Matt Rhule: Nebraska football will not be for the faint of heart

Look for the Nebraska football program to get even tougher under new head coach Matt Rhule.

It is not going to be an overnight fix, but Matt Rhule has a plan in place to return the once-proud Nebraska football program to its former glory.

His plan was well-defined in Pete Thamel’s latest feature for ESPN. It is all about being tougher physically, and absolutely mentally, when compared to the opposition. While the lunchpail ethos was kicked to the curb in Charlotte by professionals, Rhule did get the buy-in needed previously at Baylor and Temple before that. The same blueprint is going to be applied to his Cornhusker teams.

I am not saying they are going to run the Wishbone in games, make use of the Oklahoma drill in practice or deny its players water in the dog days of summer, but Nebraska football is not going to be for the faint of heart under Rhule. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, unless it kills you…

"“I want to tackle at practice, I want to run the ball and I want to play defense. I want to use a fullback. All these things that I did (at past jobs) is what the people here in the state want.”"

While I like the brand of toughness Rhule is bringing into the Nebraska football program, toughness is not going to beat Michigan, Ohio State or even Rhule’s alma mater of Penn State in Indianapolis. They are going to need players to want to come to Lincoln that would otherwise be all about going to Ann Arbor, Columbus or State College. For now, it is all about forming an identity.

No matter how this shakes out for Rhule in Lincoln, it is going to be nothing short of fascinating.

Nebraska football under Matt Rhule strives to be tougher than a $2 steak

I don’t know if this philosophy would work at most places, but I think it could work out well at a place like Nebraska. The blue-collar ethos and the workman-like nature of the sons of farmers helped make this one of the best programs in college football history. However, becoming more passing-centric offensively, switching leagues and hiring one bad coach after another ruined them.

The good news is no college job is too tough for Rhule to handle. Winning at Temple is hard. Winning at Baylor in the wake of the Art Briles era scandal was next to impossible. Not that he would have to move mountains in Lincoln, as there aren’t any there, but I don’t know how you make this thing any better than a 10-2 program. Go be Josh Heupel Tennessee, or a better Iowa…

The way that Rhule is going to have to do this is all about recruitment and development. We know he can develop. Just look at the success he had with seemingly marginal talent at Temple and Baylor. As far as recruiting is concerned, yes, Nebraska certainly has more cachet that Group of Five Temple or Baylor does in its Christian private school ways. He will have to use the UNL NIL…

And I think that’s where the difference can be made up, as well as being the one thing Rhule cannot possibly overcome. Nebraska probably benefits from the use of NIL more than most programs in their position. They don’t have the natural in-state recruiting base to sustain excellence, so they have to play ball on other programs’ fertile recruiting territory. It’s nothing new.

This will help Rhule get more blue-chip talent to Lincoln than he could ever hope to garner in Philadelphia, Waco, and honestly, probably Charlotte… However, once you start paying proven players, or even top-flight recruits, you will lose a bit of that $2 steak toughness. In a way, it’s kind of counterintuitive to what Rhule is ultimately trying to do here. The question is if he is full of it.

For now, this ethos should work, so long as the results come … eventually. Rhule’s proven track record shows good return on investment in year two or three running a once downtrodden program. Then again, he didn’t have NIL working for him, or even against him, back in the day. Rhule can say one thing and do another. Will people listen if he talks out the side of his mouth?

There are reasons to be optimistic about the Rhule era of Nebraska football, but let’s wait and see.