Matt Rhule, Nebraska Head Football Coach

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That's amazon.com slash prime. We miss college football. Bill Rose stands in. He throws into the end zone. It's caught by Isaiah Bond in the corner of the end zone. Touchdown, Alabama.

We can't wait for the 2024 season. Hands it off to Edwards who will bounce it outside. Got him at 40. Got him at 30. Got him at Edwards who's in the clear. His second touchdown run of the ballgame.

This time for 46 yards, and Michigan has taken a 13-3 lead on the second touchdown of the night from the man who was not tripping. And we're counting down the days to kick off. Are we there yet? No. Are we there yet? We said no. Are we there yet?

What's wrong with your ears? Here is your college football fix, only on the Zach Gelb show. Alrighty, rocking and rolling 25 days away until Nebraska kicks off its season up against UTEP. Big expectations this year. Ball eligibility is the feel around the Nebraska Cornhuskers, and their fans want to see it this upcoming year. Let's welcome in the second year head football coach in Lincoln.

That, of course, is our pal Matt Rule. Coach, appreciate the time as always. How you been? I'm doing great. I love your shirt, by the way. I'm wearing a Nebraska polo today. I'm probably not equipped to operate your mat drills and be on your strength staff, but I do look like I could be on your strength staff today.

There's no doubt. We would be honored to have you on the sideline with us, my friend. Hey, just pay me in Runzas, and I don't even need any money. Alright?

That's all I need is a Runza. Those things are delicious. Fantastic.

They're fantastic. So, let me start you off with what you've sensed from your team this offseason. You've been through college football for so many years.

You know what the jump is from year one to year two when you take over a program. What have you sensed, though, from your team this past offseason, Matt? I think they realize that they're good. They're a bigger team than last year. They're a stronger team than last year. They're more, I don't want to say disciplined, but they know what they're doing kind of in our system more than they did last year.

And even the disappointing five and seven year, you know, in year one, we had lots of opportunities to win those other games. And so, you know, bring in some more players, develop the players that you have. I think our guys walk around knowing it. I think we have a pretty good team and obviously we have to go do it.

But I sense a confidence about them from the work they put in and from where they think they are. Now, I've watched your press conferences, others on your staff, players as well. I know you guys are hammering home, protecting the football. You guys would have been in a bowl game last year if you could have protected the football. Is that something you could teach or is it just you have to emphasize that and even at times overemphasize it until you see your team protect the football on the field?

I think it's all three. I think you have to teach it. I mean, so many, you know, if you're a bad coach, you just yell about the results, right? Like, I don't turn the ball over, but tell me why, you know, do we throw the ball in the wrong place? Do we run the wrong route? Are we not holding the ball correctly? So we try to teach it and teach it again and again and again. We try to emphasize it, drill it. And I think the biggest thing is when it starts to come from the players, not not waiting until the ball is on the ground. But, you know, when a guy is not carrying the ball properly, they're hearing it from their teammates.

The guys on defense are going after it. I think that's important. So, you know, it was a historically bad year in terms of turning the ball over last year. And, you know, if you don't learn from that, then you're a fool.

And so we refuse to be foolish. Matt Rule here with us, the second year head football coach at Nebraska. Everyone, when they talk about your program now, it starts with Dylan Riola.

What have your impressions been so far, the youngster? Well, I mean, he's a winner. You know, he understands the game. He's thinking about the game, you know, all the time.

He studied everything, you know, if a receiver winds up wrong. I mean, he knows it. A lot of guys, when they're that age, they're playing kind of, you know, not clear minded because they just know what they're supposed to do. But, you know, Dylan knows what every guy on the field is supposed to do because he's put so much time and work in. And so he's, like I say, he loves to compete. He loves playing. He loves practicing. And I think that's contagious and it's good to have from him.

I listened to the entirety of his press conference the other day. Now, when I was 19, I was confident, but I was also immature. It seems like he has the perfect blend of confidence and maturity. It doesn't seem like he's a freshman when I hear him speak at a podium.

Yeah, I thought he did a great job the other day. And I think a lot of that is really him understanding that it's, you know, it's not all about him, right? It's about the team. It's about winning. He didn't come here to make himself a household name.

Obviously, we all want those things, right? He came here to restore Nebraska, to be a part of restoring Nebraska to its glory. You know, his father played here. It means something to him.

He has pictures of himself when he was little. And that's really a lot of the guys on our team. We have guys who came back who didn't go to the NFL. They came back for another year, even though I told them not to.

I said, go to the NFL, make some money. They came back because this place means so much to them personally. And so Dylan's another one of those guys like that. So I think when he gets up there and talks, you know, he doesn't want the spotlight on him. He wants it on his teammates because he knows it's going to take everybody for us to be successful. And I think that's so important for him to have those traits because, like, you even saw a little bit of it.

And I know you joined us today. He decided to commit to Nebraska and flip from Georgia. And you talked about the comparisons of Patrick Mahomes. And then he walks into fall camp looking just like Patrick Mahomes. And, man, that was a social media craze.

And he hasn't even played a regular season game yet. So the way that he managed all that I thought was pretty neat and important because, you know, some kids, there's a lot of hype. And the hype could actually ruin them. Yeah, you know, I think the biggest thing for all these guys is to realize that, like, you know, hey, when you're in the spotlight in a positive way, it's fun. I mean, it can almost be addicting, right? Like you love the attention.

But if you start all of us, we start doing things for the for the for the pleasure and approval of others, we're never really going to be happy. And so, you know, I think, you know, the great thing about Dylan, I think the great thing about our players is, you know, we try to always turn things back into the locker room. You know, hey, you know, making life about your family, making life about your future, making life about your teammates and your team. And so I thought he did a good job of that, even in those moments, you know. But sure, if you're if you're 19 years old and you're getting, you know, you're getting tweeted out by ESPN.

I mean, who wouldn't love those things? But at the same time, you know, he's done a good job of making it the team, the team, the team. Matt Rule here with us. Would you say he has earned the trust and respect of his teammates already? No doubt.

Yeah, no doubt. He's a great teammate. He's a hard worker. I mean, in this day and age, you know, players, players, players respect production. You know, I mean, they respect production, but they they still respect the guys who come in and put the most work in. And, you know, we kind of have that blue collar type team like this.

This team's act. This is a lot like those temple teams we had. Like this is kind of like, you know, this is kind of if you want the coach, if you want to coach and play in Philly and you want people to respect you in Philly, you better be tough and you better work.

And I'd say it's the same thing here in Nebraska. You know, if you want people, if you want people, hardworking, tough people, if you want them to respect your football team, you better have those types of players. And so, Dylan, all of our guys, I think they've done a great job of they do that and they are part of the ethos of this state.

Matt Rule here with us. Just with what you saw from the spring now as we get closer and closer to the fall and go through the summer, have you seen Dylan just grow in the short time you've had with him so far? Well, I think anytime you're a freshman player, I think you have, you know, you have to, you know, you kind of learn, then you relearn the same thing and you just keep doing it until it becomes like second nature. And I think what you're seeing when you see him out there now is you're seeing a guy that's probably been through it for the second or third time, all the play calls, all the situations, all the way we do things.

And, you know, the one thing I've tried to encourage him to do is embrace when things don't go well. You know, so many quarterbacks, you look at them, you know, they're, they're phenoms. Some of them don't have a bad day till they get drafted. And all of a sudden they're, they're a bust as a first round draft pick.

And everybody's like, how did that happen? Well, maybe they didn't know how to handle frustration. You know, maybe they did not handle the hard, the ones who make it to me, you look at them, you know, you look at like Brock Bertie, you look at Tom Brady and all the adversity he went through at Michigan. The same for, you know, Aaron Rogers, you know, junior college to Cal, you know, you look at Drew Brees coming up, you know, through, through, through Purdue back before Purdue was really a power. I mean, these guys, Patrick Mahomes having to carry, you know, you know, Texas Tech on his back each and every week, you know, being the five star recruit who goes to the five star school and nothing's ever hard. And all of a sudden you get to the NFL and you get hit in the face and you don't have a great team in front of you and you struggle. I've tried to really embrace Dylan to, you know, encourage Dylan to embrace the process, to embrace adversity, to embrace when things don't go well, to lean into it, not to pull.

So many of us, we pull away from things when they're uncomfortable with the lean into it. And so his maturity has allowed him to do that. And I think it's what makes him it makes him viable and ready to play as a freshman. And everyone's excited to see Dylan play. I know you're in a quarterback competition right now.

Is there any update on what's going on with that quarterback competition? Yeah, I mean, Dylan's done a great job. I mean, he's he's played, played really, really well.

We're blessed also. You understand how football is, you know, everyone's fighting to compete. You know, we have Heinrich Harburg who, you know, won five games last year at the University of Nebraska.

And there's not many people have done recently. And, you know, he and Dylan have this amazing relationship are also fighting tooth and nail to be the guy on the field. And then we have Danny Kalen, who's another elite recruit who's, you know, probably one of the fastest processors I've ever seen. So we have probably the best quarterback rooms I've ever been a part of. And they're all fighting, fighting with each other right now, but in a good way.

And so, you know, they all get their reps. So, you know, when the time comes, we'll make a decision. But, you know, I'm looking at things nowadays is as with this new expanded playoffs that, you know, I need to have guys ready for for for game 12. Then hopefully get a good bowl game or big big 10 championship game, game 13, maybe get into the playoffs at some point.

So I'm trying to build depth. And, you know, the guys are hanging along with me with it. Now, I saw you said the other week that you think four teams should get in each and every year in the Big Ten.

I'd be surprised if that's not the case. I know Paul Finebaum, our buddy, went after you a little bit for that. And I may have said some not nice things about Paul, but that's a different topic for another day. But on that topic, you know, just expand a little bit more on that thought. Why you think the Big Ten should get at least four teams each and every year? You know, you have a 12 team playoff, right? And, you know, I think four teams from the I think four teams from the Big Ten and I think four teams from the SEC should get in.

I don't think there's a debate about it. Like you basically just took some of the best teams in the country and would normally be part of our noncon. You took Oregon, you took Washington, you took USC and UCLA. And you put them into our conference. And so, you know, I think if you go through this conference and you emerge ten and two, eleven and one, nine and three, even maybe some years, even eight and four, depending on who you always played, it's like the NFL.

You know what I mean? Like, yeah, unfortunately, sometimes someone gets in from the biggest conference in the NFL. But, you know, the wildcard allows you to get more from the better conferences. And the Big Ten and the SEC are the standard bearers right now. That's no disrespect to the Big 12.

I was a part of it. No disrespect to the ACC. But that's just unfortunately or fortunately, however you look at college football, the way things have gone. And so if you're going to play the best schedules, then you take into account the Big Ten. I mean, we're playing we're playing nine conference games. You know, this year, we play five road conference games. You know, some of these other conferences play eight. And again, I'm not hating on them. That's their own business. But the Big Ten's hard.

It's cold. It's it's physical. And so, yeah, four teams from this league should get in every year or teams for the SEC should get in every year. And then, you know, if it expands to 14, then they can figure out them. But, yeah, I know. And I think most people most people that really, really study it know it as well. And, you know, we all have jobs. Do we all have to say certain things?

But I don't think there's a lot of people that actually really debate what I said. Matt rule here with us for a few more moments. Let me get to your defense. So in your previous stops, whether it was at Temple or Baylor in college, you've always had Phil Snow with you. But you've had other rock stars emerge on your staff, whether it's a Fran Brown, Elijah Robinson and what they've gone on to do.

The other day, I was talking to Josh Perry. I knew from watching last year how good of a defensive coach Tony White is. But, man, it seems like day by day, starting to get more and more praise nationally. What does coach Tony White bring to your defense? Well, he should get a lot of praise nationally because he's the guy.

He's elite. And, you know, we're one of those teams that still practices physically on defense. You know, we still hit and strike and get off blocks and run to the ball at practice and nothing. Other people don't.

But we do it every day. And and so our guys, they buy into it. And then you have this creative you have this creative mind and Tony's that that that puts together a system that's really, really hard to go against. I know because I watch our offense against it every day.

And so it's really difficult. And then you have great players. You know, you have Tommy Hill is one of the best corners in the country. We have one of the best D lines in the country led by Temple made Terrence Knighton. You know, we have linebackers who can go silent, silent, great safety play.

So we're really we're really talented. And at the same time, we're also have a swagger about us that Tony brings out and really difficult system to go against. Last year, your defense was so good.

Your offense, like we talked about the turnovers, they can't happen again. Like if we're on a seesaw here, is it still this is a defensive team first or is the offense starting to catch up here? Well, the offense is definitely catching up.

Yeah, there's there's no doubt about that. You know, there's there's there's a lot of even practices right now. And, you know, I can feel myself sometimes at practice out there, Zach, getting after the defense, like, you know, then I watch the tape and they're doing all the same things they were doing. We're just we're just we're just better on offense. You know, we're we're we're a year more developed. The offense aligns bigger, stronger.

No way. The huge injury yesterday are starting left tackle. Teddy Brask unfortunately tore his knee. But, you know, we have guys behind him who can play and our tight ends or you're stronger. We've got five or six backs that we can put in the game. Our skill outside receiver is is probably the best rooms I've ever been around.

So it's not just about a one position. I think we're just better across the board, whether it's the guys that played for us last year, just being a year older or the guys who've added in. So I think I think, you know, you know, I'm always going to have a defensive team. We're always going to play defense. But at the same time, I think we'll have the chance to score points.

And and certainly won't be where we were last year. I respect that you're in a competition right now for your quarterback and right all around the rest of the team as well. But if game one was tomorrow, like, would you feel confident if if it was OK, we're going to start Dylan Riola and that's his first snap is tomorrow in a college football game? Yeah, yeah, I feel I have nothing but confidence in Dylan. And to your point, I have nothing but confidence in those other two quarterbacks as well. But yeah, Dylan, you know, to me, you know, this is a this is, you know, these climbs, you know, some people think like it goes like this. Right.

But but usually in life, everything kind of goes up, down, up, down. So when you play a freshman quarterback and I've done it twice, I did it with I did it with P.J. Walker at Temple.

I did it with Charlie Brewer. Baylor, if you want to ride the highs and the lows and the last thing you want is quarterbacks playing afraid, you know, and so we were saying in one one stretch, hey, we don't want to turn the ball over. But hey, we also want to be explosive.

Well, you know, that's actually a metric called toxic differential. And we want to be explosive. And so there's going to be some times where maybe we turn the ball over. We just don't want to turn the ball over in the ways we turned it over last year. So I think all three of our quarterbacks understand that.

But I know Dylan certainly does. And, you know, if he goes out there game one, he'll be ready. Coach Matt Rule, second year at Nebraska. Some big expectations there as they're looking to return to a bowl game this season. Coach, we appreciate and good luck coming up in twenty five days up against Utah. If you come to a game this year, bring some bagels.

We will definitely bring some New York bagels. There is no doubt about that. Coach, thanks so much.

Appreciate it. Go Big Red. There he is. Matt Rule, the head coach of Nebraska Cornhuskers.

A lot of great stuff there. And obviously, Dylan, Riola, Dylan, Riola, Dylan, Riola. There's just an excitement with Nebraska again. And if Riola could really pop off and be the player that he is, man, those fans are just dying, absolutely dying to be competitive and to have a winner again. And I think they'll start Riola week one. I would be surprised. But you look week two up against Colorado.

If you've got a matchup, Dylan, Riola against Adore Sanders, that's a heck of a week two matchup. All right. We'll take a time out.

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