POLL Will Rhule be fired at the end of the 2026 season?

[ShortSideOption]

I just want to finally see what Rhule himself wants, and just go from there. Because I think he arrived with one idea/identity in mind, and through various reasons and decisions he ended up somewhere else.

This was my exact line of thinking with Bo. Can we give the dude what he's asking for (which wasn't much) and see if we can go from 9/10 wins to 10/11 wins? Guy just wanted 1-2 recruiting staffers and was told no, Riley gets here and has 3 of them.

I'll wait to see what he does. I think he's a good ambassador of the program.

 

[Chi7397]

I just want to finally see what Rhule himself wants, and just go from there. Because I think he arrived with one idea/identity in mind, and through various reasons and decisions he ended up somewhere else.

• They brought in Sims who they projected to be a certain type of freewheeling big-play-potential QB who could throw bombs and make things happen with his legs, inbetween bruising rushing attacks from RBs -> He was a bizarre disaster, beyond just a "bad evaluation" he had the yips unlike anything I've ever seen. But we saw the original "vision" for the type of QB/offense he wanted.
  
  
• He then signed 5* legacy recruit Raiola, who he absolutely could not NOT take, but who was the opposite style of QB. Totally risk averse, completed tons of passes but they seemed to always be about 3 yard throws and couldn't run to save his life. Beyond that, he and his family were given tons of latitude within the program, and the offensive identity was seemingly retrofitted to what he could and couldn't do as a QB, rather than having a QB who fit what Rhule wanted to run.
  
  
• I think that contributed to how he started his tenure stressing the importance of OL and DL to having them both as glaring weaknesses in year 3. He kept Donnie Raiola at OL coach when he shouldn't have, he directed more resources to WRs who could catch Dylan's passes and prop up his stats than to OL who could protect him, etc.
  
  
• He knocked it out of the park with Tony White and an aggressive gang-tackling hard nosed defense -> Rhule micromanaged in year 2 then when White left he hired an unproven DB coach and insisted on him running Tony White's system, which looked much worse and went very poorly. But again, we saw the original "vision" of the type of defense he wanted.
  
  
• Culturally Rhule went from "we're going to be a tough physical team, no nonsense, get social media out of here, IF WE DIE WE DIE" to insisting to everyone how important podcasts and McAfee appearances were to recruits, wearing gold chains, posing in goofy flashy social media photos, etc. I don't doubt that a lot of that stuff brought us some attention with recruits and their families, but the change in priorities made it all seem embarrassing once we tanked the end of the season.

Anyway, I don't know exactly where I'm going with this other than to say, I am hypothetically still onboard with what he said was his original vision coming in, and I think he's attempting to course-correct back to that after letting things spin out a bit. Colandrea, Geep, Aurich, etc seem to be way more in line with the OG Rhule ideas for NU, and I still hope it works.

This is overall a good post but I don’t agree with your last bullet point and don’t understand why people are up in arms about his social media/media stuff, which younger people do like - that stuff has been consistent from the start and isn’t a shift from “if we die we die” since they’re not really related.

 

[huskerj12]

This is overall a good post but I don’t agree with your last bullet point and don’t understand why people are up in arms about his social media/media stuff, which younger people do like - that stuff has been consistent from the start and isn’t a shift from “if we die we die” since they’re not really related.

I don't have a big issue with it either, I think he's a great ambassador when he's out there. This season specifically was a little different with the new podcast and the weekly appearances on McAfee, and I think as we wilted down the stretch it became really easy for people to roll their eyes and be like "why was this dude messing around with distractions instead of being 100% focused on the actual team on the field??"

The amount of times I've seen him described as a snake oil/used car salesman lately tells me this didn't exactly land how he hoped, or put out the type of culture/philosophy he wants for NU.

 

[HughJanus]

11-1 is the floor iyam

I Yam

 

[V-Doub]

Every year a certain position group looks good on paper and is internet hyped just to underperform.

And every year that position group is none other than the offensive line.

 

[V-Doub]

It’s wild to think Frost had more support after going 12–20 over three years than the current guy does right now. You really can’t lose money betting on the collective “intelligence” of this fanbase. Some days it honestly feels like we get exactly what we deserve.

True, but that support was completely delusional and unsubstantiated in any meaningful measurable way. Rhule is simply getting the heat Frost should’ve gotten after 3 years. Pretty much any P4 program with expectations would’ve fired Frost after year 3. 100% would’ve after year 4.

In the end Rhule and Frost are getting the EXACT same amount of runway to get the job done. The only difference is a lot more people believed Frost could turn it around. Fan sentiment is a little different, but both will likely get 5 years to something, anything of significance.

 

[V-Doub]

If Frost was 6-6 in year 4 he'd probably still be here.

I hate that this is probably a very real possibility.