The Mind of Mike is a scary place. And here’s a crazy thought — Matt Rhule can turn around Nebraska.
I’ve been skeptical of many hires when it comes to Nebraska football from Bill Callahan to Mike Riley and so on. But I believed that Scott Frost could get the job done even when my UCF friends were telling me he’s not that dude. And I learned quickly that Frost couldn’t evaluate or develop talent and he wasn’t a very good coach. But I think Matt Rhule can do all these things.
I’m a Northeast guy. I’ve lived up here all my life and there’s a kinship amongst coaches from the Northeast. We know who can coach and who can’t. We know who’s full of crap and who’s not. And we shoot straight. Always. It’s not on the record or anything but we never BS each other. I don’t know Matt Rhule much at all. But I know people who have worked for him, people I respect. And those people, all of them, tell me he’s the real deal.
I’ve heard how he analyzes game film and what he looks for in recruits. It’s not about toughness as some others will say. It’s not about sheer athleticism either. It’s about fit. Does this kid want to work hard to fit into the role we have for him? Will he buy in? This isn’t easy to evaluate at all. Trust me. But Rhule has that gift.
His success at Temple didn’t surprise me. But when he took the Baylor job I was stunned. This is a fish out of water I thought. A Northeast guy in Texas trying to clean up a program riddled with off field issues and sexual assault charges beyond repair under Art Briles? The man has no chance. But those Northeast coaches, the ones that don’t BS me, told me to just watch. And I did.
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Rhule spot recruited his old stomping grounds up here down in Waco. He ingratiated himself with Texas coaches who probably at first wondered who this short, unassuming dude from New York was. And he worked his magic of talent evaluation. Baylor went from 1-11 to 7-6 to 11-3 and a game away from the playoff. From a program where nearly an entire recruiting class was allowed out of the LOI’s to transfer freely to 11 wins in three seasons. It’s still one of the most remarkable jobs I’ve ever seen in college coaching.
