New Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule has been brutally honest about his time in the NFL in charge of the Carolina Panthers as he returns to the college game in the hope of restoring the programme to its former glory.
After impressing in the college ranks as Temple and Baylor head coach, Rhule earned his shot in the NFL but he went just 11-27 in charge of the Panthers and he lasted less than three years in charge, being fired after five games of last season.
The 47-year-old has landed on his feet as the new head coach of the Cornhuskers, signing an eight-year contract, and he believes the experiences from his time at Bank of America Stadium and the humbling he received in the NFL will make him a better coach and person in the long run.
“Going through the fire in Carolina was a purifying fire that melts away all the impurities, all the hubris, all the worrying about stuff that doesn’t matter,” Rhule told ESPN. “I learned very much to worry about what matters. I have a focus and a desire in me.
“I watched what my kids had to go through in Carolina, and we’re not going to let them go through that here.”
Rhule has taken charge of a programme that has been in decline over the past two decades. Tom Osborne led the Cornhuskers to three NCAA national championships in four seasons from 1994-97.
But Nebraska gradually became a peripheral contender in the years that followed before struggling hugely since 2015. The programme has had just one winning season in that time and Scott Frost was fired in 2022 after five years in charge without ever winning more than five games in a year.
Rhule, despite his failure to succeed with the Panthers, is widely regarded as a bright offensive mind and he has been tasked with returning Nebraska to the level it was in the 1990s and 2000s, and he believes he and his players can put Nebraska – which has opened a new $165m (£129m) team facility – back in contention for the biggest prizes in college football.
“We can absolutely be a national power,” Rhule added. “I think we can be relevant in the [new system], as the College Football Playoff goes to 12 teams.”
"We have to make sure that we establish the way that we want to do things. This is how we're going to practice. Some people might call that culture, some people might call that process, whatever it is.
"It's like, 'Hey, let's establish this so that as the talent gets better, it grows up, develops, or we bring players in, there's a standard for how we're going to do things.'"
