I agree with everything you say except Frost being a homerun hire. More than a few people said he wasn't ready, even Moos said he didn't want to hire him. I think too many fans drank the Kool-Aid because he was a home boy.
Huskers Rhule
- Thread starter ATX_Husker
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What makes a 'terrible' game day coach?
Two things usually stand out to me. The first is his "Go for it or kick a FG" decisions. Rhule has had a tendency to go for it on fourth down---aaaand the offense would get stuffed---and we'd lose momentum. In retrospect, that seems a little weird for a former NFL coach (they are traditionally wired to play it safe.)
The other area would be "halftime adjustments." I hear that one a lot. But, ironically, Rhule's staff 'kicked serious butt" in that area (+24 in the third quarter) in Year 1 and were 111 vs 85 in Years 2 and 3 combined. What started the rumbling was a 41-point third quarter deficit in 2025. DAMN--RHULE GOT REALLY STUPID LAST YEAR!!!!
But when you look at last season's third quarter deficit more closely, you see that the issue was one-sided--Our 3rd Q production improved on offense from 51 points in 23, to 53 in 24, and up to 70 points in 2025. The problem was defense. We went from 27 points in 23, up to 58 in 24, and then up to....111 points in 2025!!!!
Guess what? Rhule fired Butler's butt at the end of last season and replaced him with Aurich.
Let's see if Matt Rhule gets smarter this year.
Actually, I think Riley was the best game coach we had. His teams scored on the first possession in nearly every game. He made the opponents adjust to his game. I also feel a lot of the second half meltdowns was due to lack of depth. Simply put, other teams simply wore us down. It was like watching the old NU games in reverse. I went from "we always win the 4th quarter" to "we better have a big lead".
I think Pelini was the worst game coach we had. A team would run the same play on him 5 times in a row and he would not make an adjustment to stop it. When that Wisconsin back piled up over 400 yards, I wanted to throw my TV through the window.
Great players will make a coach seem like a genius. With great players all of a sudden everything works. Just call anything and they manage to make a positive play.
In retrospect, I agree with you. I was big on the Frost bandwagon and he, quite simply, just wasn't ready for Prime Time. Period, end of discussion.
At the time Frost was hired, he was considered by the national media as a 'homerun hire.'
Was he? No way in hell.
But at the time, Frost's resume' looked remarkably similar to an early Urban Meyer in its upward trajectory.
- Both produced undefeated second seasons at their final stops before Meyer went to Florida and Frost went to Nebraska.
- Both transformed successful Group of Five programs into nationally prominent teams.
- Both employed innovative spread offenses.
- Both moved directly from an undefeated season into a prestigious major conference job.
But for all of Moos' after-the-fact "he wasn't ready" comments, I recall our former AD proclaiming he got "the pick of the litter" at Frost's introduction presser.
I wasn't initially a big Trev Alberts fan, but he ticked off all the right boxes when he hired Matt Rhule. We'll see if his due diligence pays off.
One other thing: Homerun hires are proudly proclaimed at the time of the hiring.
The CFB landscape is littered with supposed homerun hires who turned out to be busts. I can think of a few: Jimbo Fisher @ A&M; Rich Rodriguez @ Michigan, Tom Herman @ Texas; Willie Taggart @ Florida State; and Les Miles @ KU to name a few.
And while the 'jury is still out' on a final verdict, it sure looks like North Carolina's 'blockbuster' move to hire Bill Belichick is blowing up in their faces.
The CFB landscape is littered with supposed homerun hires who turned out to be busts. I can think of a few: Jimbo Fisher @ A&M; Rich Rodriguez @ Michigan, Tom Herman @ Texas; Willie Taggart @ Florida State; and Les Miles @ KU to name a few.
And while the 'jury is still out' on a final verdict, it sure looks like North Carolina's 'blockbuster' move to hire Bill Belichick is blowing up in their faces.
Let's see if Matt Rhule gets smarter this year.
I said in a previous post that how "smart" or "dumb" a head coach looks is often a reflection of his top two assistant coaches, the OC and DC. Their gameplans, calls, and/or adjustments can make a head coach look like a genius or an idiot. It's like the adage goes, if the call works you're a genius and if it doesn't, you're an idiot..
I, being the masterful, genius play-caller that I am on EA College Football, literally always make the best call and am never wrong. So why Matt Rhule can't do the same just proves that Jupiter is the smallest planet in Oort Cloud.
My take on HC hiring is that it should be based on personality, work ethic and cultural fit more than win/loss record. Personality is necessary to recruit and shmooze fans and backers. That personality also needs to be humble enough to admit failure and make changes. Work ethic, you need to be willing to put in 16 hour days, seven days a week. Both recruiting and game planning are very time consuming, that is the life you have chosen. You also need to culturally fit where you coach. This has been where NU has missed the boat more than it has hit. Calahan with his "I run a pro program and screw tradition", Pelini with I hate everyone and everything, Riley with his laid-back West Coast attitude, and Frost with life is for boozing and partying with my buds.
Football success is built on recruiting, development and coaching. It takes all three of the qualities I have mentioned to build that success. I may be drinking the Kool-Aid, but I think Rhule has those qualities.
By the way, I like your take on Belichick. To me he is just an old man more focused on chasing a young girl than coaching. At that age you definitely don't have enough energy to do both.
As usual, I agree with you.
Modern day bigtime college head coaches are literally CEOs. Like a film director who is responsible for communicating his/her vision to an army of people (actors, writers, producers, special effects folks, cinematographers, stunt people, set designers, etc., etc., etc.,) the best head coaches put their imprint on every single aspect of their school's football operation.
The bigtime level is not for all coaches. Who here thinks Scott Frost had the wherewithal (and the interest) to do all of that?
This is pure conjecture on my part, but I have a gut feeling that Frost realized early on in his return to Nebraska -- probably in the midst of his first fall campaign -- that he was in way over his head. I suspect the drinking, golfing, partying, etc. was his way of escaping the reality of it all because he was a "ball coach" who became overwhelmed by the immensity of it all. An AD (especially an older one like Bill Moos) can only do so much.
Like Cigarman, I readily admit I'm drinking the Kool-Aid and could end up being wrong, but I've been literally amazed by how Matt Rhule has transformed our program in recruiting, development and coaching. The progress has been uneven in these three areas since he arrived but now all of them are clearly moving forward in an exciting way for me as a fan.
The proof isn't what we say here, it's what happens on the field. I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks this fall.
I can see how much Matt Rhule has raised our recruiting profile. The 2027 class will be our first class in the Top 15 nationally for the 1st time since Bill Callahan and before it is all said and done, it could be a Top 10 class. That's the good news.
The bad news is for Nebraska to become truly elite like we were back in the day, (and like Ohio State is presently) we need to start stacking consecutive elite recruiting class on top of each other and that takes time.
I will say this: I see the changes Matt Rhule is making. I see how when things aren't working he's willing to make the changes necessary to try something else so I give him huge props. I'm just not sure these changes are going to work. In addition, for Nebraska to get the attention of national pundits and get into the "could be a serious contender" talk, we have to start beating teams like Oregon and Ohio State. Losing a close game to them or worse getting rolled 56-7 isn't the way. But you, I, and many other have said, Nebraska needs to prove it on the field.
It starts with being elite in recruiting, then in development, then on game day. We only seem to be close on the first.
I suppose we need to add being elite in roster management too. That is now a thing.
I suppose we need to add being elite in roster management too. That is now a thing.
Cignetti has rewritten the coaching templet, but I don’t think it’s doing him a disservice to ask what was his secret. First, he’s a good coach, but I think there a several coaches of equal caliber that don’t have a national title in their resume.
I’m going to take some guesses as to why he APPEARS to have burst on the scene. First he had some good mentors. Individuals who had done a lot of leg work and showed what to do and what who to pay attention to. He learned, watched, and didn’t spend time along the way suffering fools. He took these lessons ,started on a small stage,.and fine tuned his staff and team. No one was beating down his door to pilfer his staff or players. He kept ‘em and developed ‘em. And when he moved to Indiana he brought a well seasoned staff and team with him. He’s not a young man and neither was his team the last two years. Providing they are properly developed, and no one is saying Curt doesn’t recognize quality and make it better, a mature team and staff is a very real asset. Keeping a seasoned team is going to become harder…….even for Cignetti. I will be very interested to see how he fares going forward. If he has this kind of success going forward, I think it will dwarf his first two years on the big stage. If not it might just show how he stacked his initial situation for a brief but spectacular period of time
You left out that stupid clown hat...and that stupid second half against MinnesotaWhat makes a 'terrible' game day coach?
Two things usually stand out to me. The first is his "Go for it or kick a FG" decisions. Rhule has had a tendency to go for it on fourth down---aaaand the offense would get stuffed---and we'd lose momentum. In retrospect, that seems a little weird for a former NFL coach (they are traditionally wired to play it safe.)
The other area would be "halftime adjustments." I hear that one a lot. But, ironically, Rhule's staff 'kicked serious butt" in that area (+24 in the third quarter) in Year 1 and were 111 vs 85 in Years 2 and 3 combined. What started the rumbling was a 41-point third quarter deficit in 2025. DAMN--RHULE GOT REALLY STUPID LAST YEAR!!!!
But when you look at last season's third quarter deficit more closely, you see that the issue was one-sided--Our 3rd Q production improved on offense from 51 points in 23, to 53 in 24, and up to 70 points in 2025. The problem was defense. We went from 27 points in 23, up to 58 in 24, and then up to....111 points in 2025!!!!
Guess what? Rhule fired Butler's butt at the end of last season and replaced him with Aurich.
Let's see if Matt Rhule gets smarter this year.
This is no way second guessing Frost or Moose.....When that pressor was over I KNEW Frost did not have a clue or a plan.At the time Frost was hired, he was considered by the national media as a 'homerun hire.'
Was he? No way in hell.
But at the time, Frost's resume' looked remarkably similar to an early Urban Meyer in its upward trajectory.
Meyer's record was clearly stronger but Frost got serious hype across CFB due to his spectacular two-year turnaround at UCF. But Cigarman is right; At the time he was hired, Frost wasn't anywhere close to the same category when Ohio State hired Urban after his stint at Florida or Alabama when they hired Sabin away from the NFL's Dolphins. Those were truly "homerun hires."
- Both produced undefeated second seasons at their final stops before Meyer went to Florida and Frost went to Nebraska.
- Both transformed successful Group of Five programs into nationally prominent teams.
- Both employed innovative spread offenses.
- Both moved directly from an undefeated season into a prestigious major conference job.
But for all of Moos' after-the-fact "he wasn't ready" comments, I recall our former AD proclaiming he got "the pick of the litter" at Frost's introduction presser.
I wasn't initially a big Trev Alberts fan, but he ticked off all the right boxes when he hired Matt Rhule. We'll see if his due diligence pays off.
Now back to Rhule....I will say that the changes for the OC/DC may save his bacon and not having Dylan on board the Titanic is a huge help as well.
The new fast-start gameplan if you're an AD is to hire a good coach who will bring a bushel-load of talented players to your program with him.
It worked great for Cignetti. We'll see how it works for Campbell this year with all his top tier Penn State recruits and all the transfers who came with him from Iowa State.
That kind of sucks for Iowa State this year but that's how the game is played now.
Veteran members of the Husker media (Sean Callahan and Steve Sipple) commented this past week about the "personality change" of Coach Rhule this year. I wholeheartedly agree.
I used to look forward to experiencing a weekly 'Husker Rush' from watching a Matt Rhule presser. Now? His answers are short and he doesn't elaborate on much of anything. What used to be long pressers where his handlers always had to shout out "only one more question," have become 15-minute quickies that remind me of the "let me get this over with" attitude that Frost and Pelini displayed with their pressers.
So what happened?
Here's my read: When Rhule's contract was renegotiated last year, the University spent $5 million for Matt's intellectual-property rights. It gave Rhule additional compensation while simultaneously gaining control over his House Rhules podcast and associated intellectual property through his private business. After that deal, Nebraska possessed the ability to decide whether the program would continue. In that sense, the purchase gave Nebraska an expensive but relatively graceful way to turn it off.
This past Spring, the University announced they were 'pausing' it--which makes the original claim they acquired the rights "as a revenue-producing investment" look idiotic. A $5 million asset that is deliberately placed “on break” before another season begins is plainly not being treated primarily as a commercial investment.
While Matt got handsomely compensated for his media work, when your public persona is so much of who you are as a coach, I find this 'personality change' telling. While the main reason may be as simple and as straightforward as not wanting to oversell his team prior to the season, his general demeanor also feels different.
A part of me wonders if this is also his response to feeling "muzzled" by the University.
I used to look forward to experiencing a weekly 'Husker Rush' from watching a Matt Rhule presser. Now? His answers are short and he doesn't elaborate on much of anything. What used to be long pressers where his handlers always had to shout out "only one more question," have become 15-minute quickies that remind me of the "let me get this over with" attitude that Frost and Pelini displayed with their pressers.
So what happened?
Here's my read: When Rhule's contract was renegotiated last year, the University spent $5 million for Matt's intellectual-property rights. It gave Rhule additional compensation while simultaneously gaining control over his House Rhules podcast and associated intellectual property through his private business. After that deal, Nebraska possessed the ability to decide whether the program would continue. In that sense, the purchase gave Nebraska an expensive but relatively graceful way to turn it off.
This past Spring, the University announced they were 'pausing' it--which makes the original claim they acquired the rights "as a revenue-producing investment" look idiotic. A $5 million asset that is deliberately placed “on break” before another season begins is plainly not being treated primarily as a commercial investment.
While Matt got handsomely compensated for his media work, when your public persona is so much of who you are as a coach, I find this 'personality change' telling. While the main reason may be as simple and as straightforward as not wanting to oversell his team prior to the season, his general demeanor also feels different.
A part of me wonders if this is also his response to feeling "muzzled" by the University.
He was under zero obligation to sell his media rights. The fact he did tells me he didn't think it was that big of a deal. As for not over-selling the team this year, he already did it when he said, "This is my best roster yet..."
The subtext of what he's saying is this is his best team and the Huskers are going to surprise a lot of people. At least that's what I am reading into it. As I have said before, I like Matt Rhule, I want him to succeed, (winning multiple conference titles and even a couple six national titles) and bring long term stability to this program.
The path to that destination starts in ~6.5 days.
one can only speculate at this time Fumble, but who knows? What you brought up in the previous post could be part of it. I think he's feeling the heat from the people in charge. Of course, they are reacting to fans and the press. The way last season ended was ugly lets face it. It is going to take a serious turn around performance to get everyone back on bord 100 percent. I think he's confident and just going to let it all be said on the field.
