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the big 12 football schedules to look up if you are interested
i looked at ok state, byu and colorado, of note ok state gets oregon at stillwater 2nd week of season
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Rhule is a tool, but he’s probably right. At least with his general premise anyway.
Nobody is going to build a great program recruiting Nebraska, which has a worse talent pool than Iowa does. The gap between the Big Ten, SEC, and everyone else is widening, which will continue. Furthermore, if you aren’t a star player, the smart money is starting your “career” (so effed up to put it this way but it’s true) at a school where you feel like you can get playing time. With the current dynamics the schools with money will simply poach the good players from the schools/conferences that don’t.
Basketball has really set the tone for the future of college sports. This offseason was fairly “mild”, but I think football will be crazy come January unless there are changes.
The problem for Rhule and Nebraska, is that it seems like he’s trying to recruit with the likes of the OSUs, Michigans, and even the Oregon’s when Nebraska will never be that kind of destination. When you have a philosophy that relies on a “brand”, and you overestimate the value of that brand, the strategy could fail miserably. And if it does? It couldn’t happen to a lesser guy or a lesser program.
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I certainly agree it will get worse to an extent, but I think it will still be relatively mild compared to bball.
Think about our own team’s injury issues last year. Can you imagine if we were paying our LB 2-deep real money like an SEC school? If that’s Nebraska’s plan for their entire 4 deep, GOOD LUCK sustaining that model w/ those delusional fan/booster expectations.
I’ll even grant them Ruhle’s point for their top 15-20 targets. Sure, go dollar for dollar with the true blue bloods if you have it, by all means. IF you hit on every one of them, they stay healthy, cohesive, happy, and lucky…then maybe you can write off Nebraska high schoolers entirely (to your point about better talent, he’s also implicitly written off Iowa too FWIW). That’s an IF the size of the Ogllala Aquifer.
IMO, Rhule is probably in peak spin damage control mode. Campbell has shown he can recruit to his model in his wheelhouse. Regional high 3 stars low 4 stars? You’re in for the fight of your life all day there w/ ISU’s staff 100%. Better hope none of them turns into a scholarship version of a Caleb Bacon, or Rhule’s gonna have egg on his face.
I think Rhule got complacent and plays too hard to get locally w/ better than you vibes. I think Campbell & Co caught onto this, saw it for what it is, and increased their emphasis there accordingly. I’d bet the farm on it. An Iowa farm too, not an inferior nebraska one.
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Extra bonus points for a post mentioning Ogllala Aquifer which is in Texas as well.
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Their first game of the season is on the road against a middling to bad Cincy team. If Rhule loses that game he should never hear the end of it.
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Especially because he explicitly downplayed the quality of the Big 12 in answering the questions he was getting about it.
Nebraska seems to find a way to lose those exact kind of games. Yes please!
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Fun stat. How many ranked wins has Matt Rhule had between Baylor and Nebraska?
Zero. That’s right, not a single ranked win since he was at Temple. @zrf Crazy stat.
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…One of his Baylor teams went 11-1. Pretty sure they played some ranked teams and won.
I see no reason for ASU to be any less dominant this season, the backup running back will do just fine with skataboo gone. He had similar vertical, north south running.
Id say maybe Kansas comes out stronger this year. Nebraska outta come to the big 12 to quit recruiting against Ohio State. Some classic Eric Crouch comes to mind only when i think of Nebraska.
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This was one of the best rivalries growing up, at the very least bring this rivalry back
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You think I didn’t know Baylor went 11-1🤔? That hurts lol.
Anyways, Rhule is 2-21 all time against ranked team, both wins at Temple… In fact, Rhule has never beaten a ranked power conference team:
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Last win was in 2016 against 20th ranked Navy.
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His other win was in 2014 against 21st ranked East Carolina.
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Trust me, basically all husker fans have buyer’s remorse on their move to the Big 10, though most don’t like to admit it.
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I wouldn’t even say implicitly.
He could have been harsher with the statement, but it wasn’t veiled at all.
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I’m mildly surprised, but not really.
One of the things that made Saban so great was he had humility and respected his opponents. Rhule gives off the vibe that he think he’s Saban, Nebraska can be a “Ohio State”, while throwing out middle school level barbs. And they aren’t even funny ones like Cignetti, but straight up condescending.
If Nebraska struggles again this year people are going to be calling for his head. You can get away with arrogance while winning, but when losing? And being brash about it? LOL, he will get pummeled.
Again, couldn’t happen to a better guy or program.
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If you knew they went 11-1, then you should know they beat ranked teams. I think Baylor beat Okie State in regular season, then lost to them in the championship game. OSU won the big 12. THEY were ranked, Baylor beat them in regular season. Hard to believe Texas wasnt ranked. Baylor beat them too…
Was Okie State ranked at the time Baylor played them? I think not.
That said, yeah, it’s more impressive if he had wins over teams in the FINAL rankings.
That matters more, in my view.
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I think you are confusing Matt Rhule’s best season with Dave Aranda’s best season, my friend.
Rhule led Baylor to an 11-1 regular season record, 11-3 overall in the 2019 season…his final year at Baylor. All 3 losses were in their only ranked games against Oklahoma twice and Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, respectively.
In fact, OSU finished with a conference record of 5-4, 8-5 overall for a good, but certainly not great season in 2019. They were NOT Rhule’s CCG opponent, and they did not win the Big 12 in 2019.
Now, in your defense, OSU was ranked for part of 2019, but only for 4 out of 15 in-season polls. 9/29, 11/10, 11/17, and 12/8 to be exact. Furthermore, OSU was unranked in the preseason AND final poll.
Let’s just be clear here, OSU was unranked the majority of the year in 2019 when Rhule beat them, including the week Baylor played them on on 10/19. Not only that, OSU was unranked for weeks before and after said game.
It’s an honest mistake, it happens. And secondly in your defense, it’s a hard stat to believe about someone who has parlayed this interesting resume against high end teams into a position making 9.25 million a year w/virtually unlimted resources. It’s juicy AF, which is why I shared it. But at the end of the day, I wouldn’t lie to my Coog (and Blue Coug) bros!
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What? Ya mean they don’t like being average every year?
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The Big 10 has Ohio State and occasionally Michigan, but after that I’m not sure they have teams that are consistently better than the big 12
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