*** Matt Rhule Hired as New Husker Head Coach ***

The irony?  Matt Rhule's first game as the head coach of the Baylor Bears in 2017 was a loss to Liberty.

The head coach that year of Liberty?  Turner Gill.

 
So I did some looking at Rhule's year one 2017 Baylor team that only won a single game.
These guys were a few missed plays from upsetting the #3 ranked team in the country, and had a lead on them for a bit in the 3rd quarter.

This is an OU team that had a Heisman Trophy winner, CeeDee Lamb, and Trey Sermon that went to the CFB playoff that year and lost to Georgia.




 
This is the opening game of year 2 of the Rhule regime in Baylor.  Note more push on the defensive line, as well as some emphasis on running the ball.




 
And here's the 2019 OT Thriller between OU and Baylor.  in 2019, they played a ranked opponent 3 times.  Just so happened that OU was ranked the two times they played them, and then they lost the Sugar Bowl to Georgia by two scores.

They had a 25 point lead on OU in the regular season and had the game won but then Jalen Hurts went unconscious and erased that 25 point lead in the 2nd half.  Baylor was the 13th ranked team in the country at that time.




 
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deedsker said:
You also hear Alberts say that not hiring Mickey was due to "mitigating risk", which could be applied to Fickell as well. He may be the better premier coach, but he doesn't have the track record to get a team off the ground. Alberts needs this to be the most likely hire to not continually go 3-9 to 5-7. Fickell may be able to get a preseason West leader in Wisconsin to 10-2 or 12-0, but he might not get a 4-8 Nebraska out of the losing territory. 

Fair or not, Fickell received a previously 12-1 tOSU as an interim, in a tough spot, and went 6-7. 
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It's hard to compare Rhule to Fickell based on resume.

In Fickell's corner you have more sustained success, but Rhule never stayed long enough to show that. In Rhule's corner he did it at two programs, but Fickell has yet to try it at a second program. Personally, I don't think an NFL or an Interim job is a great indicator given other evidence because they are very different situations.

Both coaches have a big challenge ahead of them.  Nebraska's is pretty obvious, but Wisconsin's is huge, too. This isn't another new coaching hire that is just going to be an iteration of what they have already done. They're looking to make pretty substantial changes. It could be as simple as what style of play each school is looking for. From interviews the past few days I think Rhule's Temple teams is very attractive to what Nebraska higher ups would like to see, whereas Fickell's big departure from what they've been doing is attractive to them.

 
HANC said:
Kind of a weak answer unless you forgot the sarcasm.  I was a Fickell first guy. He wa my top choice. How do you know it was one sided??? You don’t. Fickell may have interviewed but maybe wasn’t that interested. What did you expect Trev to say??? Matt was our 3rd choice.

Furthermore, Wiscy is in such a BETTER position to succeed next year than we are. This is UNIVERSALLY known and has been discussed. Fickell has a MUCH easier job in the short term. To judge Rhule based on the first two years solely on comparison with Wiscy is absolutely absurd.

If it was sarcasm, I apologize.
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Wisconsin is actually not in a better position to succeed than NU in the ways that count most. A big part of Wisconsin's recent downturn is attributed to a real disfunction in their recruiting operation and they also don't have a NIL operation at all yet. Fickell has a very large job in front of him to build up the recruiting function and get a NIL organization started from scratch. Not saying he can't, but NU is light years ahead of Wisconsin on both of these fronts at this time. 

In addition, Wisconsin's facilities are NOT good. Their indoor training facility doesn't even fit a full sized football field. They have approved a $300mm project to rebuild a large part of their facilities, which will help them a ton, but they are farther away from getting that rectified than NU is finishing the current project plus NU already has decent facilities. 

Overall the issues all stem back to Barry Alvarez's insistence on doing it his way and not adapting to the times. It worked for many many years, but they never got over the top to truly elite status and now it has caught up with them. Part of the reason the new AD didn't hire Jim Leonard was to signal a break from Barry's influence and try to bring Wisky into the present day. Fickell is a good coach and the new AD seems like he is moving things in the right direction, but they have to still catch up to what is going on today, let alone be prepared for the next evolution.  

 
BigRedBuster said:
Or hits the switch for the fireworks.  OOOPS...My bad.
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brophog said:
It's hard to compare Rhule to Fickell based on resume.

In Fickell's corner you have more sustained success, but Rhule never stayed long enough to show that. In Rhule's corner he did it at two programs, but Fickell has yet to try it at a second program. Personally, I don't think an NFL or an Interim job is a great indicator given other evidence because they are very different situations.
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But what is Fickell’s resume. Sustained success? Maybe it’s just a good 1+ class with mostly kids from Ohio. Sauce, Bryant, Ridder, Pierce, Cook, and Sanders all come in and lift the team to heights. First year after a departure of the first class(es) and he goes 9-3.

FPI 

UCF L (28)

Tulane L (30)

Arkansas L (39)

SMU W (61)

ECU W (64)

Navy W (78)

Indiana W (82)

Tulsa W (86)

USF W (103)

Temple W (110)

Miami (OH) W (111)

Kennesaw State W (FCS) Sargain-177

Just for reference Mickey went 3-5 against:

Minnesota L (19)

Illinois L (20)

Oklahoma L (24)

Wisconsin L (27)

Purdue L (35)

Iowa W (36)

Indiana W (82)

Rutgers W (101)

Which Frost did with the same team:

Georgia Southern L (91)

Northwestern L (99)

North Dakota W (FCS) Sargain-128

Did he just grab some really good talent nobody saw early at Cincy or did he develop players like no other? This last year is kind of a red flag that maybe Fickell isn’t the sure fire coach he is being made out to be. 

 
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