If we can give Hoiberg time why not Rhule?

[2010sarenevercomingback]

We know we can’t get rid of Rhule next season (and with the schedule we have we will be lucky to win 7 games imo) but we should all just sit back and relax and let Rhule give this a try to turn this program around.

I’ve been negative of Rhule for a season plus (I always said if you college football coaches can’t figure it out in 2 years they won’t make it work 90% of the time) but we can’t look at Indiana and expect the same results.

Rhule builds his programs in different ways and that’s who we currently have. We can’t force him to be Cigs and be a guru over talent evaluation and film study, that’s not Rhule’s way. We need to support our coach in the process he is going through and trust in faith we can get it figured out by 2030.

Rhule is a slow smoke brisket and Cig is a fat cheddar delicious bratwurst, we gotta let that brisket smoke and hope it doesn’t over cook and trust in the process of the 28 hour cook and not depend on the 30 minute grill of the brat.

It’s the long game we are playing at Nebraska…this is a special place. No place like Nebraska….we build things the right way, not the cheap asshole way a cheddar brat can treat ya when it explodes its cheddar goodness all over the grill, but we are methodical in the way we cook…and we need to let the preacher cook. This might be Nebraska’s last supper if we don’t.

I'm feeling very relaxed about the 2026 season, even though my inclination is to pucker up about the lack of splash DL/edge adds.

Reasoning: Rhule now has everything he wants.

Whatever weirdness, distraction, or square peg/round hole thing there was with Dylan/Dom is gone.

We got a full enough war chest to pay for a competitive roster, including a gamer QB.

We retained almost all the players that we wanted to (including several that were widely considered to be gone).

The position coaches at the underperforming areas have been replaced.

A lot of the Rhule recruits especially from his second recruiting class are coming of age where they should be taking the step to be solid contributors.

The team & coaching staff is - by and large - in the image Rhule wants it to be at this point, with no patchwork or ad hoc fits.

That's the sort of situation where teams can take jumps that don't necessarily seem likely from the conventional wisdom.

Will it work? IDK. But either it does work and we take that next step, or it doesn't work, and Rhule's seat starts getting hot. Either way, there'll be clarity without a lot of caveats or room for argument. I look forward to watching it play out.

 

[Red Finger]

Fred has never had the "wtf was that?" moments that Rhule has had for me. I'm mainly talking about clock management at the end of halves...it's mind boggling how consistently bad it is. I'm not necessarily out on Rhule, but it's getting a lot harder to believe he's gonna get it done. He knows how to run a program and he's generally a good PR guy...an upgrade from Frost. I'm questioning if he really knows how to win though. Fred knows how to win.

 

[realbp]

I partially agree. I think he's always has good basketball shit. I think he was asking dudes who weren't very good to execute that good basketball shit the first few seasons.

I'm going to respecftully pushback. Basketball is kind of my wheelhouse and nothing he's doing now is remotely close to what they were doing the first 3-4 years.

 

[Frogsker30]

I always said and thought Rhule was a “safe” hire but not an aggressive one

Meaning he’d get us back to bowl games but not to CFP contention

 

[redzoner]

I have been on this plan for awhile. By the end of the Frost era we really had nothing left for football in our AD. From the administration down we had really reached rock bottom. Besides life skills and the new practice facility I can't think of anything else that was in a good spot.

If you are comparing the two I think the Raiola timeline is similar to having Bryce McGowens. Both were highly ranked talented players we had to take but I don't think they were the type of guys to really set a player culture and lead us forward.

If Rhule wants to stay on the Fred timeline we really need to find a group of core players that set the tone for how we want to play and what a winning culture looks like even if we don't quite win yet. Like the Gary, Bandoumel, Walker, and Greisel group,

That group establishing something and showing some promise will lead to a better ability to land the next level of transfer portal players. Hopefully Colandrea can be part of that with some emergence of other players on the current roster.

 

[iruletheskool]

Fred has never had the "wtf was that?" moments that Rhule has had for me. I'm mainly talking about clock management at the end of halves...it's mind boggling how consistently bad it is. I'm not necessarily out on Rhule, but it's getting a lot harder to believe he's gonna get it done. He knows how to run a program and he's generally a good PR guy...an upgrade from Frost. I'm questioning if he really knows how to win though. Fred knows how to win.

Do you watch basketball though? We had plenty of insane and mind bottling scoring droughts that gave me the same feeling I have about Rhule's clock management.

 

[realbp]

There's some discussion in this thread about players/roster talent. For Fred, he has possibly a single legitimate NBA draft pick on this roster (Frager likely will be drafted).That's it, and he'll be drafted on NBA potential, not college ability. This team is truly the sum of its parts. They have great chemistry and play great defense. Finding guys like Sam is very hard, and honestly, Fred stumbled on that. When Sam started getting minutes it was due to injuries and just really bad basketball. Fred has had better talented teams, but not teams with a talent floor as high as this one.

 

[Baron Winnebago]

I'm going to respecftully pushback. Basketball is kind of my wheelhouse and nothing he's doing now is remotely close to what they were doing the first 3-4 years.

I'm not saying it is the same from a basketball perspective, I'm saying that he's always had good basketball stuff to run not that it's been the same stuff his entire tenure.

I don't think the concepts were bad his first 3-4 years, I think the coaching of them and the personnel weren't good, but there are rosters in the country that the shit he was running would have worked for.

Now maybe that's just a truism for literally every coach in America

 

[realbp]

Do you watch basketball though? We had plenty of insane and mind bottling scoring droughts that gave me the same feeling I have about Rhule's clock management.

Not just 2 or 3 minute droughts, like 8-11 minute droughts. We had plenty of halves that looked like Georgetown's 1-23 from the field second half last week.

Not only was the offense atrocious at times, but the defense was terrible. Bad rotations to shooters and lazy closeouts. Guys got to the paint regularly. It was unwatchable.

 

[iruletheskool]

There's some discussion in this thread about players/roster talent. For Fred, he has possibly a single legitimate NBA draft pick on this roster (Frager likely will be drafted).That's it, and he'll be drafted on NBA potential, not college ability. This team is truly the sum of its parts. They have great chemistry and play great defense. Finding guys like Sam is very hard, and honestly, Fred stumbled on that. When Sam started getting minutes it was due to injuries and just really bad basketball. Fred has had better talented teams, but not teams with a talent floor as high as this one.

I wonder how we look with a healthy Essegian this year. I'm not sure its better.

 

[realbp]

I wonder how we look with a healthy Essegian this year. I'm not sure its better.

I don't think it's better. I like Connor, but his defense is a liability and there are plenty of shooters on the court to pull defenders away from the basket.

 

[cwessel76]

It doesn't matter what Rhule does a reasonable amount of you will argue that whatever he does is the wrong move.

TW leaves. He hires from within to maintain continuity of staff and scheme, something I heard on the radio last night was an issue with Rhule. It was stated that Rhule never has the same staff year over year. What college program does?

So Rhule hires Butler for the reasons mentioned above. Some on this board, including me, didn't like the hire, but I understood the basis for the decision. The reasoning made sense. Halfway through the year, Rhule realizes the defense can't stop the run. My opinion is that we were poorly coached in run fits from the second and third levels. More on that in a second...

Rhule 86s Butler and hires a DC that has a track record of very good defenses. This DC hires the guys he wants to implement said defense. I've heard on this board plenty of times that Rhule should let the coordinators have a say in their staff. Holgo got Shorts last season and Wade this season to better implement what he wants to run. So Aurich gets his DL coach, did the optics of this look questionable? Absolutely, but he has experience in the scheme and is someone Aurich wanted. Aurich got a safeties coach and and edge coach.

So from a coaching hire standpoint, I don't see the issues everyone else does. Did you want Rhule to stick with Butler or make the change? Did you want Rhule to ride with Donnie or make the change? You can't have it both ways and you can't always get exactly what you want both from a coach and player perspective.

We all wanted an established guy on the interior DL, but I'm not in the building. I don't get to see what they see everyday from the guys who didn't play this season. I'm also not going to put the regression of DL play entirely on the players. I don't know what they were being coached with regrad to technique or scheme. DL looked bad, Rhule fired the coach.

He's willing to make the decisions we have wanted previous HCs to make, then we crucify him for HAVING to make those decisions like we're all prophets and can predict the previous hire wouldn't work out.

That's what good leaders do. They make changes to course correct to stay on the right path. I've hired people that were fantastic in interviews and had remarkable resumes only to see that they weren't going to be a good fit a couple of months in. Not every decision is a homerun or even a hit. Sometimes you're going to strike out.

I see a prominsing path and still think Rhule is the guy for the job. I do not want to be a program with a revolving door at HC. We're FL, FSU, Auburn, PSU, etc. right now. Once great programs that are getting in their own way because they aren't willing to see it through.

What a remarkably level-headed and reasonable take. Can’t wait to hear the shit you’ll be getting for sharing it.

 

[redzoner]

Fred has never had the "wtf was that?" moments that Rhule has had for me. I'm mainly talking about clock management at the end of halves...it's mind boggling how consistently bad it is. I'm not necessarily out on Rhule, but it's getting a lot harder to believe he's gonna get it done. He knows how to run a program and he's generally a good PR guy...an upgrade from Frost. I'm questioning if he really knows how to win though. Fred knows how to win.

I think the clock management narrative is pretty overblown and mostly highsight bias.

A lot of the timeouts and issues this year weren't bad clock management they were having to take timeouts to avoid play clock violations.

The narrative seems to grow but I can't really think of that many examples to point to for why we think he is so bad at it and the ones I can think of involved QBs that weren't the guy we hope would be playing. (Purdy against Maryland and a true freshman this year)

 

[rsmacke]

Does Fred not deserve the blame for letting Matt A in the door though? Fred made a mistake there and then made a reset. I don’t think many are willing to give Rhule that same type of grace.

Rhule keeps his mistakes on staff

 

[wildcat_husker]

I think the clock management narrative is pretty overblown and mostly highsight bias.

A lot of the timeouts and issues this year weren't bad clock management they were having to take timeouts to avoid play clock violations.

The narrative seems to grow but I can't really think of that many examples to point to for why we think he is so bad at it and the ones I can think of involved QBs that weren't the guy we hope would be playing. (Purdy against Maryland and a true freshman this year)

I agree with this. If you watch a lot of college football, you can criticize most coaches for clock management. Even last night.

It's a critique because we're not winning at the pace people want, which I understand.

 

[rsmacke]

I think the clock management narrative is pretty overblown and mostly highsight bias.

A lot of the timeouts and issues this year weren't bad clock management they were having to take timeouts to avoid play clock violations.

The narrative seems to grow but I can't really think of that many examples to point to for why we think he is so bad at it and the ones I can think of involved QBs that weren't the guy we hope would be playing. (Purdy against Maryland and a true freshman this year)

Multiple times Rhule has called a defensive timeout and either given up a big conversion or touchdown immediately after.

 

[realbp]

What a remarkably level-headed and reasonable take. Can’t wait to hear the shit you’ll be getting for sharing it.

All I read is bitching and complaining about the changes everyone wanted to see actually get changed. But now it's the how, and why did it take so long, and why didn't we get any of the established DL portal boys, and why no RB. You know we've got to have a RB, we just had an All-American that single-handidly won 4 games for us, exactly how I came up with that take I can't tell you but it's valid. Also, special teams coach, no other person on the planet is capable of generating 1 KO return for a TD and 38 yard punts, while also setting up the offense inside the 15-yardline plenty of times.

Let's be honest about special teams. The only thing markedly better consistently was punt return/block. Everything else was ok. Is Rhule supposed to kidnap Ekler to make him sign an extension with a healthy raise? Dude doesn't coach anywhere for very long.

Fuck, let's let the fucking guy do his fucking job. He made changes nearly everywhere there were deficiencies. If he would have fired Dvorcek, would that have been perceived as a move that needed to be made or that Rhule can't identify coaches and now it's a complete defensive overhaul? I don't know what most of these motherfuckers want other than every hire and decision is made correctly 100% of the time.

 

[Poor_and_Stupid]

Does Fred not deserve the blame for letting Matt A in the door though? Fred made a mistake there and then made a reset. I don’t think many are willing to give Rhule that same type of grace.

Foley, Shitterfield, Butler, Uncle Donny, Garret McGuire, and probably a few more I’m forgetting.

I’m not sure I could have hired worse if i was deliberately trying to make us lose.

Then when he does get someone who doesn’t suck he can’t keep them around. 🚩 🚩🚩

 

[realbp]

I wonder how we look with a healthy Essegian this year. I'm not sure its better.

Furthermore, he needs to workout with Pryce once healthy. If he could add that type of driving threat it would make him very dangerous. He also needs to revamp his body. He's very soft and needs to add some athleticism to his game.

 

[redzoner]

Multiple times Rhule has called a defensive timeout and either given up a big conversion or touchdown immediately after.

Is that bad clock management or just bad execution?