You guys think you're making good points, but you're also off base with your grasping and wavering.
The Rhule vs. rated teams stat is completely misleading due to the number of ranked teams he played in years one at two at Temple, Baylor, and Nebraska:
3 Ranked opponents in year one at Temple
4 ranked opponents in year one at Baylor
3 ranked opponents in year one at Nebraska
In year two at Baylor, he plays 4 ranked teams, all on the road.
The overall winning percentage of FBS head coaches not named Kirby Smart or Nick Saban, who have beaten ranked teams in year one of a new regime or who have a good record vs. ranked teams on the road, is well below 25% across the board.
@Dear_Leader, lives in World where he thinks things typed are fact. Let's break it down:
- THere is no history of "locker room culture" issues with Rhule in his stops at Temple, Baylor, and now Nebraska. If you want to equate being at the helm of the worst franchise in the NFL with Rhule's role, then you're an idiot.
- Limited pool of coaches who will work with him? LOL, Matt Rhule is WIDELY respected around College Football. There are hundreds dozens f Coaches who jump at the chance to work with Rhule.
- Now, the hiring of the inexperienced coaches is certainly a fault of Rhule, but when the man took the job at Nebraska, Mickey Joseph was going to be the WR Coach. That was pretty much a given. And then we all know what happened with Joseph. Rhule was left scrambling and may have mistakenly put some faith in his trust of the McGuire's.
- Nebraska's recruiting and development under Rhule, had ZERO to do with getting their asses handed to them by Indianus, and it had nothing do with the loss to Illinois. You can voice your displeasure of his philosophy and process, but its a separate discussion.
- I think his game management is a reflection of terrible QB play and an abomination surrounding special teams. Its really fucking hard to manage a game when you don't trust your kicker or your quarterback.
As for Cignetti "exposing Rhule," he exposed the staff in the sense that they have NO FUCKING CLUE how to stop the RPO. But if you think how Cignetti built this team is comparable to what Rhule could've done then you're just being naïve.
1. Cignetti, unlike Rhule had the luxury of bringing a bunch of highly productive and experienced players with him from a previous stop. He also showed up and already had a Senior laden offensive line in place with the same coach and blocking scheme. It will be REALLY fucking interesting to see what Cignetti does next season. He will either have a team with 17 new starters or he will take another job without the luxury of bringing in a bunch of transfers.
Now, here's where Rhule needs to wake the fuck up:
1. He doesn't just need to get rid of his OC, he needs to reevaluate his whole God Damn offensive philosophy. I'm not saying there need to be mass wholesale scheme changes. He doesn't need to go Air raid. He doesn't need to run that crazy ass UTEP scheme where they want to run 90 offensive plays per game. But he needs to adapt to modern football and understand that your defense isn't going to hold everyone to 13 points or less, and you can't just expect to be the most "physical team" that takes the field every game.
2. What the FUCK was he thinking this OFF SEASON with the Kicking situation? I KNOW for a fact that many of the highly recruited freshman are making 6 figures+ in NIL. Hell, Mozee's NIL offering for 2025 is almost double what he was going to make at Oregon, and that was before his dad ever took a job in Lincoln. Nebraska should've been able to target the the 10 best G5, FCS, or even other Power conference kickers and offered them a shit ton of money. They should started it before the Spring, and then it should've been ratcheted it up in the Summer when they knew Alvano was hurt.
3. Go call Mack Leftwich at Texas State, write him a check for $1.5 million dollars, and then offer NIL money to Chris Dawn, Jr, and Kole Wilson, two receivers from Texas State who run a 4.3s.
4. Offer 500k to 1 million in NIL to Devonte Ross from Troy and Ted Hurst from Georgia State
Lastly, hire some analyst who has spent the last few years facing the RPO and put together some type of plan to figure out how to stop it going forward.
Also, what happened to Nebraska at Indianus is reminiscent of Bo Pelini getting his defense exploited vs teams like WiscyDicks. It happens. Its about being unable to account for certain matchups and that will need to get fixed.
But if you guys can't see some of the good things Rhule has done, then you're just using bias to push a narrative:
1. He's brought professional organization and leadership to all levels of the program. The structure in place for Coach Mozee to build a staff of recruiters and scouts is incredible. Rhule has also built a pipeline between that network and Nebraska's NIL.
2. The number of very young players who are seeing the field early and actually producing is obvious. Are those dudes going to make mistakes? Yes. Will they take some lumps? Absolutely. And it could be painful at times, but development is key to the future of this program because its been a dumpster fire for so long.
3. Discipline is back in place after 8 straight seasons of being non existent under Reilly and Frost. The culture was flipped quickly from that aspect.
Lastly, I BET this team is able to respond with some resilency. I expect them to be competitive vs. Ohio State. Will they lose by 30? Yes, but it will feel a lot differently than the Indianus game. And I bet they end the season on a high note.
There are plenty of reasons to be pissed off Saturday, but you also need to calm down and realize this was always a 6-6 to 8-4 at best football team. Did I think they would lose by 50 to Indianus? No, but I said before the season started that they would lose at Indianus and would be 5-2 going into Ohio State.
They will be 5-3 leaving Ohio State.
I believe they beat UCLAbia, and then win 1 of the last 3 to go - 7-5 into a bowl game. And that;s progress. That's what Rhule does.