LINCOLN—Matt Rhule has talked numberous times about how he believes the 2024 Illinois loss began the week before.
That’s when the Big Red dominated Northern Iowa, 34-3. The Huskers were up 21-3 at halftime and handling business. Rhule said the locker room was jubilant, but that’s because things were easy.
“That’s what we were supposed to do… last game,” Rhule said Monday. “We’re supposed to win by that much.”
Jump to the next week, and the hard times set in against a quality opponent. Nebraska lost in overtime, setting the stage for a 6-6 regular season while Illinois chugged along to a 9-3 regular season, a Citrus Bowl berth, and a No. 16 final ranking.
This past weekend, Rhule saw the same halftime energy against Akron. He didn’t like how the team was acting, up 33-0 at the break.
“I went after them at halftime,” Rhule said. “I freaking lost it in the locker room. I was pissed that we let them drive the ball down right before the half, almost making a field goal. Where’s the killer instinct? I want us to be a football place. Football teams, you put away the teams you’re supposed to put away. You don’t let them have life.”
That halftime speech has since been released. Rhule would go on to talk about Akron not fearing or respecting Nebraska enough, based on their play towards the end of the second quarter. That message resulted in a 35-0 second half, but it also illustrates a mentality shift that Rhule has been fighting for since day one in Lincoln.
“Teams that win know how to win,” Rhule said. “Teams that don’t win, bad teams do bad things. I want us to be a be a good team this week. And it starts with how we act this week in practice. It started last night. I was very pleased with our day yesterday, our attention to detail, showing up, being locked in, taking responsibility for the things that were good, taking responsibility for the things that have to improve.”
Rhule said players are starting to learn the process of why things go well or don’t go well.
“I think they’re recognizing some of them are doing things that they’ve never done before,” Rhule said. “They’ve never beaten someone 68 nothing before. And so why are you doing that? because you have a Nebraska (jersey)?
“Well, you had a Nebraska (jersey) on when you lost to Georgia Southern. You had a lot of people in the stadium when you lost to whomever. When we beat LA Tech a couple years ago and it was a close game, you had the same stuff on. So, it’s not that; it’s how you prepare, how you practice, and how you play.”
Rhule has beaten the drum in press conferences, and likely even more in practices, about playing the teams and not the brands.
“You have to have an edge to yourself,” Rhule said. “And so if the edge only comes from like, well, we’re playing a ranked team, then that’s
the disease of average.
“You have to find an edge every single week because there’s a man lined up against you that thinks he can beat you, and so you have to beat him, and at the end of the game, he’s either going to shake your hand and say, ‘I can play at your level. I’m good enough to play in Nebraska,’ or he’s going to shake your hand and put his eyes down and be like, ‘Hey, good luck the rest of the way.’ And get ready for his season.
“That’s the mindset we’re trying to get across to our guys. We’ve been trying to get that across since year one.”
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Rhule said just like his teams have historically made process from year one to year two and to year three, there are steps in the process of shifting the mentality to what is needed for success at this level.
“I think now we’re at this step like we’re looking for competitive greatness,” Rhule said. “Preparation leads to poison confidence which leads to competitive greatness. And even though the situation, like, you get in the game and you’re up by 60 points, is that competitive greatness? Well, for some of our guys, yeah, it was our chance to play.
“And you know what, Ashton Murphy ripped through and got a sack. He can’t control when he gets in the game, but he can certainly control what he does when he gets in
there.
“That’s what we’re looking for this week. If we go out there this week or we go out there at practice this week, and we think we’re a good team, and we start listening to that disease, just like I tell them, don’t listen to the noise when everybody’s saying, you guys can’t do this, you can’t do that. Also, don’t listen when they say you can do this. That’s just the film. What does the film say?
“I’d like to see good film at tomorrow’s practice. And if I don’t, then we’ll we’ll try to get it for Wednesday. And hopefully by Saturday, we’re locked in and ready to go. But with the guys we have, they’ve been through a lot. I think they’ll be ready.”
Have a question or comment for Kaleb? Send an email to kalebhenry.huskermax@gmail.com.
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