What Nebraska coach Matt Rhule said heading into Ohio game

Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule met with the media on Monday in preparation for the team's season opener against Ohio. This is the first meeting between these two schools.

The Huskers have a history of success in season openers, winning their first game approximately 75% of the time. They have an official record of 99-32-5, including an 86-14-3 record at Memorial Stadium.

Nebraska is coming off a 7-6 season in 2025. It was the second season in a row that the Huskers finished with a 7-6 record. It's also the first time that the program has posted consecutive winning seasons since the 2013 and 2014 seasons.

Ohio is coming off a 2025 season that saw the Bobcats finish with a 9-4 record and a victory over UNLV in the Frisco Bowl. The 2026 MAC coaches preseason poll picked Ohio to finish fourth with zero votes to win the MAC Championship.

Rhule is entering his fourth season as the head coach of the Cornhuskers and is 19-19. Those 19 wins in three seasons match Nebraska's win total from the five seasons prior to Rhule's arrival.

The head coach opened his press availability by talking about the connection between these two programs… Frank Solich.

"I don’t think you can talk about a Nebraska vs Ohio football game without talking about Coach (Frank) Solich. I think it was my first spring here when Trev (Alberts) and I talked to Coach and got him back into Memorial Stadium, into the fold. Julie and I had the chance to go upstairs during the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame when Coach (Barry) Alvarez was there, Coach (Tom) Osborne, so many former players, Lance Leipold was there and we had a wonderful night with his family. Coach (Solich) has been unbelievable to me. He comes out to practice. His daughter still lives out here in Lincoln and he was in Boise, Idaho, and he’s back out this way. He is just a wonderful man and a tremendous example to all of us young coaches of always attacking what’s next and being a great player, being a great position coach and being a great head coach taking Nebraska to a National Championship game." 

On Ohio's new look offense

“The roster turnover is significant in all of college football. You're looking at five new receivers coming in, and five new offensive linemen coming in. Some of the players that we think will start for them have played there, but you can't turn on last year's opponent and see seven or eight returning starters. Scott Isphording is their offensive coordinator; I think he is really one of the best to do it, has a great system and they've scored a ton of points. The quarterback, Parker Nevaro, from last year's team, I thought was one of the best quarterbacks in all of college football; he really can play at any level. (Nick) Pulos this year, they announced him as a starter; we watched him at El Camino; we watched (Matt) Vezza at New Hampshire." 

On Ohio's defensive identity

"You try to take a DNA of the team, obviously, Coach (Kurt) Mattix is back as a defensive coordinator, and Coach Hauser has been the defensive coordinator, so what exactly do they do? Coach Mattix was a 3-3-5 guy at San Diego State. They've been basically at Ohio, been a 4-2-5 hybrid defense. They play great defense. In the first games, you have to focus more on yourself than the opponent and make sure that you're doing the things. If you all watch college football this weekend, the first games are usually either won or lost in four areas. Usually in special teams blunders, usually in penalties, turnovers, and you see a lot of bad tackling out there. In the UNC vs. TCU game, we finished our mock game, and my wife had a family event for the coaches' families, a family barbeque; they had a staff/family dodgeball game, while we were waiting for that to start, we were able to watch the end of the UNC vs. TCU game. You want to make sure you have a plan for them if they're in 4-2-5, 3-3-5 or if it's man pressure like Rutgers, where there was a high percentage of pressure."

On having a proper gameplan

"You want to have a plan for them offensively if they are running the quarterback a ton, they have a great RPO game, or if they're in 12 personnel. At the end of the day you also have to manage the things you can control, like tackling and your ball security. Our guys these last two years have done a great job of that these last two years into game one. Our preparation will start tonight for the game week. We started Ohio on Thursday. Our preparation will start tonight and it will really be focused on us with a tremendous respect for them.”

On the Huskers plan for captains

"We aren't doing captains. That might change, but we are going to go with game captains and give guys multiple chances to lead and let the tenure of the season let us see who is there. There are guys who have been there and done an amazing job; the guys we brought in are so mature and so seasoned. They have really bought into the culture and I want to see what they do when things get really hard. There are other guys who have had great moments and great leadership but what you did last year is not good enough, you have to do it better this year. I think you do a disservice to players when you don't tell them the truth." 

On handling the Memorial Stadium crowd noise

"Coach (Rob) Aurich and some of those guys, this will be their first time in Memorial Stadium. When we’re at our best in that stadium, you can’t even hear the play call in the headset. I’m a guy that doesn’t really like music at practice and things like that, except for certain times; I’ve just been blasting crowd noise or music because we’re not playing in front of 15,000 people that can yell the check out. You better have all your guys know that. You better have a great deal of communication. There’s a great deal of trust. There’s a physicality and an effort at which you have to play. Especially in first games, you better run the right angles. You see in the first games, everyone overrunning tackles, because they’re running to where they think they’re going to be and then all the tackling in college football kind of settles down."

On the plan for the running backs

“This is a fantastic football program that we are going against; we have three backs that we feel like are all in that upper realm of playing, so we will play all of them. A lot of it has to do with this week, which can be a little uncomfortable. Sometimes young players are like, ‘If you could just get me into a rhythm,’ well, Emmett (Johnson) went out and played the other night in the preseason game; it's not about getting into a rhythm. First play better be a flashy play; whether flashy is getting a two-yard run or an eight-yard run, there is no easing into it. We are going to put those guys out there, but part of it is this week in practice too. I won't say for them, like ‘Hey, here's our plan,’ because I want to hold that to us. Our plan is not yet established; we have a great feel for it."

Nebraska opens the 2026 season on Saturday, Sept. 5, when the Ohio Bobcats visit Memorial Stadium. Kickoff time is set for 11 a.m. CT and can be seen on FS1.

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This article originally appeared on Cornhuskers Wire: What Nebraska coach Matt Rhule said heading into Ohio game