Nebraska head football coach Matt Rhule took the podium earlier today at Big Ten Media Days in Chicago. The Huskers were one of six teams featured on the final day of the three-day event.
In his opening comments, coach Rhule spoke of the need for Nebraska to take a step forward this season and he feels that this year’s team can do just that.
“We didn’t come to Nebraska to go seven and six. We came to compete for this and being here today with teams who’ve won the national championship, it’s inspiring. It speaks to this conference, it speaks to the people that run it, the coaches and the players that are in it. And we understand that we have to take a step this year. We’re excited to do that. I hope you can hear my voice. I believe we will because of the young men in our program and what they’ve done.”
Rhule talked about picking up quarterback Anthony Colandrea in the transfer portal and was asked if he was surprised when two-year starting quarterback Dylan Raiola chose to leave Nebraska and enter the portal.
“Nothing surprises me. I wake up everyday and I say, what’s gonna happen today? Like, you know, and just embrace it. But, you know, we lost a quarterback we thought we were gonna get. We said who’s available. There were three great quarterbacks out there, we said, Hey, let’s bring them all in on the same day, man, we gotta move. And I learned from a great coach, Steve Adazio, a guy that I love and respect. And he was at Florida and he always said, you know, talked about Tebow, like, I don’t care about, you know, anything else about a quarterback other than if they have it. And like you can’t tell people what it is, but you can feel it. And I said, guys, we’ll know within the first five minutes of meeting these guys who our quarterback is. And I remember Anthony got out of the car and watching him shake everybody’s hands and the way he carried himself and the way he did things, and I was like, that’s our guy.”
Rhule enters his fourth season as Nebraska head coach. During his first three seasons, Nebraska is just 2-10 in the month of November. Rhule was asked how that can get turned around.
“We’ll win in November with our guys up front. We’ll win with a great offensive line. We’ll win with quarterbacks who make plays, receivers who go take that ball. Like we’ll win with Jacory Barney returning a punt for a touchdown. So I don’t think it’s necessarily something different. It’s just doing what we do better than we did it before. And again I go back to Luke (Lindenmeyer) and Justin (Evans). They’re great examples. Like they were out there as nineteen year old kids starting for me. Well now they’re twenty two year old men and they have to go exert their will and we will do everything we can to help them along the way.”
Nebraska will start fall camp on August 5th. KBBN radio is proud to be a Husker football affiliate again this season and will broadcast every Nebraska football game, courtesy of the Huskers Radio Network, beginning with the season opener against the Ohio Bobcats on September 5th.
