Rhule on adapting to college football changes, postgame messages, and more with Josh Pate

Matt Rhule has always loved the process of watching a college football player develop at one school through the highs and lows.

“I love telling parents, ‘When I return him to you he’ll be the best version of an adult that he could possibly be.’ And I think for you to be the most successful in life you need consistency,'” the Husker head coach said in a wide-ranging one-on-one on Josh Pate’s College Football Show.

The particular consistency he’s speaking of, while still enjoyable when producing a Ty Robinson story, has been shaken like a game of Boggle in this era of college football.

Rhule offered the above quote while setting up the biggest way he’s had to adapt to this current era. Heck, we’re not just talking about how much it’s changed since his 11-win season at Baylor in 2019 before he briefly went to the pros. There’s been a tectonic shift even since he’s been at Nebraska through two seasons.

The exact question from Pate, of CBSSports/247Sports, was this: What are some of the specifics in the way he has to think now that maybe in 2015 or 2020 he wouldn’t have believed real or would ever apply to him as a coach?

The biggest thing is the portal, Rhule said.

“So I never wanted to have a player come in after two years, (or) replace him with someone else I have for one year – I never wanted to do that. It’s why it’s always taken me three years. Because I’ve played the young guys, the second year they fight me on everything, ‘Why isn’t this working?’ And then the third year they kind of all buy in, we win and then the fourth year it takes off.”

Indeed, Rhule is 31-11 in third seasons and beyond as a head coach at Baylor and Temple. It’s a trend Husker fans are hope follows him in 2025 at Nebraska with last year’s 7-6 similar to those second seasons.

But Rhule has had to adapt as the college football ground keeps shifting beneath everyone’s feet.

“I had to get aggressive in the portal. But what I found – there’s always two sides to everything – what I found is there are a lot of guys that did stay and I can’t wait to coach them,” Rhule said. “But what I did find too is there’s a lot of guys that came in from Georgia Southern or from East Tennessee State and said, ‘Wait a minute now, Coach, I get 21 meals a week in the cafeteria? You mean to tell me I can have a professional chef who will make my food to order?’

“Instead of me having the guy who was complaining, ‘Coach, why do I have to eat meals all the time? My friend at so-and-so, they only have to go to a meal five days a week?’ I replaced that guy with this guy.”

References on the new additions were to linebacker Marques Watson-Trent from Georgia Southern and defensive lineman Jaylen George from East Tennessee State.  His answer to Pate also reminded of his recent press conference when he spoke about how much gratitude matters when learning about players on portal visits.

But the portal as a whole has made him adapt and be aggressive with it too, with Nebraska adding 16 new players since the end of the season.

“And I think the second thing for me is I’ve had conversations with parents this year. Their son’s a receiver and he’s down on the depth chart. ‘Hey, Coach, should I leave?’ Whereas before I would say, ‘No, you should stay, you should work through it, you should fight, you should battle.’ Now I’m like, ‘You know what? Maybe it is in your best interest to go to an FCS school and catch 100 balls. Maybe then someone will give you 100 grand to come play for them…’ So I didn’t really want to run people off. I’ve never wanted to be a catch-and-release football team. I like the development portion. But I’ve had to adapt to this new world.”

He reiterated during the interview how together the team was on its Pinstripe Bowl experience and also how the roster shifting of recent months has allowed him opportunity too.

“What it has allowed me to do, though, is look at players and say, ‘Who am I allowing in this locker room?’ And the best compliment I got this year from one of our players just this past week, he texted me and said, ‘Coach, you did a really good job of bringing guys that fit into the locker room.’

“To which I then responded you have to do a good job of making sure … that everyone fits into it too.”

>>> As for the money part of all this, of course it isn’t equal across the board for players.

“I pay my defensive coordinator a lot more than my G.A. yet they work the same amount of hours to the same standard,” Rhule said. “I tell our players that, ‘Hey, you’re all going to get different things. Comparison’s a thief of joy. Why don’t you just worry about being great and the money will come? And I say that to my coaches as well.”

>>> Being a good head coach isn’t about who’s the best play caller or drawing the best Xs and Os on the whiteboard. It’s so many other things – like even the tone you find immediately after the toughest results.

“One of the hardest things in football is to play a game, lose the game, win the game, shake someone’s hand, walk off the field, walk in the locker room, try to compose what you’re going to say to your team, say, after a loss in one of the most difficult times,” Rhule said. “Like, what you’re going to say to not hurt them but set the tone for how we’re going to handle things. Get up, walk out, not shower, maybe shake the AD’s hand and walk into a press conference and then tell people what happened. I mean, it’s hard.”

Rhule said Husker AD Troy Dannen does a great job walking off the field win or loss with him, offering one thought that “I can maybe kind of hang my hat on with the team.”

Those words can matter way more than the pre-game speeches that tend to get more fanfare and sometimes go viral.

“Think about what you say after a game to your team … what that can do. I don’t know what Ryan Day said to his team after they lost to Michigan. I don’t know what he said the next week. I’ve read a couple things about it. But whatever he did it worked. And whatever he did it probably came from (the heart) …”

Rhule said that’s why he went to the Broyles Award event to speak because “I really believe in the art of coaching and so I love to celebrate coaches.”

>>> I’d encourage to go watch the whole interview for yourself, including the end when Rhule speaks about doubling down as the Huskers pursue CFP status. 

A couple other quotes that might stick out:

– “When you watched the teams that won this year, that Ohio State team, they rallied around Ryan and they fought for him. Last year’s Michigan team rallied around Jim (Harbaugh), they fought for Jim. So to me that’s my job. Make the team rally around me when they need to and fight for me, and me to do the same for them.”

– Rhule said in the darkest moments the team has to be honest, but also pull each other together.

“And when you go through the tough losses, the ups and downs of the season like we did, the guys who stick together, we learn to trust each other. We went out to that bowl game. It was raining in New York.” If people didn’t think it mattered, on the sideline Rhule saw otherwise. “That was one of the greatest days because I stood there and I had a couple guys on the sideline as we were winning, ‘Coach, you know what’s great about this? Everybody that’s out here wants to be here.’ You only get that when you go through kind of what we went through. So that’s why I’m so excited about what will happen.”