2 weeks Ago
LINCOLN, Neb. — Seconds ticked off the clocks at the edges of each video screen inside Memorial Stadium over the past five weeks. Down-and-distance figures changed as Nebraska shifted spring practice drills from two-minute to red zone, third down and others.
Scrolled across the center of the same displays, three large letters held steady: the “W” and “I” in white, the “N” in red. Advertisement WIN. It’s the singular message of this offseason at Nebraska.
Nebraska won seven games in 2024, including a bowl game, its highest total in eight years. But it has remained underwater as a program since 2017. A burdensome 35-58 stretch began 20 years after the Huskers’ most recent of five national championship seasons.
Coach Matt Rhule, since he arrived at Nebraska in December 2022, has adapted with changing times in college football. He arrived intent on fostering player development and nurturing the storied walk-on program. Much of that is gone, casualties of the transfer portal and a pay-for-play system ushered in by NIL and the prospect of a revenue-sharing arrangement set to eventually create a 105-player roster limit.
In this offseason alone: • Rhule pulled the plug on a marquee home-and-home series against Tennessee scheduled for 2026 and 2027. • He cancelled the ever-popular spring game , then reinstated it for Saturday in a truncated format that will feature only reserve players. • And he reduced the recruiting attention paid to prospects in the state of Nebraska, long a foundation of the Huskers’ success.
All in the name of one objective. “I have one job,” Rhule said. “It’s to win at Nebraska.
OK? Anytime a coach here has tried to do anything else but win at Nebraska, they’ve been asked to leave.” On that point, there is no debate. Nebraska fired five football coaches from 2003 to 2022.
Every one of them got entangled in some sort of drama that involved bickering over staff change, sideline temperament or divisions of loyalty. “No man can serve two masters,” Rhule said. “You have to win.
Everyone cares about everything else when you’re not winning.” It’s possible that Rhule came to this realization more quickly than his predecessors because of the fast-changing landscape in college sports and a shakeup in the administrative leadership at Nebraska within 16 months of his landing in Lincoln. Advertisement The departures of University of Nebraska system president Ted Carter in August 2023 to Ohio State and athletic director Trev Alberts to Texas A&M in March 2024 made clear that the best path for Rhule was his own.
And while new president Jeffrey Gold and AD Troy Dannen are seemingly as aligned with Rhule as Carter and Alberts were — or even more so — a new way of doing business has taken hold. “I’m the head coach,” Rhule said, “so everything falls on me.” Haven Fields, the deputy AD and chief operating officer for Nebraska athletics, recalls a brief meeting with Rhule during Fields’ early days at Nebraska a year ago.
Rhule stopped to visit with Fields’ two sons, ages 5 and 7 at the time, as they navigated the transition to a new home. His boys walked away as fans of the coach. The moment made an impression on Fields, a former Auburn linebacker who worked at four Division I schools before he took a job for Dannen at Nebraska as the lead football administrator.
Rhule’s ability to connect with people allows him to rise above unnecessary distractions. Through it, he’s gained trust among Nebraska fans who treasure institutions like the spring game. “The dude is kind of like Inspector Gadget,” Fields said.
“He’s pulling all this stuff out of his hat, out of his pockets. He’s thoughtful and strategic in the way that he thinks about what’s best for his program. “I think back to when I got here and heard him say, ‘We’re having success in a lot of sports, and football has to do its part.
’ That’s a testament to who he is. He’s always honest. There’ve been moments where it may be difficult, but he’s always willing to let everybody understand what he’s trying to accomplish.
” In pulling out of the Tennessee series, originally arranged in 2006, Dannen cited the financial need for the Huskers to play an eighth home game during the 2027 season — with Memorial Stadium at reduced capacity because of a planned renovation project. Advertisement Rhule said in multiple interviews in February and March that a steep nonconference challenge poses a threat to a Big Ten team’s hopes of reaching the College Football Playoff. The risk is not worth the reward.
In Rhule’s first two springs at Nebraska, the school announced attendance figures at 66,045 and 60,452 for the Red-White game. So when he elected early this year to forgo the scrimmage, the decision gained national attention. Alabama, Texas, USC and Oklahoma also did away with traditional spring games.
Rhule said concerns about tampering drove his choice. Last week, he reversed course. Saturday's Husker Games slate is LOADED.
Spend your day with the Big Red and don't miss out on this Husker heavyweight battle between @_willcompton and @foreman5644 . ☠️ 🎟️🏟️🏈 → https://t.co/1DuYssPLAl pic.
twitter.com/T5nX5HeInU — Nebraska Football (@HuskerFootball) April 21, 2025 Nebraska will hold a 60-play scrimmage on Saturday in addition to the Husker Games, which features a women’s flag football game, skill competitions and a wing-eating contest. The scrimmage provides an opportunity for players at the bottom of the roster to showcase their skills.
“I’m not doing it for anything else other than (that) I want to give those kids a chance to show what they can do,” Rhule said. Roster cutdowns remain on the horizon, though a Wednesday order from U.S District Judge Claudia Wilken in the House settlement case appeared to increase the likelihood of a grandfather clause that would allow schools to reach the 105-player limit over multiple years.
Jay Foreman attends Nebraska practices regularly. A three-time national champion with the Huskers from 1994 to 1998, Foreman admires Rhule’s tact in making hard decisions. “No.
1, he believes in what he’s doing,” said Foreman, a former eight-year NFL linebacker. “He’s been around the block. I think he’s self-aware.
Part of self-awareness is recognizing where you’re at. And I think he realizes that college football is not the same even as when he coached at Baylor.” Advertisement More dicey perhaps than scheduling and spring games, Rhule has grown more selective with scholarship offers distributed to prospects from Omaha, Lincoln and other areas of the Huskers’ home state.
He’s signed 14 Nebraskans in two classes. The Huskers landed 16 scholarship players from Nebraska high schools in the three years prior to Rhule’s hiring. The rise of the portal and considerations associated with roster limits have changed the math.
Nebraska has offered only three players from inside the state borders in the Class of 2026. None have picked a college. Meanwhile, Iowa State counts six commitments from Nebraska high schools.
“We are going to pour into the state,” Rhule said. “But what I have found, if you bring a player here from the state and they’re not happy, the place that they love becomes a miserable thing. So I have to be sure that they’re good enough.
” It boils down to winning. “Don’t I owe it to you to be sure before I offer you a scholarship?” Rhule said. “And now, before I offer you a rev share deal?” Nebraska intends to carry itself like a top-20 program, Rhule said.
He’d like the chance to recruit plenty of players from close to home. His message to a recruit who’s committed elsewhere: Come to camp at Nebraska in June and earn an offer. “If you want to play in the Big 12 over the Big Ten, OK, I got it,” Rhule said.
“But make no mistake, there’s a big difference.” The challenges faced by Big 12 teams, said Rhule, who coached at Baylor from 2017 to 2019, are not the same as his challenges at Nebraska. “I have to worry about, ‘What’s Ohio State doing? What’s Michigan doing?’” he said.
Call it the new way. Call it the Rhule way. The coach has embraced change at Nebraska at a time when the sport around him demands it.
“Love it or hate, he’s a guy who stands behind his decisions,” Foreman said. “That’s leadership.” (Photo: Dylan Widger / Imagn Images).
