ESPN insider suggests Matt Rhule has turned Nebraska Cornhuskers into national contender originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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For the Nebraska Cornhuskers, consistent winning has been a slow but steady process under coach Matt Rhule.
Entering another year of unpredictability, Rhule’s team was recently praised by ESPN’s Bill Connelly about the job Rhule has done in Lincoln thus far.
“Matt Rule was so predictable, like we’re going to just stink out loud in Year 1,” Connelly told Josh Pate on “Josh Pate’s College Football Show.” “I’m just going to lay the foundation. I’m not even going to try here to win games. I’m sure he tried. We’re going to lay the foundation. We’re going to improve quite a bit in Year 2. We’re going to be awesome in Year 3. He’s a culture-building guy. Can you build a culture effectively when you know 60 or 70 percent of your roster is changing every year? So far, not really. But they’ve gotten better steal… They were held back by the quarterback position last year. They might not be quite as much next year.”
Rhule has moved on from the Dylan Raiola era at quarterback as part of a fresh start this fall.
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“If he needs a fresh start, I’m going to pray that he finds the right place and that he has so much success,” Rhule told reporters last winter. “With that being said, there’s a lot of great quarterbacks out there, and a lot of guys want to play at Nebraska.”
Rhule said he is excited to see how the season plays out, doing his best to block out any extra noise regarding how the schedule plays out.
“We’re so tired of hearing about our schedule next year,” Rhule told Hurrdat Sports via USA Today. “We literally use the schedule to recruit. We want competitive tough dudes. We can acknowledge that we have quite a challenge in front of us, and that excites us.”
With Raiola’s departure, Rhule said this spring that he is excited to see how quarterback Anthony Colandrea, alongside the rest of the room, will respond.
“Anthony, he’s got like a burning desire to be great,” Rhule told reporters. “He’s unbelievably confident yet unbelievably approachable and not cocky. I think that rubs off on the guys around him. He can extend plays. He can make plays with his feet. He’ll throw the deep ball. He’s not afraid by any stretch of the imagination. He wants the ball in his hands, and he wants to make plays.”
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It remains unclear whether Colandrea or another quarterback will become the next superstar in Lincoln. However, it appears there will be much fanfare over whether Nebraska remains in contention for a bowl game.
Only time will tell, though.
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