← Middays With Matt
Middays With Matt
Matt Rhule Speaks (Mon 8/10 - Seg 3)
00:23:48
Matt Rhule spoke with the media Saturday and Matt reacts to it. He also look at their schedule and gives a ceiling and floor, NOT a record prediction.
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When you're a maintenance engineer in a beverage manufacturing plant, you keep production lines moving and quality on track because there is no room for slowdowns. With Grainger's vast selection of high quality motors, sensors, belts and hard to find parts, you can get what you need fast and all in one place. So nothing gets in the way of getting the job done. Call 1-800-GRAINGER clickranger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.
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Now back to Middays with Matt on 1620 the Zone. Couple congratulations are in order. Roger Craig got inducted over the weekend into the Pro Football hall of Fame. The most undoubtedly the most accomplished non lineman for Nebraska from the NFL or from college to the NFL like you said. Finally, long time coming for for Roger Craig to get inducted into the Pro Football hall of Fame. Phenomenal speech as well. He that was given that was shown at Canton, Ohio. We'll talk about that speech and some more hall of Fame stuff later in the show. In terms of other things that were said at that ensignment ceremony in Canton along with a loaded 2027 class where I don't think it will happen, but you look at five guys on that new list, the potential new inductees of the 2027 hall of Fame, you say wow, they can probably put all five of these guys in willy nilly and nobody would would really argue about it. I do think though eventually Frank Gore and Terrell Suggs have to get into the Pro Football hall of Fame. I'm, I'm not necessarily argumentative of those guys not getting it on the first ballot, but I do think eventually it's only right that those two guys are in so we'll see how that shapes up. I feel like, I mean this is going to be a pretty decent scratch of you know, having five guys going to the hall of Fame year in and year out. But we will talk about that later into the show. Other congratulations to be had to Damon Benning, former 1620 Zone alum who obviously was doing the more that morning show with her dad, announced uh that he is the new director of player development for Nebraska football, uh, taking over for uh, Gus Felder who was uh, originally in that role. Uh, for those who know Damon, I think that uh, you know that this is a role that is really, really really good for him. His passion for football, his passion for Nebraska football, Nebraska athletics and his passion for helping develop young people and young football players and obviously most recently coaching for west side being a DC and db, I've gotten to know Damon a pretty decent amount over the last couple of months and last year. And it's always been awesome to me, always been awesome to the show, to middays with Matt sharing jokes and challenging me on some takes that, that I appreciate him, appreciate the relationship we've been developing. I think that DB is absolutely going to kill it for Rule in that role for Nebraska football. Matt Rule did speak 25 minutes, didn't say a whole lot. It is quite incredible to go back and, and listen to Rule in year one and, and when he first got here to Nebraska and then go ahead and listen to that 25 minutes that he gave on Saturday. Just the tone is very different. Right when he was first here at Nebraska, it was exciting. It was, it was energetic, it was enthusiastic. It was, you know, him kind of laying down. This is what we're about, this is what we need to be. This is what we're trying to do. Here are our goals, here's how we're going to accomplish it. This is what I think I remember. You know, I don't think it was every week, but he would be very bullish on some players that Nebraska fans, frankly, were out on. Right. I mean, he talked a lot about Jeff Sims, an NFL prospect, and people go, okay, like, maybe we gotta do more research into this new quarterback for, for the Huskers. Oh, Bryce Ben here. Remember he called Bryce Benhart, you know, he was coming off of a difficult season from 2022, called Bryce Benart. He's an NFL type player. People go, whoa, what, what? What? That's not what I saw the year before. And Bryce ended up developing into a, a, a very suitable tackle eventually for Nebraska football. And, you know, I remember that it just seemed like there were headlines and, and very bullish statements and, you know, very hard and fast opinions and a, hey, this is what we're going to do. This is what we're about and this is where we need to go, where we're three years down the line, we're 19 to 19, you're under 500, a very decent margin in, in Big Ten play. And the time for that and the time for that talk is, is kind of over a little bit, right? And I remember heading into year three, and I still think we're in this era. I called, hey, I, I said this is the beginning of the results era, right? These last two years where, all right, you come in to a difficult situation, you have to clean up a lot of the mess that was made from the administration that was before you. You have to use a Lot of the players, right? Because back then in 23, you couldn't do nearly as much as you did now. Like, you couldn't be like Lane Kiffin and lsu where you go, all right, bringing all the donors, bringing all the money. We're completely flipping the roster. Not only are we getting new players, but we're getting very high quality players that immediately are going to put us in contention to where, you know, be in the College Football Playoff. Lsu, coming off of a terrible year where they fired their head coach in the middle of the season in the coaches poll, is ranked 13th and potentially knocking on the door of making the College Football Playoff. You couldn't do that in 23. You couldn't do that with Matt Rule and specifically with, with Coach Rule. He wasn't coming from a college football team, right? He couldn't bring Christian McCaffrey with him from the Carolina Panthers to Nebraska. He couldn't bring Brian Burns with him from, you know, the Panthers to Nebraska. You know, he didn't have that advantage. And so he had to come in in 23 and had a lot of things to work against, had a lot of things to work through, had a lot of things that he needed to get done. And you kind of gave him a little bit of grace when they didn't make a bowl game because even though that they didn't Minna win a bowl game, five wins was the most wins they had in quite some time. You know, after three wins and four wins and all that stuff with, with Frost, slash Mickey Joseph at that very end. And so then year two, you go into, wow, he's got the five star quarterback. Wow, this team, you know, should not have the QB issues they had the year before. Hey, they're bringing back Tony. What, hey, look at what they're returning on the defensive end. There was definitely some optimism and, and definitely some more optimism when they got off to that pretty good start, but then had a rough end of the season. But still, when you went into year three, you beat Boston College, you won a bowl game, you went to the bowl game, you could say, wow, there is clear and obvious progress. There is a future to look forward to this team with Dylan Riola and the potential of him getting better and so on and so forth. And heading into, from into year three, off of year two, you're like, all right, this is where the results count. This is where it's all about the wins. It's all about the Sanders A's, it's all about the W's. It's even then before you had what people have described as a lackluster year three under Matt Rule, there still were people who were like, all right, cool. Like, I get all the words and I understand all that, but I'm, I'm more locked in on, all right, you know, what are the results going to be? And the results have not been what people wanted and they were not what people expected. And so now you've kind of had this shift where we went from having some very declarative statements, from very bold proclamations to this is what, what we're all about, and this is who I am to. You know, we had 25 minutes. And the most notable thing is that Nebraska has gained 677 pounds of lean mass. That's, that's the most notable thing that came out of that press conference, that they lost over 180 pounds of fat. That's, that's, that's where we're at. You know, we're. It was just kind of funny because I loved going to those press conferences is when they first came to be and when he first got here. And they were fun, man, they were great. They were, they were long, they were informative. You know, you had some interesting moments where, you know, Bill Belichick was in the building at one point, right? Remember that? And talking about how Bill would write everything up on the board and everyone's like, what the hell is going on? And Rule made the joke. Like he felt like he had, he had the pressure of not going to the bathroom, right? Like, that was fun. That was good. Like, he would bring up Hassan Redick like every, every, like four questions and you're like, hell yeah. He developed that guy. Like there was, there was some legitimate excitement and that 25 minute press conference that was very mundane. I was like, wow, okay, things have changed. You know, things have changed and, and you got to have results this year. And so I teased in our rundown, I'm not giving you my prediction today. I'm not telling you how many games I think Nebraska is going to win. I'm not telling you that, you know, hey, this is what their record is going to be. But I do want to tell you where I'm at currently right now. And you know, this is, I guess, the, the more creative way to, to do what's Matt's floor and what's Matt's ceiling for Nebraska football. Or maybe it's not that creative at all, but here's where I'm at. I just, I don't see them winning less than 6. I don't see them. And I don't know how many people are going to say five and seven. I, I just don't see less than six. And the reason why is I look at these four teams, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan State, Rutgers, and say what you want about last year and how they didn't take advantage of a schedule that broke really well for them, that, you know, they didn't win the close game against Michigan, they couldn't pull it out against usc, they, they looked terrible against Iowan Penn State. Like say what you want about that year, one thing they did accomplish that they didn't really accomplish the years prior were they pulled out close wins. They plowed, pulled out some really close wins. And I remember, I don't, I wasn't at this press conference, but there was a presser that Rule talked about winning the close games and, and, and when they gave up a lead, right when he had some of the guys from the Frost era, he talked about like you got to slay that lion in your head. That's, that was the line he used, slaying the line in your head in terms of winning those close games. And to be honest, like they never really accomplished that with the holdovers from Frost rule, which by the way, I don't put any blame on that any other than Scott Frost. That's a Frost problem. That wasn't a rule problem. Those guys unfortunately had some what I like to describe as football ptsd. You know, they, they were just so used to being up and then everything, the walls collapsing in on them in the fourth quarter and then some terrible calamity happening, causing them to lose the game. Hell, there's a guy who made a whole podcast series about was, I don't blame them for not being able to accomplish that with those guys. But now a lot of those guys are gone and a lot of the guys that they were playing with last year, whether they be at different teams or whether they weren't old enough, they weren't on those Frost teams, right? And a vast majority of those guys were not there. And so I think in part of that and because of that and Rule, building up the importance of losing close games, because that has been the Achilles heel of Nebraska football now for the last decade, decade and a half, that they were kind of calcified and hardened and abled to win those close games, won a very close game against Maryland, took game winning draft, won a very close game against Michigan State, won a very close game against Northwestern, won a very close game against Cincinnati in the beginning of the season where it took a massive play from a guy who was in the very end of the Scott Frost era, Malcolm Hartzog, to make that interception. And so I, I like you want to say what you will about last season and not taking advantage of the schedule, the team and a lot of the guys who are back, the 83% retention rate that has been mentioned, they know how to win close games. They know how to, to kind of fight fire with fire. And when they're in some really precarious situations and some really tough situations, they proved last year that a lot of these guys who are going to play this year can find a way to get to the win. And so when I look at these four games between Illinois, Maryland, Michigan Skin and Ruckers, I, I think that they all pose unique and different challenges to Nebraska. I think Maryland has a very talented quarterback and a super talented defensive line, but I think Nebraska kind of wins everywhere else, really throughout that roster. And, you know, Maryland just very much could have a Mike Locksley problem at this point, and he's just gone. You look at Rutgers, you know, and once again, like, they bring back a lot of guys in the offensive line, and they got a guy in Antoine Raymond, who's a stud running back, and they got a guy in K.J. duff, who's another stud wide receiver. Like, those guys pose unique challenges to Nebraska. Once again, I think just Nebraska is a better team than Rutgers overall, top to bottom, even though they pose that unique challenge. You look at Illinois and I, I'm ten toes down on this. Like, I understand giving Brett Bielema the benefit of the doubt. I get it. The guy won 19 games at Illinois. Nobody's done that, okay. In the last two seasons. Nobody does that. But I think Iowa and Kirk Ference and everything that they have over there has proven they're immune in a way to losing talent because they've lost plenty of talent in the past and they still win 8, 9, 10 games in a season. B at Illinois actually hasn't proven that because you look back and we always say last two seasons, last two seasons. Well, the reason why they go, they, they don't say last three or last four is that in 2023, Illinois went five and seven. Well, why do they go five and seven? Well, they went five and seven because they lost their cornerback, Tommy DeVito. They lost their corner is one of the best in the NFL right now. Devon Witherspoon. They lost Octavius Martin, who's also in the secondary, lost Sydney Brown. He was drafted in the third round by the Philadelphia Eagles. They lost Sidney Brown's brother Chase Brown, who is now one of the more reputable and talked about running backs in the AFC North. They lost a ton of talent from that team from that year to next year and they still had a lot of talent on those, those next coming teams, right? It was the first year of Altmeyer. Johnny Newton was still there. Keith Randolph was also really great defensive lineman. He didn't get drafted, eventually signed with the Chicago Bears. Like they lost a ton from 22 to 23. And you can make the argument they've, they've lost just about the same from 20 from last season to this season. They've lost a ton of. Altmeyer is one of the more underrated guys who have been acquired and stayed with the team for a long period of time in the transfer portal. He's gone. I'm not buying Kaden Hauser, right? They lost like their entire front seven. They lost massive guys on the offensive line. They lost Hank Beatty who was their stud wide receiver. Like they have the talent has, has just, just left. And I don't doubt that eventually Nebraska will be or sorry, Illinois will be able to redevelop that talent right. And once again with Belema, be a contender in the Big Ten. But I think that this 23 tier, this 2016 for Illinois is going to be very similar to the 23 team that they had in which Nebraska that year in 23 went to Illinois on a Friday and beat him in champagne, which is one of Matt rules best wins of his tenure here in Nebraska, Michigan State. I this is a transition year. This is how Fitz does it. This is not a, a, a Kurt Signetti turnaround. This is not a hey, we're coming in also too. You know Fitz, unfortunately for msu, he ain't bringing a ton of guys from his former Scott to go and help him turn this transition around quickly. So to me, because you weigh all of those factors I just gave you, I'd be shocked if they don't go at least three and one in those four games. Right. So where does that put you? That puts you at 6 and 6. However, I just you have to look at the patterns of Nebraska football under rule and I think that there are steps that you have to take right in incremental progress. And it'd be very bullish and bold to say that they're going to knock off multiple steps all in one season. And what I'm talking about is Maverol has had an underdog loss, an underdog loss every Single season under Matt rule. They were 1 1/2 point underdog against Michigan State in 23. They lost that game. They were 7 1/2 point. Sorry. They're 1/2 point favorite against MSU. They lost that game. They were 7 1/2 point favorite against UCLA in 24, they lost that game. They were a 9 1/2 point favorite against Illinois in 24. That was that rank. Vers rank game at Memorial Stadium. 9 1/2 point favorite. Lost that game. They were a 6 1/2 point favorite last year against Minnesota. Okay, they lost that game. Hard for me to fight that. That might happen again, right? This team could be, you know, Matt Rules best team. He claims that, right. This is the best team that we've had, top to bottom, the most depth. At the same time, they haven't gone through a season where they just always handle business, where they always get things done. And so that's why when I think of people who go, well, they can win all their nine games and then lose to the big three to me, I'm thinking, you know what, there's probably going to be a game that they shouldn't lose or they should be in or they might be favored in or it's very close and they end up losing that. Because that's been the pattern of Matt Rule. And also too, in order for you to get to nine, you would go, well, they have to beat a team as an underdog, right? They would have. They're going to be an underdog against Washington. They're probably going to be an underdog against Illinois, but I'm not necessarily worried about that game. They're going to be an underdog against Iowa. They're going to be an underdog against Indiana, Oregon and Ohio State. Matt Rule has beaten and under has won games as an underdog three times as the head coach of Nebraska. Illinois in 23, Purdue in 23, in UCLA in 2025. Do you want to know what the combined record of those three teams are? Illinois 23, Purdue 23, UCLA 25. You want to guess what the combined record is, Jake Janicek? I mean, thinking about those teams, those years, definitely cannot be good. Like, definitely under.500 by. Oh, God, yes. Yes. Under.500. I'll say by like 10 games. Under combined. Yeah, you're close. I'm close. Those three teams that Nebraska has beaten while being an underdog have a combined record of 12 and 25. Matt rules underdog wins has come from teams who had a 33% win percentage. Okay. So in order for Them to get to nine, they're gonna have to beat some very high quality opponents. As an underdog, they haven't done that. They haven't done that. They just haven't accomplished that. I feel like these are all steps that you need to take at some point as a program where you got to beat all the teams and not get upset at some point and you have to beat an underdog team that's got a winner, winning record, right? You have to do those steps. It's hard for me to proclaim they're gonna do all of that all at once, just cause. And they're gonna get to nine and three. And so that's why my floor would be six and six, because I'm like, they've handled business and they won some close games last year against teams that they needed to and they should have, but at the same time, they haven't proved under rule that they can be an underdog and beat a team as an underdog with a winning record and. And make. Make that big next step. Right? And so that's why my floor right now 6 and 6, but my ceilings aid in 4. There's not a whole lot of. That's pretty. That's pretty close. I think you kind of know where this team is at. And I just. I don't know if they could take those two big jumps in one year. It'd be great. It'd be great. But from what we've seen in the last three years, you know, and the fact that you have some things that you thought would be at a high level that frankly heading into year four aren't as. As high a level. And I'm kind of referring to the player development. Like they would need a lot of guys to take some pretty big steps.
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Steps.
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Some pretty big steps in order for them to accomplish that nine wins in order for them to beat those teams they need to beat. So that's kind of where I'm at. That's kind of my whole breakdown. I'm like, you know, I don't like the whole, though, like people say, like, all right, tell me why Nebraska isn't going to have a good record. But like, don't. Don't talk about the schedule. You can't talk about the schedule. It. If you tell me, like, if you go, hey, you have to give me an argument as to why Nebraska is going to only win six games or only win five games or why they're not going to be good. But you can't talk about the schedule. That's like Me telling a prosecutor, hey, you. You have to convict this person of murder, but you're not allowed to say why. You're not allowed to bring up that their alibi doesn't check out. All right? That's what that is. You tell me that I. Hey, we're gonna do record predictions, but you can't talk about the schedule, all right? Yeah, you gotta prosecute this guy and you gotta convict this guy of murder, but you can't bring up that. His alib. What are we doing? They, they, they. That's how we predict schedules. You look at the teams who they're going to play, right? If you want to say, hey, tell me why Nebraska isn't going to be good, then that's a whole other different combo. But we're talking about records. Of course I'm going to talk about the schedule. Of course we're going to lay that out. And I think that I'd be very stunned if they didn't go three and one against those four teams. One thing playing against them, though, Maryland, sm, Maryland, msu, Rutgers. In Illinois, those four games, three of them are on the road. That's tough. Illinois on the road, Rutgers on the road. MSU on the road. I would. I would feel much. Dude, if you flip that and you had those three games at home and one game on the road, out of those four, I tell you, man, like, no reason they can't go 40 in that. In that stop in which maybe my. My floor and ceiling would go up a little bit. But that's kind of. Kind of where I'm at. I just. I think it'd be. It'd be some. You'd have to take some pretty big steps to go nine and three. You have to put multiple steps together to do that. Maybe they do. I'd love to be wrong. I would love to be wrong. We have plenty of text messages coming in the Prairie Flower casino zone hotline, 429-516-2020. You want to get on the conversation? We'll grab some of those text messages. We'll read them. We have some great comments in the YouTube chat. Hooky skirs here. Sif Sith is in here. Jimmy is in here. They're all having a great time. Join us on the Zone TV YouTube page and don't forget to email us at the Equitable Bank Zone inbox. Equitable Bank. They take banking personally and always pick up on the first ring. And you can reach us at the Liquid Trucking Zone Twitter feed. All right. That was my ceiling. That was my floor 6. 6 and 6 is my floor. 8 and 4 is currently my ceiling. Where's your ceiling? Where is your floor? I want to hear from you. 429-51620 or the Equitable Bank Zone inbox. Matt at 1620 the Zone. Matt at Matt McMedia on the Liquid Trucking Zone Twitter. If you tell me what are you thinking, what's your baseline? What's your what's your, hey, this is the highest they can go. And then you, you know, maybe give me a take or two. We're going to have some fun here on MIDDAYS with Matt, the 1620 zone radio network.
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