Husker football needs to step things up.
Nebraska Athletics just finished off an academic year with five conference championships. There are 14 current and former Nebraska athletes headed to Paris for the Olympic Games. The department posted the highest Directors’ Cup since joining the Big Ten Conference.
But football? Nebraska hasn’t been to a bowl game since 2016.
“So now it’s our time to do our part,” Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule said at Big Ten Football Media Days. “We think we have a really good team, and we think we have a team that people are going to have to deal with this year. I’ve liked the way that they’ve worked.”
Rhule wants his program, which in the past fed the rest of Nebraska Athletics, taking advantage of the momentum and feeding off what other Huskers have going on.
“It’s been a really exciting time for us,” Rhule said. “It’s great to be a Husker. Troy Dannen coming in and taking over (as athletic director) has brought a positive energy to the athletic department.”
One of the keys for Rhule to having success in 2024, and beyond, is getting guys to stick around. That goes for both players and coaches.
“If anything else, in a day and age of college football where everyone is always talking about who’s transferring out, talking about recruiting, these guys and a couple others made the decision to come back and not go to the NFL, but play another year,” Rhule said of his three players joining him in Indianapolis: Isaac Gifford, Ty Robinson, and Ben Scott. “So I’m so grateful to them.
“I think what we’ll see in this new era of college football is the teams that can stay together and have veteran staffs, veteran teams are going to be really good, and I think they’ve given us a chance to have a really good team this year.”
Rhule’s staff has just two positions that are different going into 2024 as opposed to 2023: John Butler is running the secondary in place of Evan Cooper while Glenn Thomas is now co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, taking the place on the staff of Josh Martin who handled tight ends last year and is back to an analyst role in 2024.
It is the addition of Butler that has Rhule excited for the current players, but also those thinking about joining the Big Red.
“Just think about in recruiting, for those guys who want to go to the NFL and they’re talking to us,” Rhule said. “I’ve been in those draft rooms, but John’s coached Micah Hyde, he’s coached Jordan Poyer. He’s coached top five secondaries.”
As for this upcoming season, Rhule believes this team is ready to do their part.
“I think you can tell when a team is ready to make the turn in their body language, in the way that they walk around the building. It’s just confidence,” Rhule said. “For young people nowadays, there’s nothing more than confidence. There’s such a fear of failure because everything’s evaluated.
“I think, when I walk through our locker rooms and I walk through our weight rooms and I walk out in the field, I see a confident team. I see a team that understands that games are going to come down to the final seconds. And the narrative about close losses, we’re going to turn that into close wins.”
Read the transcript of Rhule’s entire Big Ten Football Media Days appearance here.