As a college football head coach, Matt Rhule has taken his three teams to true road games 51 times.
His record in those road games: 22-29.
This Saturday, Rhule and the Nebraska Cornhuskers will play their first true road game — not a neutral-site game — of the 2025 season at surprising Maryland, which is 4-1 and very easily could be 5-0. The Terrapins are 3-1 at home in 2025.
There’s no tried and true formula to winning road games vs. home games. Home cooking notwithstanding, often the main reasons teams win on the road — or at home — are the guys in the uniforms and the coaches, rather than the folks wearing spirit wear in the stadium.
For the Huskers, it will be a unique and uncertain challenge Saturday, hearing the majority of fans cheering against them instead of the Memorial Stadium crowd that wildly supports them — Nebraska hearing boos the last two home games notwithstanding.
In Rhule’s two-plus seasons in Lincoln, Nebraska has played only 10 true road games. After the Maryland game, Nebraska has road games remaining this season at Minnesota, UCLA and Penn State.
At Nebraska, Rhule is 16-14 overall, 2-8 on the road. Rhule and the Huskers were 1-4 on the road in 2023, and 1-4 on the road in 2024.
In the Big Ten, Rhule is 2-7 on the road, with wins over Illinois (20-7) in 2023, and Purdue (28-10) in 2024.
Rhule’s Big Ten road losses are:
2023
* Minnesota: 13-10
* Michigan State: 20-17
* Wisconsin: 24-17
Nebraska also lost on the road to Colorado, 36-14.
2024
* Indiana: 56-7
* Ohio State: 21-17
* USC: 28-20
* Iowa: 13-10
Six of Rhule’s seven Big Ten away losses have been in those pesky, one-score games.
At Temple, Rhule was 28-23 overall in four seasons. He was 13-12 in road games. He had winning records on the road in his last two years at Temple: 5-2 in 2015, and 4-2 in 2016.
At Baylor, Rhule was 19-20 in three seasons, 7-9 as the away team. He had a 5-0 record on the road in his final season, 2019. He was 11-3 overall that season with the Bears. Rhule went from Baylor to the head-coaching job with the NFL’s Carolina Panthers in 2020.
With the Panthers, Rhule was 11-27 overall in two full seasons, and five games in his third season. Rhule was 6-12 in away games. He got fired after a 1-4 start in 2022.
Sports Illustrated reported in July that: “On average over the last decade, home teams tend to win just under 64 percent of their games.”
In 2024, six teams were undefeated as the away team:
Louisiana: 6-0
Oregon: 5-0
Penn State: 5-0
Army: 4-0
Texas: 4-0
Notre Dame: 3-0
