Matt Rhule pondered his future in the school car-pool pickup line.
The Carolina Panthers fired Rhule five games into the season on Oct. 10, 2022. He questioned the next move. Maybe he would take a year off, reset, then restart his coaching career. Like most of us, Rhule scrolled through his phone while waiting for the line to move, but he was looking at recruiting rankings and profiles.
"I didn't know where I was going to end up," Rhule told The Sporting News on Wednesday. "I didn't know what I was going to do. I would have probably bet that I would not have coached the next year."
That process changed when Nebraska called. The Huskers had suffered six straight losing seasons and were looking for yet another makeover in the Big Ten. Rhule had a proven track record of three-year program building at the FBS level, but this job called for a restoration.
Rhule – a football connoisseur to the core – knew all about that Nebraska tradition. He played linebacker at Penn State from 1994-97 – a four-year stretch when the Huskers enjoyed a 49-2 run that included three unbeaten seasons and two national championships.
"It fit kind of who I am and what my family was looking for," Rhule said. "We did it, and here we are. We are in Year 3, which if you look at my head coaching history – four years, three years, two years – it's not like I'm known for staying somewhere a real long time."
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Rhule is known for Year 3, however. Nebraska (3-0) takes on No. 21 Michigan (2-1) at Memorial Stadium on CBS at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday. Nebraska is coming off a bowl victory, five-star sophomore quarterback Dylan Raiola looks the part and the Huskers have outscored its first three opponents 147-24. The 1995 national championship team will be honored, too – one of those reminders of the expectations Rhule faces on a daily basis.
"I walk by five national championship trophies every day when I come up the elevator and I walk through my hallway," Rhule said. "It's something to me that you celebrate. It's what got you here. I've always felt like if you're going someplace and you're the first to do it, there's something to it. If you're going someplace and they've done it before, then you know you should be able to do it again."
Matt Rhule's Year 3 track record
Rhule uses the phrase "proof of concept" repeatedly, and it worked at his last two college football stops. Rhule took his first head coaching job at Temple. The Owls finished 2-10 in 2013. By 2015, the Owls won 10 games – a feat they repeated in 2016 before Rhule left for Baylor.
In 2017, Baylor finished 1-11. By Year 3, the Bears were 10-3 and played for a Big 12 championship. Nebraska finished 5-7 in Rhule's first season in 2023. The pattern works. Year 1 is about the culture, building a winning mindset and fixing the culture. Year 2 needs to see some "proof of concept." By Year 3 – the buy-in is established, and the players are there to make a run.
Matt Rhule in Year 3
| SEASON | TEMPLE | BAYLOR | NEBRASKA |
| YEAR 1 | 2-10 | 1-11 | 5-7 |
| YEAR 2 | 6-6 | 7-6 | 7-6 |
| YEAR 3 | 10-4 | 10-3 | 3-0 |
| YEAR 4 | 10-3 | - | - |
"I've never taken a job that's winning," Rhule said. "It's not like I took over for a coach who won a national championship or won 10 games, so you're taking over a place that is either firing its coach or the coach left."
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That's not a shot at the previous regimes at Nebraska, but it is a reminder of where the program stands in the Big Ten in the present tense.
On Sept. 9, 1995, Tom Osborne famously told Nick Saban "You're not as bad as you think" after No. 2 Nebraska beat Michigan State 50-10. The Huskers have not beat a ranked Big Ten team since a 39-38 upset against No. 6 Michigan State on Nov. 7, 2015. Now, 10 years later, Nebraska is trying to break a 27-game losing streak against ranked opponents.
Rhule continues to build a winning mindset with the program.
"They were a little beaten down from a bunch of close losses, a bunch of near-misses and hearing about that," Rhule said. "We've had to try to work really hard to get a team that 'A' puts in the work, and 'B' is good enough to win the close games but then 'C' when things happen, they're expecting something good to happen."
Rhule knows it is not as easy as "A-B-C." Nebraska started last season 5-1 before a 56-7 loss to No. 16 Indiana. The following week, the Huskers pushed No. 4 Ohio State – the eventual national champion – to the limit in a 21-17 loss. Then, Nebraska lost 27-20 to UCLA. Rhule brought in offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen – who was fired at Houston in 2023 – and paired him with Raiola. Two weeks later, Nebraska beat Wisconsin 44-25 – the first victory in the series since 2012.
"I think a key moment for us was beating Wisconsin," Rhule said. "I felt like that hadn't happened in 12 years – it was a game that wasn't super close. We played really well. To me, you're always looking for proof of concept, like, 'Hey, I'm telling you guys this works.'"
The Huskers finished 7-6 after beating Boston College 20-15 in the Pinstripe Bowl in the program's first bowl appearance since 2016.
Now, here we are in Year 3.
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Matt Rhule on the Akron halftime speech
Nebraska preserved a 20-17 victory against Cincinnati in Week 1 when Malcolm Hartzog Jr. intercepted Bearcats quarterback Brendan Sorsby's pass in the end zone with 34 seconds remaining. That is helping break the one-score loss narrative with the program.
Nebraska is 3-5 in one-score games under Rhule.
"We were in the Cincinnati game – things kind of went badly for us," Rhule said. "It wasn't a close game the whole game, then all of a sudden it was a close game at the end, and kind of like our bowl game and our guys just kind of hung in there. I appreciated seeing their mindset."
On Sept. 6, Rhule made headlines for a heated half-time speech during a game against Akron. The Huskers led 33-0 at halftime, and that's when Rhule hammered in a message.
"I want them never to say our name again!"
It wasn't quite Rick Pitino's viral halftime speech against Providence on Nov. 20, 2024, but it had the same effect. Nebraska won 68-0. Rhule has seen the tape. It is about framing and timing. This one worked.
"I think for me, the good thing about the speech was the fact you never heard me call anyone out,'" Rhule said. "It was just very much this is our standard. This is what I believe in."
Nebraska's opportunity against Michigan
Nebraska faces the Wolverines on Saturday in a five-star quarterback duel between Raiola – who ranks second in the Big Ten with 829 passing yards and eight TDs – and Bryce Underwood – a freshman who had 235 passing yards, 114 rushing yards and three TDs in a 63-3 victory against Central Michigan in Week 3.
This game will rekindle the 1997 national championship argument, but the Wolverines broke their national title drought in 2023, and the Buckeyes followed up last season. Since joining the Big Ten, Nebraska is 2-5 against the Wolverines and 1-8 against Ohio State. This is one of those next-step opportunities.
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"We want to be relevant," Rhule said. "We want to be a national program. We're an original blueblood, and as a result people grew up watching Nebraska – and we want people now to grow up watching Nebraska. You have to get to this stage, and when you get here you have to earn it with these types of wins."
That is why Rhule took this job. He said, "Athletics at Nebraska is at an all-time high right now." He rattled off the school's successful programs, including volleyball, wrestling, baseball and softball. Even in the NIL and transfer portal era, it can work at Nebraska, too.
"I want all these students at the University of Nebraska to be talking about these games," Rhule said. "My son is a sophomore. My daughter. I want them to come to football and see huge, huge, huge memories. Last year's Colorado game was epic. Beating Wisconsin for the first time in 12 years was epic. Going to a bowl game was cool for the first time since 2016."
When members of the 1995 team are honored at midfield, Rhule knows those memories will come flooding back of Tommie Frazier, four top-10 victories and a 62-24 blowout against No. 2 Florida in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 2, 1996. Why not create some new ones?
"Michigan is coming to town – an excellent football team – and I want there to be excitement in this city and nationally and I want people to see the 'N' and know it stands for something," Rhule said. "It's a building process to that, and we'll find out where we are in that building process – but there's no doubt we've made progress since we got here."