Matt Rhule Takes the B1G Media Days Podium: “We Didn’t Come to Nebraska To Go 7-6.”
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After a relatively quiet spring and summer, Matt Rhule kicked off the final day of Big Ten Football Media Days by taking the main stage at 11:30am CST and, as expected, said all the right things. But unlike many other coaches, he spends most of his 15 minutes off script. Let me explain.
The way it works is over the three days, the six head coaches of that day’s teams spend the lunch hour taking their turn at the main podium for 15 minutes each. This is the part televised live on the Big 10 Network. Then after a break, the coaches and three players brought by each team take turns breaking off into 10 or 12 smaller podiums for 30-45 minutes each of additional interviews.
The way the big podium works is the head coaches have a firm 15 minutes with the next coach going right up to start his clock when the first is done – TV schedules and all. In theory, they are supposed to do an intro and then field some questions from the main floor. What many choose is to filibuster their way through most of their time, thus leaving only enough time for one, maybe two, questions.
P.J. Fleck is a prime example with last year taking the cake. In addition to killing off all except a minute or two of his time, last year in Vegas he got a couple minutes in and just started, well, yelling. Diplomatically, I guess I could call it “strongly emphasizing” every point, but whatever the description, it was loud. It felt we, the press, were in trouble or something, and I had to work not to smile. But eat most of his time, he did.
Rhule, on the other hand, talks for about three minutes and then opens it up for questions. This year, it took several beats for someone to fire off the first one, maybe stunned that someone was done so quickly.
Coach didn’t disappoint, but still managed to sound more subdued than in seasons past, while still exuding confidence. A 7-6 season which ends with three trouncings may be somewhat responsible, but this was definitely a more businesslike persona – and one who understands exactly what is expected of him and that he has not delivered it yet. But he is well aware of what they have to do to take the next step.
Here were my biggest takeaways from his session:
“We didn’t come to Nebraska to go seven and six.”
He said this right out the gate after talking about chipping away at many of the major black marks of the last 11 years or so. Preceding the above quote was, “I stood up here a few years ago and said, before we can talk about doing great things, we’ve got to earn back the respect. And these guys, they kind of erased the narratives. You know, Nebraska can’t win a close game. They’ve erased that (Note: 5-2 in one-score games in ’25 & I counted Michigan State). Nebraska, there’s a bowl drought. They’ve erased that. They went to back-to-back bowl games last year – but we know that’s not enough.”
When the questions came, he continued on that tack.
“We have to be better in November. You know, we’ve gotten off to good starts, but champions are made in those winning moments – in the cold, on the road, late in the season. Those are championship moments, and, for us, we have to excel in those.”
“We understand the expectation. That’s why we came to Nebraska.”
Matt Rhule may not have quoted the record but he is well aware of being a combined 2-10 in November in his first three seasons in Lincoln, with the 28-21 victory over UCLA being the other victory after the aforementioned Wisconsin win to secure bowl eligibility in ’24. Fans were thrilled but, really, the 28 points scored on the Bruins before the offense checked out for the night with just under 12 minutes left in the 3rd quarter should have been a red flag as to what lay ahead.
In a 5-game losing streak to finish their year the Bruins gave up 56-28-48-48-29. It was brutal stretch for them with Indiana, Huskers, Ohio State, Washington and USC, but still. The Raiola-less offense managed only 10-16-22 in next and final three games with 15 of those 48 points coming in garbage time.
Yes, they were missing Raiola and, yes, John Butler called out the need for talent and size help on the D-line prior to Penn State before the Blackshirts got throttled for 37-40-44 points down the stretch, but the November record isn’t just 2025. The 2026 run of Illinois, Rutgers, Ohio State and Iowa needs to be no worse than 2-2 or the mood will continue to darken.
And speaking of quarterbacks:
“You can’t tell people what it is, but you can feel it. And I said, we’ll know within the first five minutes of meeting these guys who our quarterback is. And I remember Anthony got out of the car, watching him shake everybody’s hands and the way he carried himself and the way he did things, and I was like, “That’s our guy, and he’s a great yin to my yang.“
One thing which became clear was that T.J. Lateef probably wouldn’t be the answer in 2026 and to the portal Rhule quickly went. He zeroed in on Notre Dame’s Kenny Minchey who orally committed then quickly flipped to Kentucky. Anthony Colandrea was then targeted and he quickly agreed to be a Cornhusker.
Only time will tell, but currently, it’s a question of which you prefer – the superior athleticism, arm and measurables, but inexperience which come with Minchey? Or the smaller Colandrea, whose has plenty of athleticism as well as 31 career starts?
Folks who remember Jeff Sims may fear a similar result from Anthony, who earlier battled turnovers. But all we can do is wait for Big 10 play to see if the former Virginia and UNLV QB can deal with the heat.
“We understand that we have to take a step this year. We’re excited to do that. But I hope you can hear in my voice, I believe we will because of the young men in our program and what they’ve done.”
One thing you can count on from Matt Rhule is unconditional love and belief in his players and you COULD hear it in his voice when he talked about Justin Evans, Luke Lindenmeyer and Andrew Marshall, the three seniors who accompanied him to Chicago. He spoke about how difficult it was to choose which players would come. He emphasized the coast-to-coast build of the roster (the three are from New Jersey, Nebraska and California, respectively). He emphasized how Evans and Lindenmeyer were there before he arrived and stuck with it, and how Marshall chose the Huskers for his final seasons.
Some coaches start losing belief when things go south – think Scott Frost’s body language right out of the gate in 2022 in Dublin and only getting worse until the plug was pulled. Who knows where we land in 2026, but Matt Rhule still speaks of loving to go battle with his boys. It seems like a small thing, but, believe me, it matters.
“College football is as great as it’s ever been.”
Just throwing this out there, but Coach brought up the narrative that “college football is broken” and said this in response. And I just happen to agree with it. A book could be written on why this is, but as Coach Rhule said, just a few years into an open portal, NIL and revenue-sharing, the sport is as competitive as its ever been without, say, an Alabama – winning the bagman battles and hording talent strangled from leaving – and maybe one to three other teams having a chance at winning it all.
2024-5 and 2025-6?
In the 12-team playoff, of the 24 teams selected in those two years, only four made it both seasons – Georgia, Ohio State, Oregon and Indiana. 16 others only made one appearance each. The 2026 title game? The two teams featured were the Miami Hurricanes whose last NCAA title was won 24 years ago in 2002 (Ugh, and that’s the last we’ll speak about THAT) and the Indiana Freakin’ Hoosiers who had never –
Yeah, you know the story. Just saying, if parity is what you truly crave, then things are on the right track. And it probably is since this year’s was the 2nd highest rated championship game since the BCS Era.
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