I realize in advance this is probably not a very insightful post, but I am not a very insightful man. Be that as it may...I've noticed in his press conferences he almost never gives the "expected" answer. His answer almost always seems as though it's serving a broader purpose, even if it's not the "truest" answer.
A few examples.
When Sims was struggling early in the season, Rhule was quite complimentary of his play. Even today, he said Sims was put into a "tough situation" on Saturday (NU was up like 24 points in the 4th and all Sims was tasked to do was hand the flippin' ball off). Meanwhile he seems to be quite a bit tougher on Haarberg (shouldn't have taken that big hit, it's the option, throw the ball away). It's as though he knows Sims needs confidence and Haarberg needs to be brought down to earth.
Similarly, in the presser today, he was asked, you're 5-3 despite a -9 turnover margin, to what do you attribute that success? The obvious and true answer is that the defense has been playing out of their minds. Instead he attributed it to the offense's ability to run the ball, after saying earlier that the defense didn't play all that well on Saturday. I.e. offense needs confidence, defense needs to stay hungry.
He really is playing 4D chess.
A few examples.
When Sims was struggling early in the season, Rhule was quite complimentary of his play. Even today, he said Sims was put into a "tough situation" on Saturday (NU was up like 24 points in the 4th and all Sims was tasked to do was hand the flippin' ball off). Meanwhile he seems to be quite a bit tougher on Haarberg (shouldn't have taken that big hit, it's the option, throw the ball away). It's as though he knows Sims needs confidence and Haarberg needs to be brought down to earth.
Similarly, in the presser today, he was asked, you're 5-3 despite a -9 turnover margin, to what do you attribute that success? The obvious and true answer is that the defense has been playing out of their minds. Instead he attributed it to the offense's ability to run the ball, after saying earlier that the defense didn't play all that well on Saturday. I.e. offense needs confidence, defense needs to stay hungry.
He really is playing 4D chess.