's going to get poached, isn't ideal in the current market.

I don't care about the money at all I just care that they are keeping instead of looking for a new coach.

.500 coaches are all over the place, I don't want a .500 coach. I would rather search for a better coach even if that means the chance of getting a worse coach.

Having a .500 coach is like being married but not having sex...congrats, you have a roommate that makes you do chores.

 

[Hilltop]

I don't care about the money at all I just care that they are keeping instead of looking for a new coach.

.500 coaches are all over the place, I don't want a .500 coach. I would rather search for a better coach even if that means the chance of getting a worse coach.

Having a .500 coach is like being married but not having sex...congrats, you have a roommate that makes you do chores.

He isn't a .500 coach even at his full record. 65-58 overall isn't great unless you consider the context. He has taken over at 3 places that were TERRIBLE... as bad as it gets. So granting a little grace and removing just his first years, Rhule is 57-30. If you remove the first 2 years, he is 37-12. He has a winning track record. Who knows how it will go long term but aren't you at least a little curious to see what we look like given another year or two of development?

 

[Crusader Husker]

I think we can judge at the end of the year. This would not be the year to look for a coach.

 

[Waldo]

I think most Big Ten and SEC jobs are a cut above with the money disparity but not only are those jobs open plus Arkansas, VT, and others to potentially come open like Auburn, Baylor, Wisconsin, Florida State, Purdue, and Michigan State. I'm sure I am forgetting some. Plus there is some chatter about Sark at Texas wanting to go to the NFL. If they believe in their guy, let's let him build the roster. Rhule is a step ahead in the fact that he is not afraid to change assistant coaches who aren't getting it done. That's something that Callahan and Pelini had issues with.

He brought in an 8-man high school JV assistant and made him the WR coach. We can’t praise him for firing his original incompetent hires.

Donovan is still on the payroll…

 

[Waldo]

He isn't a .500 coach even at his full record. 65-58 overall isn't great unless you consider the context. He has taken over at 3 places that were TERRIBLE... as bad as it gets. So granting a little grace and removing just his first years, Rhule is 57-30. If you remove the first 2 years, he is 37-12. He has a winning track record. Who knows how it will go long term but aren't you at least a little curious to see what we look like given another year or two of development?

Mike Riley’s last top 25 win came 77 days before Matt Rhule’s. He hasn’t coached since 2017. Take Riley’s top 4 years and he was 37-16. Must have made Nebraska a little curious.
Cherry picking stats doesn’t dismiss the 30 something games I’ve watched Rhule coach at Nebraska.

 

[ZRod]

He brought in an 8-man high school JV assistant and made him the WR coach. We can’t praise him for firing his original incompetent hires.

Donovan is still on the payroll…

I think you can always praise someone for realizing their mistakes and correcting them. Until this season there was no reason for Donovan to be on the hot seat. His units never stood out, but they did improve year over year.



Trying to retain Rhule is definitely the right move. There is no arguing that the program is trending in a better direction. It's not happening as fast as we'd all like it too, but a culture is literally being built from the ground up. This place was a complete dumpster fire 4 years ago, and now we are actually competative in games against national championship and playoff caliber teams.

Also, if people haven't noticed, Rhule is selling his soul to get us out their in the media and attract top talent. He's on so many shows and podcasts, including his own, it's crazy! Nebraska has always had a great brand, but he's modernizing it and trying to get his face in front of the teenagers he's recruiting, and looking cool doing it. He's dragging this program kicking and screaming into the modern NIL tik tok era, and trying to get us to spend money like the powerhouse we should be. All of this needs to be done to be a modern blue blood program, and I'm not sure you're going to find another coach who will put in this much effort to get it done.

 

[TGHusker]

At this point, I hope we can poach recruits and transfers from all of the schools looking for a new coach. If Rhule can't get us to greatness via coaching maybe he can do it via recruiting and having competent assistant coaches - especially OC & DC. Rhule is a good spokesman for the school - CEO type. But he needs to look hard at the OL coach and the RB coach. Somehow, we got to get a game changing rush end - something we haven't had since Gregory. We need OL upgrades.

 

[Enhance]

There's a reason this is being done before the difficult stretch of the schedule.

It's not clear that the team is improving or any better than last year, other than Nebraska is fortunate Indiana and Ohio State aren't on the schedule. I'm not sure why it's necessary to add $35 million to a coach that hasn't really earned it.

It seems like a fear based reaction rather than a results based one.

Coaching contracts are about optics and stability as much as they are about results. That's just how the modern college football ecosystem works.

Recruiting and staff retention all hinge on long term stability and buy-in from fans/boosters. If you don't extend a coach during critical times like these, you're sending the opposite message that you might not see him as the long term answer. And then what happens next? Opposing coaches use that against them on the recruiting trail every day.

Rhule's value isn't just about a record but what people think he's building and the culture he's established, plus his past evidence of turning programs around. Locking him in isn't a panic move IMO but a strategic signal that they're all in on the guy. And honestly, the fact they're doing this before the "difficult stretch" of the schedule just kind of reinforces that point - they're not scoreboard watching in the moment but trying to signal confidence in the direction and not just the destination.

I totally get why the record doesn't necessarily make it feel like the sexiest move but hyper-focusing on that element of it sort of misunderstands what's actually happening and why.

 

[runningblind]

He isn't a .500 coach even at his full record. 65-58 overall isn't great unless you consider the context. He has taken over at 3 places that were TERRIBLE... as bad as it gets. So granting a little grace and removing just his first years, Rhule is 57-30. If you remove the first 2 years, he is 37-12. He has a winning track record. Who knows how it will go long term but aren't you at least a little curious to see what we look like given another year or two of development?

The bold just isn't true. I have posted this multiple times. Here is some history of schools before he showed up:

2010 Temple: 8-4

2011 Temple: 9-4

2012 Temple: 4-7

So that is 21-15 the 3 years prior to his arrival, then he went 28-23 in his 4 years, very similar. Is that a significant "building" of the program or just more of the same?

2014 Baylor: 11-2

2015 Baylor: 10-3

2016 Baylor: 7-6

That equates to 28-11 over the 3 years leading up, then Rhule went 19-20 at Baylor. Yes there were extenuating circumstances at Baylor with off field issues, but it was a winning program football wise before him. Not sure that qualifies as program building either.

Nebraska was terrible before but we have always had some talent and great resources, the prior coaching was just awful before Rhule with some low hanging fruit that could be fixed like not being the worst team in CFB on special teams. You are correct about needing to consider context in this, but that context doesn't tell quite the story you think it does.

 

[Stumpy1]

Look for his contract extension to have a NIL clause in it.

 

[Street Novelist]

Coaching contracts are about optics and stability as much as they are about results. That's just how the modern college football ecosystem works.

Recruiting and staff retention all hinge on long term stability and buy-in from fans/boosters. If you don't extend a coach during critical times like these, you're sending the opposite message that you might not see him as the long term answer. And then what happens next? Opposing coaches use that against them on the recruiting trail every day.

Rhule's value isn't just about a record but what people think he's building and the culture he's established, plus his past evidence of turning programs around. Locking him in isn't a panic move IMO but a strategic signal that they're all in on the guy. And honestly, the fact they're doing this before the "difficult stretch" of the schedule just kind of reinforces that point - they're not scoreboard watching in the moment but trying to signal confidence in the direction and not just the destination.

I totally get why the record doesn't necessarily make it feel like the sexiest move but hyper-focusing on that element of it sort of misunderstands what's actually happening and why.

This is the correct answer, unfortunately. If we didn't extend Rhule, other teams would use that against us in recruiting.

 

[Red Five]

2014 Baylor: 11-2

2015 Baylor: 10-3

2016 Baylor: 7-6

Are we not going to mention the Briles scandal at Baylor and players/recruits leaving?

 

[runningblind]

Are we not going to mention the Briles scandal at Baylor and players/recruits leaving?

I did mention it, but that doesn't change the fact that the football institution had a recent history of winning prior to his arrival. That means something, just look at the opposite recent history here.

 

[BigRedBuster]

Look for his contract extension to have a NIL clause in it.

How can a contract have an NIL clause in it that XXX amount will be spent on the roster? That is all donated funds and that can change from year to year depending on what people want to donate.

 

[Hilltop]

The bold just isn't true. I have posted this multiple times. Here is some history of schools before he showed up:

2010 Temple: 8-4

2011 Temple: 9-4

2012 Temple: 4-7

So that is 21-15 the 3 years prior to his arrival, then he went 28-23 in his 4 years, very similar. Is that a significant "building" of the program or just more of the same?

2014 Baylor: 11-2

2015 Baylor: 10-3

2016 Baylor: 7-6

That equates to 28-11 over the 3 years leading up, then Rhule went 19-20 at Baylor. Yes there were extenuating circumstances at Baylor with off field issues, but it was a winning program football wise before him. Not sure that qualifies as program building either.

Nebraska was terrible before but we have always had some talent and great resources, the prior coaching was just awful before Rhule with some low hanging fruit that could be fixed like not being the worst team in CFB on special teams. You are correct about needing to consider context in this, but that context doesn't tell quite the story you think it does.

Matter of opinion.

Temple was on their 3rd conference in 3 years and Matt being their 3rd coach in the same time frame. They have played football since 1894 and Matt delivered their best 2 year stretch in history in years 3 and 4. Those 2 years were, and still are, the only 10 win seasons the teams has had in 131 years of playing football.

Baylor has been playing football since 1899 and in year 3 Matt delivered their 5th 10+ win season going 11-3. The success Baylor had in 2014 and 2015 under Art Briles was completely ruined by the scandal with most players leaving and Jim Grobe's 1 year stint did nothing to fix the program. Context matters.

You can choose the ignore the facts but it doesn't change that he was one of, if not the best coaches at each of those schools. I think it is worth having some patience here to see if he can do similar.