New Nebraska coach Matt Rhule talks Deion Sanders, Big Ten expansion, NIL and more
In a long, candid interview with former Nebraska standout Will Compton and Tennessee Titans offensive lineman Taylor Lewan, new Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule delved into myriad topics about his job rebuilding the Cornhuskers and preparing to face Deion Sanders’ Colorado teams in the opening weeks of the season, Big Ten expansion and Name, Image and Likeness methods, among other topics on the ‘Bussin’ With The Boys’ podcast.
Speaking directly about his beliefs regarding leadership, Rhule said that in his opinion, it is imperative that a leader stands at the front to absorb slings and arrows.
“Do you want to be a leader?,” Rhule rhetorically asked his podcast hosts. “Go out in front. Take the bullets for your guys and hope your guys answer for you.
“I think if I do that, I’ll have a chance to (positively) impact some of those guys’ lives.”
Rhule was also asked about the Cornhuskers renewing their rivalry with former conference foe Colorado, now managed by Sanders, aka Coach Prime, who will host Nebraska on Sept. 9 at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado.
“I believe in our staff, believe in what we’re doing,” Rhule said. “I think it’s going to be a great game. I think it’s going to be a great thing for college football.”
And, encouraged by the hosts about Colorado athletic director Rick George, who has already asked Buffaloes fans not to sell their tickets to Nebraska supporters, Rhule remained in a “Switzerland” role.
“I expect our fans to show up,” he said. “Coming out to the western part of our state, seeing all the diehards, those people out there are excited about Nebraska football. I hope people come from all over (to support Nebraska).
Rhule acknowledged that both he and his staff have already encountered the Deion Sanders effect in recruiting. Even on video games. He said that when visitors played the Madden NFL video game, one of the possibilities that circulated was the resemblance to Deion Sanders and that it said ‘Prime’ on the screen.
Rhule said he told his staff to get it off the screen because “we’re trying to beat these guys for recruits.”
Elsewhere, Rhule weighed in on Big Ten expansion — making a rather bold proclamation that expected the league to send a record number of participants into an expanded, 12-team College Football Playoff.
“I think the Big Ten has become this coast-to-coast (league), almost like college is the NFL,” Rhule said. “From Piscataway (New Jersey) to LA, we have everything in between; it becomes this truly national brand. I think that’s good for us. Looking at Texas, I want Nebraska to be Texas’ Big Ten team.
“When I look west of here, all these prospects, Arizona to Utah in between, don’t have a place to go if they want to go to the Big Ten. So like the Big Ten, when we go to 16 teams and the Big Ten ( potentially) gets three to four teams into the College Football Playoff every year, hey come to Nebraska. Think that’s one of the things I saw.”
Rhule promised a planned approach to his work on top of the Nebraska program; he indicated that his makeup was rooted in the highs and lows of his coaching tenure.
“I’ve been coach of the year and I’ve been fired,” the former Temple, Baylor and Carolina Panthers head coach said. “Be the same guy. … I love football, it’s my passion. My purpose in life, I think, is to be a great man, a great husband, great father; so if I say that, I’ll live up to that in the most difficult moments.
“The day after I got fired (last fall by the Panthers), did I take my kids to school? Or did I sit at home and feel sorry for myself? Let them see what it means to really be a man, to really be that person , you say you are in the most difficult of times.”
Rhule had harsh criticism of himself; he called some of his previous coaching work “embarrassing”.
“It’s my fourth head coaching job in 11 years,” Rhule said. “Mistakes I made early on, I’m almost embarrassed about. Things I did at Temple. But I have learned; I’ve mastered the craft of working with guys over time. I hope. I want to push them, I have to train them, I’m old. We’re going to practice hard, I’m going to train them hard, but I can demand them … I don’t have to put anybody down.”
A Penn State graduate who has proudly embraced an old-school reputation, Rhule vowed to try to walk a moral line when he encountered roster management issues at Nebraska — be it via the NCAA Transfer Portal — that have blossomed into a very different shape than when Rhule last coached in college – or the NIL phenomenon.
“I shouldn’t call a guy on your roster and say, ‘Come play for me,'” Rhule said. “If he’s happy there, let him be happy there. If a guy’s unhappy and wants to go on the portal, that’s fine. … Sometimes we mess up (student-athletes’) lives, and we’re responsible for that as adults .
“Hopefully I’m doing it the right way and it’s really hard. The lines are very blurred right now in what’s legal and what’s not. I’m going to do whatever I can to win at Nebraska as long as it’s both legally and ethically.If I can live with that.
“If I saw a junior in high school, I can’t talk to him (on the recruiting trail). It doesn’t make sense to me. I can’t, but his agent can call me and say he needs 500,000 dollars to come here?”
