Matt Rhule to stay at Nebraska

“There's an innovative new clause in the deal that states every time Nebraska qualifies for the CFP, Rhule's base salary for each year on the deal increases by $1 million.”

We’ll see where we are at after season 4 before I call for his firing, but I think high incentives to reach fans expectations of 9 wins and CFP are the way to go. We are “supposed” to lose to Mich, USC, and PSU….but not a bottom feeder like Minny. So I really hope we get that signature win this season and not crap the bed. I still think Rhule is the right guy at the right time
 
chamrocck said:
Where does this leave PSU? I’d be much more happy about this if Rhule got some of their recruits to NU now.
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I really don't think he was one of their top choices anyway. I think the AD and a few other people really like him, but it would have been a really tough sell overall. I don't think it affects PSU much, but regardless I have to think their recruits are open to hearing what other schools want to pitch them.
 
Red Five said:
Has anyone ever seen @Undone and the Louisiana governor in the same room?

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Ha. That's funny.

The governor of Louisiana is asking the wrong question though, isn't he? He asks what the big name coaches and their agents are afraid of in terms of taking an incentive-based contract.

What a dumb question. Of course the coaches/agents want the guaranteed money.

The real question is, what are the schools afraid of? That's where the problem is.
 
Rhule took a team that was 4-8, 5-7, 3-5, 3-9, and 4-8 the years before he came and made bowl games 2 years in a row (almost 3) and this year qualified in Oct.

We paid Frost how many millions for the crap show when he was here? How many to leave? That was the big shame. Not Rhule and this contract.

The MN game sucked. But the last 2 years are a marked improvement in both play and recruiting. The old folks (like me) want the 90s back, but you have to be blind not to see better results than the 5 years under Frost.

This program was so bad, NU would have had to outbid schools in the $100 million range for big name coaches with no gurantee of results. Like A&M tried with Jimbo Fischer.

If anyone wants a different coach step up to the plate and donate the money needed for him.
 
InOmaha said:
Rhule took a team that was 4-8, 5-7, 3-5, 3-9, and 4-8 the years before he came and made bowl games 2 years in a row (almost 3) and this year qualified in Oct.

We paid Frost how many millions for the crap show when he was here? How many to leave? That was the big shame. Not Rhule and this contract.

The MN game sucked. But the last 2 years are a marked improvement in both play and recruiting. The old folks (like me) want the 90s back, but you have to be blind not to see better results than the 5 years under Frost.

This program was so bad, NU would have had to outbid schools in the $100 million range for big name coaches with no gurantee of results. Like A&M tried with Jimbo Fischer.

If anyone wants a different coach step up to the plate and donate the money needed for him.
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I don't think anyone's saying Rhule hasn't done better. It's just not like he came in and won 9+ games each season immediately. Would you described yourself as "wowed" so far? He went 5-7 and 7-6 in his first two seasons. Sure we're at 6-2, but again, look at the remaining schedule. What if he goes 6-6? It's a real possibility. Is an average record of 6-6 over three years extension worthy? I think it's very reasonable to say it's not.

EDIT: If he finishes 9-3 or 10-2 and we then gave him an extension? I'd be singing a very different tune. But after years of this, I need to see actual results first.
 
presidentjlh said:
I don't think anyone's saying Rhule hasn't done better. It's just not like he came in and won 9+ games each season immediately. Would you described yourself as "wowed" so far? He went 5-7 and 7-6 in his first two seasons. Sure we're at 6-2, but again, look at the remaining schedule. What if he goes 6-6? It's a real possibility. Is an average record of 6-6 over three years extension worthy? I think it's very reasonable to say it's not.

EDIT: If he finishes 9-3 or 10-2 and we then gave him an extension? I'd be singing a very different tune. But after years of this, I need to see actual results first.
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Agreed, I would add, is Nebraska better than last year?

I think there's growth in some areas, but they're simply fortunate this season that Indiana and Ohio State were replaced with Minnesota and Northwestern.

The schedule next year is significantly more difficult. All Nebraska did was bid against itself to pay an extra $20M to a coach they'll be looking to fire unless they make dramatic improvements by the end of the 2027 season.
 
Compare the situation with Bo Pelini (this has nothing to do with the decision to fire him, just talking about his first three years):

9-4, 10-4, 10-4.

Now let's subtract a couple losses since I don't see 9-3 or even 10-2 records necessarily leading to a conference title appearance to give a comparable situation to today. We'll say one year yes, and it'd be a loss.

9-3, 10-4, 10-3.

If you told me Rhule would deliver this his first three years? Absolutely give him an extension.

And indeed as Dr. Strangelove notes: We're benefitting a lot from an easy schedule this year. Finishing 8-4 next season would probably say a lot more positive about Nebraska than finishing 10-2 this season. So I admit a lack of patience this season because this is a season Nebraska SHOULD be jumping on people's throats. What if we finish 7-5 this season? It's a better regular season record than last year, but I'd say it's a step back in reality, that'd be pretty bad to be honest considering the schedule.

EDIT: And I'll still grant that if he finishes 9-3, 10-2 regular season this year, despite benefitting greatly from schedule, sure, give him an extension. My point is this is too soon based on what we've seen so far.
 
Dr. Strangelove said:
Agreed, I would add, is Nebraska better than last year?

I think there's growth in some areas, but they're simply fortunate this season that Indiana and Ohio State were replaced with Minnesota and Northwestern.

The schedule next year is significantly more difficult. All Nebraska did was bid against itself to pay an extra $20M to a coach they'll be looking to fire unless they make dramatic improvements by the end of the 2027 season.
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We are obviously better than last year but are down 2 giant interior senior defensive linemen.

100% of schools make the coaching gamble- some get it right but most don't. That's the nature of the beast. Gambling on Rhule is a much safer bet right now than the majority of schools are going through who don't have long term coaching staffs.
 
Hilltop said:
We are obviously better than last year but are down 2 giant interior senior defensive linemen.

100% of schools make the coaching gamble- some get it right but most don't. That's the nature of the beast. Gambling on Rhule is a much safer bet right now than the majority of schools are going through who don't have long term coaching staffs.
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Well the thing here too is that no one's talking about firing the man right now. He was under contract with us through 2030 as it is. If that contract was to expire say in 2026 or 2027, this extension would make a lot more sense to me. But he had five years more as it is anyways. We're not talking a guy who came into Nebraska and immediately put college football on notice. He's had two mediocre seasons, and is in the middle of a season right now that might end up anywhere from great to mediocre. Heck, if we even just waited until after the USC game to make a call and then, if they win, gave him an extension, fine. But right now? The only truly quality win Nebraska has right now is Cincinnati. That's great, but is it enough to say "yep, let's lock this guy in even longer?"

That's the problem for me. I'm not opposed to an extension intrinsically, I haven't given up on Rhule. But this just reminds me of what we did with Mike Riley and Scott Frost. It was way too early, and lo and behold, it backfired badly. Hell, at least with Riley he had a 9 win season under his belt.
 
presidentjlh said:
Well the thing here too is that no one's talking about firing the man right now. He was under contract with us through 2030 as it is. If that contract was to expire say in 2026 or 2027, this extension would make a lot more sense to me. But he had five years more as it is anyways. We're not talking a guy who came into Nebraska and immediately put college football on notice. He's had two mediocre seasons, and is in the middle of a season right now that might end up anywhere from great to mediocre. Heck, if we even just waited until after the USC game to make a call and then, if they win, gave him an extension, fine. But right now? The only truly quality win Nebraska has right now is Cincinnati. That's great, but is it enough to say "yep, let's lock this guy in even longer?"

That's the problem for me. I'm not opposed to an extension intrinsically, I haven't given up on Rhule. But this just reminds me of what we did with Mike Riley and Scott Frost. It was way too early, and lo and behold, it backfired badly. Hell, at least with Riley he had a 9 win season under his belt.
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I get your points but it's not like we gave the guy a raise. We basically just made it harder for someone to steal him from us by 10 million dollars.

I would also point out that virtually all coaches are on 5-8 year contracts right now.
 
presidentjlh said:
My point is this is too soon based on what we've seen so far.
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I think everybody understands this. The difference in opinion is driven by the value or weight of that point, not the validity of the point itself. The are a myriad of factors that go into decisions like this... like modern CFB business practices, market demands, negotiating power, promises made to boosters, investments, etc.

This is an opportunity to pay closer to attention to how the business of college football operates and read between the lines of what these contracts are actually telling us. These contracts aren't just KPI measuring sticks... they're about leverage and strategy in the coaching and recruiting marketplace.

I mean, it should be abundantly clear by now that coaches hold more of the power at the contract table in the current CFB landscape. It's easy to say "win more games if you want that extension" but that's just not how the market works. The reality is schools are competing in a high stakes marketplace where you have to leverage a lot of factors and that isn't just wins. I think some of you can dislike that all you want but we can't pretend it isn't the current reality of operating in college football. It's how the business functions.
 
presidentjlh said:
Compare the situation with Bo Pelini (this has nothing to do with the decision to fire him, just talking about his first three years):

9-4, 10-4, 10-4.

Now let's subtract a couple losses since I don't see 9-3 or even 10-2 records necessarily leading to a conference title appearance to give a comparable situation to today. We'll say one year yes, and it'd be a loss.

9-3, 10-4, 10-3.

If you told me Rhule would deliver this his first three years? Absolutely give him an extension.

And indeed as Dr. Strangelove notes: We're benefitting a lot from an easy schedule this year. Finishing 8-4 next season would probably say a lot more positive about Nebraska than finishing 10-2 this season. So I admit a lack of patience this season because this is a season Nebraska SHOULD be jumping on people's throats. What if we finish 7-5 this season? It's a better regular season record than last year, but I'd say it's a step back in reality, that'd be pretty bad to be honest considering the schedule.

EDIT: And I'll still grant that if he finishes 9-3, 10-2 regular season this year, despite benefitting greatly from schedule, sure, give him an extension. My point is this is too soon based on what we've seen so far.
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Bo Peleni was an asshat version of Farentz. Under him NU was Iowa. Irrelavent and just good enough to a win against a better team every couple years. Playing most of the better teams meant blowouts. Occasionally they win the old garbage west division of the Big and get stomped in a Conference Chamionship game by a relavent team heading to a tile run. The division we were in then was this year's schedule every year. And it still took an occasional hail mary to beat Nothwestern.

I agree if after 9 years the best Rhule is doing is 9 or 10 wins and 4 losses a year with mid bowls and no championships he should go too.

My kids are 27 and 25. They don't remember Nebraska like we do. They didn't bother getting student tickets during the putrid Frost years when they went to college. They grew up with Nebraska being irrelevant every year even with Pellini/Callahan/Riley. I took my 19 year old Nephew to his first game Saturday at Northwestern because someone gave me free tickets.

My son in law grew up here and is a Texas fan because his cousin played there. My GenX wife and I are the only NE fans in the household. The kids don't care one way or another and have better things to do with their time.

Nebraska has been so bad, so irrelevant, and blown out so many times (even under our "best" coach) that we are not a blue blood destination program. The older people here need to get their delusions out of their heads and realize that Rhule was likely a better hire than we deserved.

Rhule is here because he is accustomed to fixing crappy programs just like ours. I doubt any other splash hire coach would take a job here. Every program in the big conferences pay millions a year and have new facilities. We are not close to a great job opportunity.

Indiana got very lucky. We'll see how long that lasts.
 
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Hilltop said:
I get your points but it's not like we gave the guy a raise. We basically just made it harder for someone to steal him from us by 10 million dollars.

I would also point out that virtually all coaches are on 5-8 year contracts right now.
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That’s a major point @presidentjlh is missing. It’s not like he now is making 3 million more per year. And, there has been improvement. I’ve said all along, I hope he stays. But, if he leaves, the program us in much better shape than when he came.
 
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