Matt Rhule is a great guy. Matt Rhule is trying his hardest to fix this and he genuinely cares about the team, his family, the state, and the fans and I have no doubts that he is giving everything he has to making this work. But Monday’s presser wasn’t a vote of confidence. That press conference was Matt Rhule rambling non stop for almost an hour. He couldn’t answer questions directly and I know that’s his style but if he is that way with the media, how is he with his team? If you’ve ever been in leadership you know that it’s not about saying the right things, it’s about getting things done and in 4 years there is progress but the glaring issues are very troubling. He doesn’t know what to do, and it’s okay, because he has hired some great assistants especially this offseason. Is that enough to save his job? Well being a ceo means being a facilitator and recruiter which he is very good at the latter, I’m not sold on the facilitator part, just yet. Times have changed and that’s the nature of the beast, however, coaching isn’t his strong suit. He can speak and say all the right things but holding players accountable doesn’t seem to be one of his strengths.
Case in point would be the bye week. No coach and I mean no coach worth their salt would have given them a reward for failure after two straight brutal losses by giving them time off. They needed to be on the field getting their reps down. Coaches had two weeks to prepare for Washington and without players in practice, well….the math ain’t mathin’. These are professional athletes that are hired to do a job the same as the coaches. They are blessed with top of the line facilities, x boxes in lockers, drone shows, blackouts, and the best fans in all of college football. All these things and they still can’t take a punch on the football field. There are always exceptions when it comes to the fan base but in Nebraska’s case, those are few compared to the overwhelming majority of classy ones. Just look at the SEC and Colorado if you want to see how vile a fan base can be when you’re under performing.
Rhule talked about staying in the boat. Okay, then what? Are we all going to paddle in different directions, will some not paddle, is there a realistic and simple plan? Because right now the answer would be, no. It one thing to adapt in season and during games, those are adjustments but the mission and goal remain the same. You don’t flip the script by abandoning what got you there. And let’s just think for a bit that maybe Rhule is 100% right and knows how to handle things. I’d go to Grant Wistrom’s quote about learning the lesson. “At some point you have to stop learning the lesson and learn the freakin’ lesson.” It’s obvious that Nebraska isn’t any closer to learning the lesson than they were three years ago. It’s obvious that they are better than years past and more talented but they still make the same little mistakes over and over and yes the refs suck but if you want to have calls go your way, then you have to stop with the stupid penalties first and prove that you’re a different team in that regard.
Monday it was clear that coach Rhule doesn’t have the answer and doesn’t know how to go about fixing it. I hate writing that because I want him to succeed, however, it’s a results based business and he’s not helping his case. If he can’t pull it together this season, then there’s not much hope for next year and good luck getting anyone to come in here that will. Scary with a short week because if you haven’t fixed it by now, it’s highly unlikely you’ll pull off a win against a Bielema coached team. Every coach we go up against outsmarts us and he has talked about how much he doesn’t like us and wants to beat us. He’ll use the Iowa model of “just keep it close and wait because Nebraska will make mistakes and gift wrap the game for you” Illinois knows that we will fold, it’s only a matter of when and all they have to do is stay the course
It’s the same movie over and over. The fix is simple. Practice repetition, have an identity that is clear and the players and coaches stick to, and if they don’t, play those that will and build your culture that way. Stop tweaking everything, every time there’s adversity, and above all, stop with the word salad excuses. Tell the media to eff off once in awhile by giving short answers instead of non sensical speeches that are meant to answer every question that could potentially be asked. And stop trying to sell the used car. At this point it’s like a ford escort: we already know how they drive but we keep driving them anyway, hoping for the best
There was no pressure at temple and Baylor. He folded under that pressure in the nfl and is doing the same here. He’s scared and collapsing under the pressure after several speeches on what it takes to do this job. Not because Nebraska fans are so mean and unfair (scott frost excuse) but because all we are asking is for this team to represent us and so far they haven’t come close. Hearing the same reasons over and over again are called excuses and it’s all we’ve been getting.
Rob Aurich sure didn’t shy away from the pressure and tip the fans.
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