Matt Rhule Press Conference 10/20

[Baron Winnebago]

I mean, it was a humiliating week for Rhule and Nebraska. You had the PSU flirtation. Then you had a nationally televised game on FRI and you coach your worst game in your entire NU tenure. Rhule pretty had to come out spitting nails or I'd wonder WTH was wrong with him.

Rhule is a pretty aware guy. And he knows that the entire nation just saw a lesser team de-pants us and steal our lunch money. Our last FRI night game on FOX got over 4.2m viewers IIRC (vs Illini last yr).

If Rhule wanted to humiliate himself after the week he had (where everyone was talking about him positively) then he couldn't have picked a better script for it than that.

Reminded me of Coach Scrote's opening game foray against Fat Bert in Beefy Brats maiden voyage in Champaign Urbana. No reason to lose to that team who was crap. No reason to look that fucking hapless. And we basically only ever circled the toilet bowl from there

 

[Napkins]

We’ll see how this strategy plays out internally. There could be some bruised egos.

 

[king_kong_]

We’ll see how this strategy plays out internally. There could be some bruised egos.

Not sure we have anyone good enough to deserve an ego internally

 

[Napkins]

Not sure we have anyone good enough to deserve an ego internally

Was thinking of the coordinators though I gather that’s probably the joke you’re making.

 

[Interloper]

Not sure we have anyone good enough to deserve an ego internally

 

[ChocaEgg]

🐐

 

[NCsker]

We’ll see how this strategy plays out internally. There could be some bruised egos.

 

[HerbRedman]

We’ll see how this strategy plays out internally. There could be some bruised egos.

The only ones I'd excuse from this discussion are Ekeler (obviously) and maybe Shorts. Shorts bc it's not really his WRs' fault that our OL can't block and when they do Dylan doesn't throw it.

Also Barthel - his RBs were successful they just got fucked by Dana calling one of the worst games of his life.


Everyone else on the staff can get fucked. They sucked.

 

[Gman1228]

The only ones I'd excuse from this discussion are Ekeler (obviously) and maybe Shorts. Shorts bc it's not really his WRs' fault that our OL can't block and when they do Dylan doesn't throw it.

Also Barthel - his RBs were successful they just got fucked by Dana calling one of the worst games of his life.


Everyone else on the staff can get fucked. They sucked.

Barthel is awful. His RB room is abysmal as a whole and their inability to pass block creates many of our protection issues.

 

[HerbRedman]

Barthel is awful. His RB is abysmal as a whole and their inability to pass block creates many of our protection issues.

I'm not a huge fan I'm just saying he's low on the at-fault list for Friday.

Frankly if Dana would have called more running plays we would have done a lot better.

 

[Napkins]

The only ones I'd excuse from this discussion are Ekeler (obviously) and maybe Shorts. Shorts bc it's not really his WRs' fault that our OL can't block and when they do Dylan doesn't throw it.

Also Barthel - his RBs were successful they just got fucked by Dana calling one of the worst games of his life.


Everyone else on the staff can get fucked. They sucked.

I agree and also one variable that will influence the difference between 8 wins and 5-6 wins is how the staff and team respond to this loss. The risk of alienating the team by calling people out in a presser is not zero.

 

[Herbie]

I’m glad he was pissed. But also leaves me wondering why the team and players didn’t listen to him now.

 

[HerbRedman]

The risk of alienating the team by calling people out in a presser is not zero.

This is big boy football. You're a coach and you trot out a game that fans are comparing to 1996 ASU and 1992 Cockeye State (two of the ugliest NU losses in my lifetime)....then you deserve to get called out. Rhule too.

Enough with the Nebraska nice. We put a lot of $$ into this program. Can't go out there and let the opponent take your manhood from you and expect everything to be 'nice.'....if you want nice go coach somewhere else.

 

[Napkins]

Enough with the Nebraska nice. We put a lot of $$ into this program. Can't go out there and let the opponent take your manhood from you and expect everything to be 'nice.'....if you want nice go coach somewhere else.

I agree. This appears to be his position as well, and to my original point, we’ll see how it plays out. He seems to understand the heat that loss brought and stakes of this season. He didn’t get hired for the “Matt Rhule year 6” magic.

 

[MaxHuskers34]

DH is who I'm most disappointed with, so far. I didn't like the Butler hire, but bought in to it.

2023 under Sat - 15.3 ppg v P4 teams
2024 under Sat - 19.7 ppg v P4 teams
2024 under Dana - 23.5 ppg* v P4 teams
2025 under Dana - 25 ppg** v P4 teams

* skewed higher with 44 scored against Wisconsin
** skewed lower with 6 scored against Minnesota

Currently, we're not much better than our 2020 & 2021 ppg (v P4 teams) under Frost. Heck, in his second year 2019, we averaged 25.7 ppg against P4 teams and even in Frost's first year 2018 we averaged 29.6 ppg v P4 teams.

Maybe I'm expecting too much for ppg & need to adjust. IDK. If someone has this stat for CFB ppg v P4 teams I'd like to dig in.

To be fair, Frost always had the offense moving up and down the field. If they were ever even average in TO margin under Frost, they'd have been a consistent top 15 scoring offense under him every year.

It was everything else that led to his demise.

 

[dom91932]

We’ll see how this strategy plays out internally. There could be some bruised egos.

Rhule mentioned at least once that he is tired of the entitlement mindset. My guess is that this is not the first time that he's had that issue here and he felt calling them out publicly was the next step because keeping it in house had failed. If my guess is wrong and if egos are bruised over being called out rather than the turd they laid in MN then it's no wonder we are baby shit soft.

 

[Baron Winnebago]

Rhule mentioned at least once that he is tired of the entitlement mindset. My guess is that this is not the first time that he's had that issue here and he felt calling them out publicly was the next step because keeping it in house had failed. If my guess is wrong and if egos are bruised over being called out rather than the turd they laid in MN then it's no wonder we are baby shit soft.

If they have an entitlement mind set in year 1, it's a them problem. If they have an entitlement mindset in year 3, it's a you problem.

Also, they were 5 and 1 with 1 good win and 2 narrow escapes against meh teams. What exactly are they getting high on their own supply with?

Imo

 

[dom91932]

If they have an entitlement mind set in year 1, it's a them problem. If they have an entitlement mindset in year 3, it's a you problem.

Also, they were 5 and 1 with 1 good win and 2 narrow escapes against meh teams. What exactly are they getting high on their own supply with?

Imo

No one on the team or staff has done anything to have even the slightest whiff of an ego or sense of entitlement.

 

[Baron Winnebago]

No one on the team or staff has done anything to have even the slightest whiff of an ego or sense of entitlement.

Yeah we've entered into the magical 3rd year of a coach where weird head scratching quotes and issues start to pop up that turn out to be blinking red warning lights that this train is about to derail hard

 

[greybeardedchild]

If they have a entitlement mind set in year 1, it's a them problem. If they have an entitlement mindset in year 3, it's a you problem.

Also, they were 5 and 1 with 1 good win and 2 narrow escapes against meh teams. What exactly are they getting high on their own supply with?

Imo