Nebraska athletic director Trev Alberts brought a set of predetermined questions to the first Zoom interview with Matt Rhule last winter.
Five minutes into that call, however, Alberts felt awkward because the questions were the same ones he asked other candidates, for consistency's sake. Imagine asking Rhule a canned question like, "Where do you see yourself in five years?"
Alberts changed course and started a new line of questioning: "Let's just talk football instead."
"That's when Matt's eyes really lit up," Alberts told Sporting News. "You can tell he's just a football guy. He loves everything about the game, and he loves the totality of college football and the history and tradition of all that. That was in part some of the reasons why he was attracted to Nebraska — based on our past history."
Is Matt Rhule right fit for Nebraska?
Rhule will make his debut as Nebraska's coach Thursday. The Cornhuskers travel to Minnesota for a 8 p.m. ET kickoff on Fox. Rhule is Nebraska's seventh head coach since Tom Osborne retired after leading the Huskers to a split national championship in 1997. The last coach – Scott Frost – was the quarterback on that team.
That is why Rhule is an interesting first-year fit among the new coaches in 2023. The New York City native is headed to the Heartland, and his last job experience did not end well. He heard the "Fire Rhule!" chants from Carolina Panthers fans toward the end of a three-year tenure that produced an 11-27 record in the NFL.
"I learned a lot about leadership by leading in tough times," Rhule said at the Big Ten Media Days on July 27.
Rhule told his wife Julie if he returned to the college game, then it would have to be in the Big Ten. While waiting in the pickup line after school for his daughters, Rhule would be looking at high school football recruits. He came to a realization: "There's a lot of talent in Nebraska." He pulled up old clips of the Huskers' matchups against Colorado – a Week 2 opponent this season. Rhule, a football junkie at heart, kept looking at that trademark "N" on the white helmet.
"When I think about Nebraska, I think about that helmet," Rhule said. "It's iconic to me. All across college football, what that means. Are we talked about right now? I'm not talking about within Nebraska. I'm talking about nationally."
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There is not too much to talk about. Nebraska is 47-60 in the College Football Playoff era – one game better than Indiana at 46-61. Osborne was 255-49-3 in 25 seasons. Will Rhule be the cure for a program that has incrementally gathered dust outside of the national spotlight with each year? Can the former Big Eight powerhouse finally contend in the Big Ten as the conference heads into an 18-team format with a 12-team playoff in 2024?
From a geographical standpoint, Nebraska will be the midpoint of the coast-to-coast conference, and Rhule has experiences across the country, but he has yet to stay at one place for five years.
"Each place is different," Alberts said. "He didn't do the same thing at Baylor that he did at Temple. It's his ability to first identify what the challenges are, and then to create a strategy and solution around it. To modernize the apparatus around football to be more reflective of what winning teams in 2023 do."
That is fancy way to of saying Rhule did an awesome job in his makeovers at Temple and Baylor. The Owls evolved from 2-10 a team in Rhule's first season to a 10-3 team in 2016. Baylor was 1-11 in 2017. By Rhule's third year, they were 11-3 with a pair of one-score losses to Oklahoma in the Big 12. That is the easy sell for Rhule, even if that is not the way he sells himself.
"I'm not a slick talker," Rhule said. "I'm not going to sit there and be like, 'You need to come here because of this. You need to come here because of that.' I put that New York City side of me to the side. I have an 18-year-old son. All I hope for him is that he ends up in the right place with the right people."
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What are expectations for Matt Rhule at Nebraska?
Nebraska is a different job with different expectations – and that comes with challenges in recruiting and the transfer portal. Rhule made splashes on both fronts after his arrival. Quarterback Jeff Sims transferred from Georgia Tech on Dec. 18, 2022. Sims wanted to be in a college town, just like Rhule.
"When I was talking with Coach Rhule I was just listening to how he sees his future at Nebraska," Sims said. "His vision, his goals and it aligned with what I wanted. Just seeing how smart he was, the connections he had and the experience in the NFL. I knew he was the guy who would take my mental game to the next level."
Rhule said Nebraska's summer football camps – which started with just 150-to-160 players, increased in popularity throughout the summer.
Why are the players buying in? Rhule brings balance to the program, quite literally. Rhule has players learning yoga. Offensive line coach Donovan Raioloa conducts book readings with players. Rhule also brings discipline. That might be in the form of learning from former Giants coach Tom Coughlin about being on time for meetings. It is all that while staying in tune with the NIL and transfer portal components to the sport. That comprehensive plan impressed Alberts in the Zoom meeting.
"I think having somebody that has the intellect and strategic thinking to help them navigate this is important because there are so many unknowns," Alberts said. "Part of that is his experience."
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Will that matter on the field? Nebraska has endured 25 one-score losses in the last five seasons, and that was with the prodigal son in Frost. The Huskers seemingly have tried every type of coach since Frank Solich was fired after a 9-3 season in 2003. Nebraska finally invited Solich back and honored him at this year's spring game, and Rhule engaged in a conversation that stuck with him. He said Solich had success at Nebraska as a "player, position coach, coordinator and head coach."
Yet it was Solich's ability to adapt that led to long-term success at Ohio from 2005-20.
"Ohio ran that same offense, then he morphed in 2005 into 2006 and all of a sudden they were spread type concepts," Rhule said. "There was no more fullback. They were in 11 and 12 personnel. He changed and had the same success. I talked to coach and he said, 'We changed the personnel but we kept the same core concepts and game plan. I think when you see coaches that can adjust over time – that's the mark of a true coach."
That conversation also was symbolic. Nebraska fans lamented Solich's firing through the tenure of the last five coaches. Rhule seems to have hit all the right chords with the Nebraska faithful heading into his first season. He might be the marriage between the appreciation of the past and the vision for the future that Nebraska has needed for two-plus decades.
He has immersed in it, too. On Aug. 25, Rhule held a half-hour press conference – most of which was spent on the depth chart for this season. He told reporters it is a "tremendous obligation" to have success at Nebraska.
"We talk a lot about those who came before us but we talk a lot about those who come after us and what our legacy is going to be," Rhule said. "Understanding that continuum is really important. Do you want your teams to be feared? They can know what the 90s were. They can know what the early 2000s were. They can know about all those years, but they also have to go focus on right now."
Five years from now? It sounds like Nebraska will be in a better place with Rhule.
