Rhuletheday

Modern day college football is more about recruiting than development.  There is one thing Georgia, Alabama, Clemson, Michigan, OSU all have in common before one hour of practice even begins.  Deon just got hired as the CU head coach and already there are reports that he has landed a 5 star.  We may have a great developer in Rhule, but recruiting will always out pace development any day of the week.  Deon is a recruiting machine that will never stop.  Rhule just came from the NFL where spending time away from family to get a player never happens unless it is draft day.  I have a bad feeling about this.

Nebraska has gone soft when we should of gone hard.  Went quiet when we should have been loud.  Rolled the dice when we should of been conservative.  And now been conservative when we should of rolled the dice.  We just cannot get out of our own way. 

Terrible situation.  Nobody wins when it comes to domestic violence.  Loss of marriage.  Loss of child custody.  Loss of career.  Loss of time with family due to a divorce or prison time.  Not to mention the long-term trauma caused to the children that starts the cycle all over again. 

We will find out more as time goes on.  One of the charges is a felony, a charge that is not made without substantial evidence supporting the charge, especially against someone who is high profile.  For Strangulation in Nebraska: The maximum punishment is three years imprisonment and 18 months post-release supervision, or a $10,000 fine, or both

If a women is beating up on a man, it is on the man to leave the marriage or relationship.  If there are kids, then gather video or audio evidence (not hard to do these days) and then leave, taking the kids with you.  No child should have to grow up in a violent environment.  Be a man, do what is right. 

The stats say every day 3 women are murdered by thier husband or boyfriend.  Only God knows the true number, but it is substantial.  If you think this is a laughing matter, you have no morality.  

Can't be any worse than what we already have endured the past 5 years.  If it does get some how worse, then representatives from both CU and NU should meet at the border of Colorado and Nebraska and bring with them mementos of their college football history and bury them in a 100 year time capsule while vowing not to play collegiate football in either state again until 100 years has passed.  With both state's populaces no longer spending endless hours on online college sports message boards, the two states build in those 100 years a mecca of world class commerce and urban development with advancements in knowledge and technology that bests what was shown in the cartoon The Jetsons.  But that will never happen, for we will all continue to yell at our TV and computer screens over college students not make ball go win. 

6 minutes ago, olddominionhusker said:

I think expecting a win game 1 at Minny is a little pie in the sky. Certainty possible but I don’t think a loss there signals immediate devestation by any means. I agree with the rest. I guess some would argue with Iowa but I truly believe that is a program in a decline which is about to drop off significantly. I don’t see how they can possibly recruit any offensive talent whatsoever with the Ferentz family clown show still calling the shots

The first game of Matt's tenure here is a must win for it sets the tone for that first season and beyond.  HC first games:

Bob Devaney (South Dakota) WIN

Tom Osborne (No. 10 UCLA) WIN

Frank Solich (LA Tech) WIN

Bill Callahan (Western Illinois) WIN

Bo Pelini (Western Michigan) WIN

Mike Riley (BYU) LOSS

Scott Frost (Colorado) LOSS

It just so happens that our two worst coaches in the past 60 years both started their time at NU with losses.

7 hours ago, BigRedBuster said:

I really wish our first two games weren't on the road.

 

But, if Rhule can make improvements and is a good in game coach, we should be at least 3-1 going into the Michigan game.  Hopefully, 4-0.

We better be 4-0 going into the Michigan game.  Must wins for me are Minnesota, Colorado, NI, LA Tech, Northwestern, Iowa.  If any of these games are losses...Houston, we have a problem. 

Rhule is the right hire at the right time.  The last time a hire felt this way was when Bo was hired and the fans had the 'Bo Knows' Ts everywhere.  Winning is great, but I just want us to play a well executed offense and tough as nails defense, in other words quality football. 

When you have someone in charge and then they are demoted, there is usually friction between the new and the old.  A new coach coming in does not want a divided coaching staff of new guard vs. Old guard.  They have enough other things to worry about.  That is why they most always clean house and start from scratch at the very start.  They are all well off financially.  As Mickey said, he will find a job given his talents and experience.  Our new WR coach may be a downgrade in recruiting from him, but every other assistant coach will be a massive upgrade. 

8 hours ago, Mavric said:

 

Interesting data.

 

I did some similar checking.  Fickell is 5-11 against ranked opponents.  He lost seven of his first eight, the only win coming against a UCF team that finished the year ranked #24.  Only one of the wins is against a team ranked higher than #18.  None were against Power 5 opponents.

With Luke having major struggles against good P5 teams, that is a major red flag coming into the P5 lions den that is the B1G.  Winnimg in a P5 conference week in and week out is a whole different ball game than the other conferences.  A lot of similarities to Frost here.  

To quell any buyers remorse with Rhule, lets take a closer look at Luke Fickell during his time at Cincinnati from 2017 to 2022.  Below are all of the P5 teams Luke played and their respective regular season records and game with Cincinnati outcome (decent teams in bold):

2017 Michigan (8-4) Lost 36-14

2018 UCLA (3-9) Won 26-17

2018 Virginia Tech (6-6) Won 35-31

2019 UCLA (4-8) Won 24-14

2019 Ohio State (12-0) Lost 42-0

2019 Boston College (6-6) Won 38-6

2020 Georgia (7-2) Lost 24-21

2021 Indiana (2-10) Won 38-24

2021 Notre Dame (11-1) Won 24-13

2021 Alabama (11-1) Lost 27-6

2022 Arkansas (6-6) Lost 31-24

2022 Indiana (4-8) Won 45-24

Notice a pattern?  The only win Luke had against a decent P5 team during his tenure at Cincinnati was 2021 Notre Dame who went on to lose to Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl.  With now #18 ranked Tulane set to win the American Conference and 9-3 Cincinnati just dropping out of the top 25 after losing their last game to Tulane, it is a perfect time for Luke to abandon ship.  I don't think Bucky is getting what they think they are getting. 

We now have the 7th highest paid coach in all of college football.

Rhule: 9M

Day: 9.5M

Tucker (lol): 9.5M

Kelly: 9.5M

Saban: 9.7M

Riley: 10M

Smart: 11.2M

7 minutes ago, VeloHusker said:

Would have preferred Fickell, but Matt should be really good for us.

Fickell was also my first choice, but Matt will get the job done, for he knows P5 football.  Fickell on the other hand is going to have a learning curve. 

It has begun.  All of the big name coaches will be migrating to the two super conferences of the B1G and SEC given the massive pile of TV money.  

Thankful TO got us out of the dying Small 12. 

49 minutes ago, ColoradoHusk said:

I'm sure Iowa fans have to be in full meltdown mode.  They just lost to one of the worst Nebraska teams in recent history, and 3 of their neighboring schools (NU, Wisconsin, and Illinois) have made significant hires to their head coach in the past 2 years.

Iowa is pretty much done for.  They are stuck with Kirk for the long haul and he is never going to fire his son Brian.  Also sounds like the iowa AD and iowa brass are chummy friends.  The iowa ship is going down and nobody is going to do anything to correct it over there. With the new B1G TV money coming in, they have the cash to get a new AD and fire Kirk, but that will never happen.  They elevate Kirk to be some kind of legend for some unknown reason, even though he has never won a championship of any kind.  Just sad.  When you give a Headcoach an unlimited leash, you get what iowa is stuck with. 

1 hour ago, TiredHuskerFanMWI said:

yeah, we'll see for sure.  Hell, we may get our first "did we make a mistake?" moment just two games in against Deion.

We better not lose to the one win buffs, even if they get Deion.  Scott losing to CU back to back destroyed my confidence in him.

Winning in the American Athletic Conference (Fickell) is way easier than winning in the Big 12 (Rhule).  

Time will tell who got the better coach between us an wiscy, but given the history of both, I like our odds of keeping Rhule far longer than Wiscy can keep Fickell.  If Luke starts to win in Madison (which he will), then NFL teams will come a poaching guaranteed and they will give him an offer he cannot refuse.  We have Rhule's recent NFL failures to shield us from them coming a knocking any time soon.  We will just have to fend off college teams and not many can pay what we are paying or more. 

21 hours ago, hunnit said:

He took this job because he knows it's a 95% chance it will also end with a multimillion dollar buyout. 

He is not doing it just for the money.  

Matt said one of the reasons he took the job is because he misses being a coach.  He misses teaching and helping athletes better themselves.  You don't get to this level and not have a very large ego.  He will want to also win so that this is not the last stop of being an HC at a major level in his career.  We have hit two lemons in a row, so it is easy to get into the mindset that everyone is looking for just a payday, but this is not the case.  Riley's career was pretty much over when we hired him so he really did not care at that point and Frost stopped caring half way through his tenure here, realizing he does not have the coaching chops at this level.  Penn St. Might be Matt's dream job or maybe he wants another crack at the NFL.  Either way he will need to win here to be a viable future candidate for both. And if he does move onto another HC job, his buyout will be greatly reduced.  It's win win. 

2 minutes ago, Decked said:

A lot of former players backing Mickey. 

We already tried a former Husker QB with zero HC experience at the P5 level.  Mickey might be the greatest college HC to ever live, but the NU football program cannot afford to gamble its future on another unproven inexperienced HC.  Matt is going to be bring player performance and win stability to the program.  Something we have not tasted as fans since the Bo years. 

1 minute ago, Decked said:

Man. A win and this. It feels nice doesn’t it? Almost don’t know how to react 

Going to be a fun hopeful off-season for once.  With a new HC who loves to run the ball 200+ yards per game and play nasty simple D, I already feel like we went to a bowl game and won right now.

Actually we did just win a bowl game yesterday...the 'Birdbrain Bowl'. 

No mores:

No more PR disasters and 'off the field behavior rumors'.

No more NCAA infractions.

No more of the HC throwing the team under the bus in the post game pressers.

No more Shot gun formation on 3rd and short.

No more OL that has no push.

No more throwing the ball 10 yards incomplete on 3rd and short.

No more throwing the ball 6 yards for a completion on 3rd and 9. 

No more saying 'we had the best practice ever'.

No more losing to iowa and wisconsin on the regular. 

No more missing a bowl game every year.

No more throwing the ball a billion times a game and allowing our opponent to control the clock via their run game.

No more face palm end of game clock management blunders.

No more insanely complex offensive and defensive schemes.

No more losing seasons. 

5 minutes ago, Born N Bled Red said:

One drawback from this hire, since he's not a sitting coach, he doesn't have a pool of recruits he's been working with or players that will follow him to help flip the roster. Year 1 is probably going to be painful.

32 minutes ago, Hooked on Huskers said:

FIFY

Just now, Bryon said:

I am all in!  Good luck Coach Rhule!   He's turned around lesser programs although the first year has been painful so better stock up the beer fridge.

Rhule improved Baylor 6 wins from year one to year two.  He can easily get us to a bowl game next year with just two more wins. 

19 hours ago, Cornfed said:

Boo…underwhelming, mediocre. 

Who would be better?  Kiffin?  Urban?  Both are PR nightmares, two peas in the same pod...

"I'm going to turn Florida in right here in front of you," Kiffin told the crowd. "As Nu'Keese (Richardson) was here on campus, his phone keeps ringing. And so one of our coaches is sitting in the meeting with him and says, 'Who is that?' And he looks at the phone and says, 'Urban Meyer.' Just so you know, you can't call a recruit on another campus. But I love the fact that Urban had to cheat and still didn't get him."

While Kiffin accused Meyer of violating NCAA rules, he incidentally violated a Southeastern Conference rule that prevented coaches from mentioning a recruit by name. Kiffin's accusations against Meyer were mistaken.

We already went down that road with Bo remember?

10 hours ago, Caveman said:

 

So they have the same number of 10+ win seasons in P5 football and both failed as NFL head coaches, yet Rhule is vastly superior?

Riley never went from 1-11 or 2-10 to a 10+ win season ever.  Rhule did it twice in two years each.

They say that a new Head Coach makes their biggest jump in wins from year one to year two.  This is a very strong metric of judging a head coaches ability to turn things around and quickly.  Lets compare some P5 head coaches shall we?

Matt Rhule: Baylor 1-11 to 7-6 (+6 wins)

Bill Callahan: Nebraska 5-6 to 8-4 (+3 wins)

Mike Riley:  Oregon State 3-8 to 5-6 (+2 wins), Nebraska 6-7 to 9-4 (+3 wins)

Scott Frost:  Nebraska 4-8 to 5-7 (+1 win)