Tater Island Coaching Grades: Matt Rhule C+

[David Webb]

I would give him an F. He went 5-7 at a blue blood school with enough talent to have a winning record. He also brought in the QB who was absolute crap that helped earn that 5-7 record. As said, he also lost 4 straight preventing the team from at least being .500. All the feel goods mean nothing if you don’t win.

 

[HerbRedman]

If finishing the season 1-8 after a 3-0 start is a “whimper” I’m not sure what would actually classify as a colossal failure of epic proportions.

I know I'm extremely biased, but sure looks to me like Rhule did a better coaching job than Prime last year. Rhule took huge steps building a foundation for the program both on defense and in the trenches (both sides). Rhule's fuckup on Sims costs him a letter grade....but he grinded out some wins after his QB choice exploded.

Prime OTOH got 4 wins that were about 90% due to his son being the QB. He criticized his own players. On players: he tore down what was there....built it back w transfers....then tore that down again. Ditto for 65% of his coaching staff.

It's hard for me to give him a good letter grade when you realize all their success was 90% due to one player. If they didn't have Shadildo they would have been 0-12. No joke. It's hard for me to rate that as a "B" level coaching grade.

 

[BIGSTICK67]

I cannot debate any of the grades if the writer cannot get a coach's previous schools correct.

You'd have to think it was proof-read...right? Weird.

 

[vailhusker]

 

[doublewing]

Did they submit Deion's grade in September?

C+ is fair for Rhule. I'd have given him a C/C- based on the end of season losing streak.

 

[Poor_and_Stupid]

I know I'm extremely biased, but sure looks to me like Rhule did a better coaching job than Prime last year. Rhule took huge steps building a foundation for the program both on defense and in the trenches (both sides). Rhule's fuckup on Sims costs him a letter grade....but he grinded out some wins after his QB choice exploded.

Prime OTOH got 4 wins that were about 90% due to his son being the QB. He criticized his own players. On players: he tore down what was there....built it back w transfers....then tore that down again. Ditto for 65% of his coaching staff.

It's hard for me to give him a good letter grade when you realize all their success was 90% due to one player. If they didn't have Shadildo they would have been 0-12. No joke. It's hard for me to rate that as a "B" level coaching grade.

I also don’t think it gets mentioned enough that any coach coming from the NFL is at a disadvantage in year 1 compared to a coach coming from another college. If you have some studs with eligibility left it’s pretty easy to bring them along.

 

[11husker23]

View attachment 32074

Did someone go duck hunting? Mr quacktastic hasn’t been cunting up every thread for a minute now….

 

[wildcat_husker]

I would give him an F. He went 5-7 at a blue blood school with enough talent to have a winning record. He also brought in the QB who was absolute crap that helped earn that 5-7 record. As said, he also lost 4 straight preventing the team from at least being .500. All the feel goods mean nothing if you don’t win.

Lol

 

[Toe]

This season was a failure, and a huge missed opportunity. The schedule was easier than any year of the Frost era. I mean this was by far the worst year for the Big Ten as a whole since we joined - every team not named Meatchicken, Ohio State, or Penn State was dogshit. They had the perfect conditions to at least get back to a bowl game, and they blew it. Just based on this year's wins and losses, a C+ is too generous.

But with that said, by far the biggest reason for this year's under-performance, and the biggest black mark on Rhule's record as Husker HC, was Jeff Sims. I'm still not quite sure what the hell went so wrong there. If he even just looks as good as he did at Georgia Tech, our results this year would probably have been very different. Was it something the coaches did? I mean he couldn't even field a clean snap reliably, or remember which way a hand-off was supposed to go. I don't think that level of failure can really be explained by coaching. I guess all I can do is speculate that he got the yips and move on.

Other than that, Rhule's moves have been pretty solid. Sims is gone, and I doubt things will look as scary at QB next year. I think as of right now, I'd have to give Rhule an 'incomplete' grade. Needs to finish the job!

 

[Poor_and_Stupid]

This season was a failure, and a huge missed opportunity. This year's schedule was easier than any year of the Frost era. I mean this was by far the worst year for the Big Ten as a whole since we joined - every team not named Meatchicken, Ohio State, or Penn State was dogshit. They had the perfect conditions to at least get back to a bowl game, and they blew it. Frankly, just based on this year's wins and losses, a C+ is too generous.

But with that said, by far the biggest reason for this year's under-performance, and the biggest black mark on Rhule's record as Husker HC, was Jeff Sims. I'm still not quite sure what the hell went so wrong there. If he even just looks as good as he did at Georgia Tech, our results this year would probably have been very different. Was it something the coaches did? I mean he couldn't even field a clean snap reliably, or remember which way a hand-off was supposed to go. I don't think that level of failure can really be explained by coaching. I guess all I can do is speculate that he got the yips and move on.

Other than that, Rhule's moves have been pretty solid. Sims is gone, and I doubt things will look as scary at QB next year. I think as of right now, I'd have to give Rhule an 'incomplete' grade. Needs to finish the job!

Sims could have taken one or two steps down from his last year at GT and we would have been fine. The guy completely imploded. Things like this are why The Simulation™ seems so plausible.

 

[Faux Sean Callahan]

I would give him an F. He went 5-7 at a blue blood school with enough talent to have a winning record. He also brought in the QB who was absolute crap that helped earn that 5-7 record. As said, he also lost 4 straight preventing the team from at least being .500. All the feel goods mean nothing if you don’t win.

Can’t really argue with that based solely on the on field results… at least 3 games had errors that fell on poor coaching.

It comes down to how much grace you want to give them for all the injuries on offense… also i think he did stuff off the field that moved the needle.

If you just look on field results, it is tough to give a passing grade though iyam. Year 1 is about more than on field though.