Last week, Matt Rhule spoke at the Annual Broyles Award Ring Ceremony, honoring the best high school assistant coaches in America. The 15 minute speech is a must-watch for Husker fans. The Huskers’ head man gave a room full of high school assistants his philosophy on coaching, developing players, and leading young men. Here are my top four takeaways from his remarks.
Rhule is a Developmental Guy at Heart. Coach Rhule talked a lot about how things are changing, and not necessarily for the better, in college football. “College football is getting ruined by guys coaching just for the money,” he said. It seems clear that he still enjoys the teaching part of the job, and having the opportunity to help players become better, on and off the field. He told the story of when Nebraska was preparing for the bowl game, and defensive line coach Terrance Knighton left for the same job at Florida State, it was Rhule who took over coaching that position group for a few weeks. He said he doesn’t get to do that sort of hands-on, assistant coach type work very often anymore, and he loved it. Further to the point, he talked about building successful teams at Temple by developing players who were not the most highly recruited. “I’m proud of what we did at Temple because we didn’t have the best recruits. But we coached ‘em up.”
Beyond developing his players on the field, it’s clearly important to the head coach to help them become successful young men. He said at Nebraska, “We have a purpose that we change these men into warriors that change the world.” He went on to talk about the importance of having high standards for young people, especially in this day and age. “How are they gonna change the world if we keep lowering the standard for our kids?”
The Passion is Burning as Bright as Ever. Holy cow, can this guy bring it in front of a crowd. Husker fans have seen some snippets of locker room speeches, so perhaps it won’t come as a surprise. As we’ve discussed many times on the Common Fan Podcast, Coach Rhule just has a gift when it comes to public speaking and motivating. There were several shots of the crowd throughout the speech, and they were absolutely captivated.
Not only is he a gifted speaker, but at 50 years old, it’s clear Rhule has plenty of energy and passion left in the tank. Part of his appeal as a speaker is how much he clearly loves being a football coach. “Not every guy’s gonna win the Heisman, not every guy is gonna be all state,” he said. “But they need a coach. They need somebody to inspire belief.” He even told a story about getting fired from the Carolina Panthers, and how amidst that rather unpleasant experience, he was lifted up by a large number of former players, who reached out to thank him for the impact he’s had on their life. “There are so many young people that you’ve impacted,” he told the crowd, “that just haven’t had the chance yet to tell you what you’ve done for them.”
Phil Snow’s Influence. Phil Snow came up at the beginning and the end of the speech. Snow, who was Rhule’s defensive coordinator at Temple, Baylor, and with the Carolina Panthers, was hired in December to be Nebraska’s Associate Head Coach.
At the beginning of the speech, Rhule referred to his veteran partner as his “long time mentor and defensive coordinator.” At the end of the speech, he said that Snow “taught me that a football coach is a teacher. See if you inspire people, if you believe in them, if you hold them to high standards, if you teach them to work, and then if you are consistently teaching them the same things over and over and over again, you teach them how to be a man. You teach them how to be great.”
Snow is nearly 20 years older than Rhule, so I guess it should be no surprise that Rhule looks up to him. But I still found it fascinating to see how much Rhule views his long time assistant as a mentor. It’s clear Snow has played a major role in Rhule’s coaching journey, and it can only help the Huskers that he’s now on staff in Lincoln. As I wrote last month, “I’m curious about what exactly Snow’s role will be, but I generally think it’s a good thing for Rhule to bring in someone he trusts and has coached with for so long. It can be lonely at the top; having someone who can be both a sounding board and give you their unvarnished opinion is usually a good thing.”
Year 3 Leap, Anyone? In case you hadn’t heard, at Rhule’s previous stops in college football (at Temple and Baylor), his teams had painful first seasons (2-10 at Temple, 1-11 at Baylor); mediocre second seasons (6-6 at Temple, 7-6 at Baylor), and big jumps in year 3 (10-4 at Temple, 11-3 at Baylor).
Well, right at the beginning of last week’s speech, Rhule offered this nugget: “We plan on being pretty good next year…we got to 7 wins this year; we plan on making a jump.” He was on the way to making a broader point about something else, but that grabbed me pretty quickly. All of Husker Nation hopes the Coach can lead the Big Red to his patented year 3 leap in 2025.