← Middays With Matt
Middays With Matt
Matt Rhule tides (Tues 8/11 - Seg 3)
00:20:42
Matt goes through a list of bad games and sequences in the Rhule era that made fans not buy into him as much.
Loading summary
Transcript3 lines
- [00:01]
A
With the American Express Platinum card, I can unlock experiences like no other. Since I'm always booking my next trip, I'd love that. I can earn points on travel, plus I get a resi benefit. So, you know, I'm hitting the restaurants everyone's talking about. And you can find out your welcome offer after you apply, which could be as high as 175,000 points. For experiences like no other, there's nothing like platinum. Learn more@americanexpress.com Explore Platinum Terms apply I
- [00:31]
B
was too distracted looking at the first release of the Bears depth chart. Looking good. Looking good. I'm ready to get hurt again. Jake Janicek. Yeah, I'm ready to, I'm ready to be affected, be affected greatly. I feel good about the Bears this year. Yeah, I, it's funny, if you ask anybody in the NFC north, how do they feel about their team this season, they will all say the same thing, which is they will make the wild card. I don't think anybody is counting on winning that division this year. I think all the teams kind of have their obvious strengths. I mean, if you're, if you're going by full division, it's probably the most talented division top to bottom. It's probably not the most competitive though. I mean, we'll see about the Niners. If the Niners eventually get back to full strength, which tbd, I mean, they, they won't. Cause some guys are out for the entire year. But you know, if they can kind of conjure up what they did last year, which was fighting through a bunch of injuries and, you know, win 10 plus games again, I would say that maybe the NFC west is the most, you know, one of the more competitive ones. Or just because I think the Rams and the Seahawks are arguably number one and number two in, in the NFL. And then a healthy San Francisco is probably, you know, the seventh or eighth best team where I think that for as much as you say about the Vikings and the packers and the Lions and the Bears, like, they all could, you know, make the NFC Championship game, in my opinion. And I really mean that. Even, even the Vikings, if they get some really good quarterback play, they also all could, like, they all could have stinkers, you know, they all could have pretty bad season. So it's an interesting debate in terms of like, who's the best division between the AFC west, the NFC and the NFC North. I, I probably lean toward giving it to the north now, but we could be looking back and be like, oh, wow, you know, the Bears really fell off a cliff and had Some regression in terms of they didn't win all those close games again. And hey, the Vikings, you know, they, their quarterback play was as bad as it was the year before. And, and still they only ended up winning eight or nine games. And we can look at the lines and say, wow, that Jared Goff regression was, was actually real. And you know, you know, them losing their coordinators were. Was way more of an effect than anybody could have anticipated. We could look at the packers and be like, oh, wow, you know, Zach Tom ain't the same and you know, Tucker Craft isn't the same and maybe Jordan Love really isn't that guy. And you know, Micah was never the same after coming back after injury. Like, there's the. The division is. Is very, very interesting to me. We also all could. The NFC north could also have everybody play great and like, maybe even get four teams in the playoffs, which is highly unlikely. But still, that's how talented that entire division is. Where, by the way, we're getting some more updates in terms of the quarterback battle in Minnesota yesterday. They had their under the lights practice, the Vikings kid. And once again, all reports indicate that JJ McCarthy looked better than Kyler Murray, which is. I don't think anybody was really planning on, say, on. On proclaiming that. Even the people within the Minnesota Viking building, I don't think they were ready to have that conversation. They clearly brought in Kyler Murray to be the guy. Murray had made two Pro Bowls earlier in his career. Those were the two years that he had Cliff Kingsbury, an offensive head coach, you know, kind of manning the ship for that team. I think they hoped that Kevin o' Connell and his offensive staff and his offensive system with the weapons that the Vikings had, could maybe reinvigorate what Murray was able to create in those two really good seasons as the Cardinals quarterback, which eventually led to him no longer being the QB after a couple of dismal seasons with Jonathan Gannon as his head coach. Funny enough, Gannon in the NFC north, now as the defensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers. That doesn't seem to be the case, though. Nine has shown up. They brought in Murray to take his job and maybe even potentially end his career. And instead the guy has played really well and could end up being the starting quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings heading into this 2026 season. So we'll. We probably. We won't do a whole batch of NFL training camp updates like we did yesterday. We might do it tomorrow or another time during the week, but very interesting to see what that division will End up looking like Alrighty. So I asked a question, you know, kind of set up the year one press conferences like we talked about yesterday were very, were very different under Matt Rule than what we saw last Saturday. Right? I was at basically all of the ones in year one, was at a good amount of them for year two. And then last year I was able to make, make it to a couple, but definitely not as many as I wanted to. But those year one press conferences, I, I went to every single one of them. And I remember just they were fun, man, they were a good time, you know, a lot of energy, a lot of positivity, a lot of optimism. Very interesting informational bits, not only about the players. I mean, Matt Rule would very bluntly, very plainly, very boldly say, this is what I think about this guy and this is what I think about that guy. And you know, you would get a, hey, I think Bryce Benhart is making insane strides. And you would also get a Anthony Grant is fumbling the football way too much type statement. And so it's one of those things where now you look at where the press conferences are and you know that the 25 minutes, first off, was a lot shorter than what a lot of year one pressers would be. But additionally, it just didn't really provide you a whole lot of info. And, and frankly is the fact that it didn't provide you a whole lot of info, and I probably doesn't need to provide you a whole lot of info, is that you have 38 games of information now to feel how you want to feel about Matt Rule, feel how you want to feel about this football program. And we definitely, most definitely through this offseason look at this program through way less rose tinted glasses, as we did when Matt Rule was the, was, was first, you know, in year one as the head coach of Nebraska. So I asked the question to you guys, what, what were your turning points? And if you were somebody who was very optimistic for Matt Rule and his time here, as in, in Nebraska as the head coach of the Huskers, if you were very optimistic to start, and you have now become skeptical and maybe even pessimistic for where this program is going, I ask you, what were your turning points? What were games that were played, what maybe were plays that happened, what were play calls that occurred, what were maybe things that were said at a pre game press conference or a post game press conference, what was. If you were somebody who was optimistic and now you're kind of taking a step back, being like, oh, I don't know what was, what were some of the turning points for you? I have a couple of suggestions, I have a couple of ones that come to mind because I admittedly am somebody who was very optimistic. I don't know if I would call myself bullish, but I was very optimistic that Matt Rule would eventually lead, you know, Nebraska to competing at the second third tier of the Big Ten with your Iowas, with your Illinois, with your Washingtons, maybe with Michigan's and Penn states if they were to have kind of a, a, a take a step back year. I was, I was very, I felt like that Rule would, would eventually get them to that level. And by the way, he still could, right? The guy still head coach of Nebraska. We've seen crazier turnarounds and yes, college football. Right. That still could all occur. But currently, as we stand right now, I'm definitely more skeptical of that happening for all of the information and games that I have in front of me. And so I have some, a couple of suggestions in terms of turning points, right? I'm gonna go in order from the one, I'm gonna go from least significant turning point to most significant turning point. Number one is Iowa 2023. It, I think it's really hard to kind of pinpoint a game and we're like, you just, like you just gave up on the 20 or on Matt rule after the 23 season just because it's like he was taking a lot of the guys that he had from the Frost era. He had a lot of things he had to clean up, you know, internally in terms of just how they did business there from the Frost era to the Rule era. I knew a lot of people who were in that transition where the culture shock and in particular the workload shock was something for them in terms of, wow, we've, we've doing so much work under Matt Rule compared to what you did with Scott Frost. And so there was a lot of things for him to work through. It wasn't the most talented roster. The quarterback situation was abysmal and you just had so many really close losses, right? MSU loss, the Maryland loss, this Iowa loss though, they definitely see some people, not a ton, but some people been like, oh my God, like, as much as things change, things stay the same, right? You have the ball, they had the ball. It was like 1st and 10 on the 25 yard line. They end up doing nothing with it. They have to kick a 44 yard, 44 yard field goal to take the lead 13 to 10 in the fourth quarter. They miss it they. Then Iowa gets the ball. Possession later. I was throws an interception with like 30 seconds could go in the game. But Nebraska's got the ball with 30 seconds. Could go. Chubba Purdy is the quarterback. So maybe, you know, that kind of adds into the. The. This isn't so effective when it comes to me not believing in the program anymore. But Purdy's got the ball. 45 yard line. You're thinking, hey, Nebraska really just needs like 25 yards, maybe 30 yards. Couple quick plays, like give Alvano an opportunity to kick this field goal. Let's go home. Let's win this game. Let's beat Iowa again for the second year in a row. Right? Because they had done it the year previous with Mickey Joseph as the head coach. Let's keep the Heroes trophy in Lincoln. And what happens? Purdy throws an interception, big run. After Iowa kicks the field goal, they win the game. You're like, God, like, like, you can tell me as much as you want about trenches and player development and special teams and so on and so forth, but man, as things change, it often is just the same. I could see how that game might affect people. Didn't really affect me that much. This one did. This next game, and in particular the sequence that happened during this game definitely made me turn an eye to. Okay, well, I don't. Maybe I'm not as confident as I once was before UCLA 2024. Obviously there are a couple of games in 2024. You can point it in terms of close losses. I know some people, and it's not on this list, but some people might have, you know, Iowa 2024 on their list of losses. Like, maybe I was. I was a less of a believer after that game. But I'll tell you why. The 2024 UCLA game kind of hurt me. Nebraska was 7 1/2 point favorite at home. UCLA was 2 and 5. DeShawn Foster, who ended up getting fired a couple games into the next season, was the head coach. UCLA after that, pick six right. To start the second half. They were up 27 to 14 at one point. UCLA was up 20 to 7. Yep. In that game. And you're like, how is this happening? You know, like, like and. And Matt Rule, even in the last press conference picked that, like said on paper, the UCLA game is one of our worst losses that we've had on paper. Like, this is a. This is a, a defeat that stings. Still seven and a half point favorite. They trailed by 13 in the fourth quarter. They ended up losing this game 27 to 20. They had an opportunity. They had the ball in the fourth quarter to go and tie this game. But I'll tell you the sequence that like, really bugged me. They were first and 10. So it was 27 to 14. Okay? It was in the fourth quarter, first and 10. On the 10. They ran the ball for. They ran the ball for five yards with Dante Dowdo. So they're now second and five. All right, stay with me here. They're second and five down 13 on second and goal from the five yard line. Right. What do they proceed to do for the next three plays to try and gain five yards to cut this to a one possession game? They threw the ball three times and I flipped my crap. I lost it. I go, what are we doing? What is this decision making? You ran the ball for five dang yards on the first play. Why are you rolling Dylan out? What is happening? Right? They go ahead, they don't score. Turnover on downs. They still get the ball back and they score later. But if you had scored that touchdown, you might end up winning the game, you might end up winning this whole thing. But it was just mind boggling to me and clearly it was mind boggling to Matt Rule as well, because Marcus Satterfield was no longer the play caller after that game. That was the week after was the USC game where they brought Dana Holgerson in like three fourths of the way through the season to call the last four games of the year for the Cornhuskers. That game, I was, that was the ultimate like, because like I mentioned, I was, I was super bought in on Matt Rule, super optimistic that this thing might work out in year one. And I still am pretty optimistic that I think that they can find some success with Matt Rule in, in Nebraska. I'm, you know, I see I'm more. I'm a little bit more down the middle, a little bit more pragmatic when it comes to what's my opinion on the program. And I think people have kind of discovered that over the last couple months listening to me. But it's one of those things where that game, I really had to do some self reflection. It was like, all right, what do we do? Like what, what are we doing here? What is going on? And that sequence where first can goal from the five followed up by three passes that gained no yards is like, what is, what is this? What are we doing as a program? The. The final turning point. And I think it's going to be a lot of people's turning points. I've already seen in the comments. That Minnesota game last year I think was the biggest one for a lot of people. Six and a half point favorite on the road. By the way, you're near touch touchdown favorite on the road against Minnesota and you lose that game by 18. Minnesota ran the ball 35 times for 5.3 yards per carry and the Gophers had nine sacks. Nebraska had an all American running back on their roster. They decided to give him the ball 14 times in the backfield to run. EJ did get 5 receptions. Didn't get a whole lot of yards off them though. They had six penalties for 65 yards too, which was, you know, too many. Especially in a game where you're playing a team like Minnesota. That game for a lot of people is like year, year three. This is supposed to be the year three jump. This is supposed to be the year where Dylan takes the next step and this guy takes the next step and play player development comes to fruition. Like what are we doing? They just looked outmatched in that game. Michael Severe calls at the game where he truthfully does not know what happened there. They, they have, they have. He has. He's a. Says it so many times. Like I've watched that game over and over again. I still can't come to the conclusion as to what actually happened. It didn't make sense. So those are those, those are the candidates for some turning points. I think the, the biggest one for me, honestly that made me really take a step back and be like, all right, is. Is actually like, like, like do I actually think this program is what I believe it to be, Honestly is that UCLA, UCLA 2024 game. That and, and it wasn't just that they lost a game as a seven and a half point favorite. That happens to teams, right? Like that. Like teams are touchdown favorites. Maybe more than touchdown favorites. They end up losing games. That's football. That's why we play the games. Right? But the manner in which they lost it, which was they were losing by 13 to a team they had no business could be down 13 by and then some of just the mind boggling play take a step back and say what are we doing? Let's go through some of these. What are other people's turning points? J Skir Tago's rule thinking Jeff Sims was an NFL player was an early red flag. J. Skirat also said timeout usage, which I think on the scale of all the things you could say, maybe the timeout usage is probably for me on the, on the lower end, John goes, Matt, what's your per record prediction for this year? John I have not come to that conclusion yet. I did say yesterday though the floor is 6 and 6 and the ceiling is 8 and 4. Nobody goes. The only thing that bothers me is UCLA had a very boringly average quarterback that year and we made him look like an All American. Ethan Garbers, that guy's name. I forget. I think he like ended up transferring and maybe even played like a different position last year. I forget. And and nobody continues. He goes that's my biggest gripe about Husker football. No urgency ever. And watch as a mediocre quarterback picks us apart. That would be a great power rankings. Through tears with Schaer and Haer which would be most mediocre quarterback to pick Nebraska apart. Tanner Morgan would definitely have to be up there. John goes Another turning point regarding rule was last year when we lost to Iowa, Penn State, Minnesota and Utah. I'm asking for one specific turning point John. He brings up one that I didn't you know when I didn't think of this one honestly kind of forget about it. John goes A turning point regarding rule was when GBR lost Indiana 56 7. I think we look back on that now knowing what we know about Indiana and are like yeah they kind of did that to everybody. Sith goes Minnesota. Minnesota loss made me lose all faith in Dana. How do you not allow EJ to have his revenge game when EJ is your entire offensive production. No wonder we got smacked. Decides to drop back and get sacked more times than Rome instead of handing it off to ej. Hokey skirt goes for the first time in a while this team doesn't feel like it's full of guys that are just looking out for the individual but they care more about the team as a whole. I think they they changed a lot of things for sure. Like not only from a coat like they got a they got some adults in the room for sure and and they I felt like Corey Brown 20 plus year head coach has been all across college football has been has had his room before right. Like they need I felt like they needed a guy like that initially after teen night to Corey Brown and I and I don't think that just getting a young coach who might be up and coming coach the NFL who never had his own college room. It just didn't seem that wasn't the right fit. The right fit for this team is a guy like Corey Brown who's been there done that and who can command a room like that. That's what That's a, that's a hire that gets me encouraged along with Jeep Wade. I mean he just, that's a merit based hire, right? Like Jeep Wade has coached offensive lines that have been nominated for the Joe Moore Award. Like that's merit. That's, that's hey, that's a guy who knows how to get it done. John goes hoping that Wade and or Orich's tutelage supersedes whatever rule. Excellent players. Oh PC this is a good one. Ethan Grundkeyer Adam looking like Swiss cheese and he's pretty cheeks. That'd be Ethan Kali Manis. But I don't, I don't know if Ethan had that great of a had that great of a a game against probably not as the Ruckers quarterback. Maybe as he came in as a backup for me. Minnesota kind of. Well what he was. Was he the starter for that 2023 Minnesota game? I think he yes, he was. So I don't remember though if I mean he had that one great throw to Daniel Jackson who routed up I think it was hard dog for that final touch count where he dragged that foot. I don't think he had that great of a game anyway. But anyway, so look, we did the what was your turning point from optimism to skepticism. We're going to have Michael Seviera up next year from the Jet Award executive director later in the show we're going to have a. All right, here are their opportunities to turn you back and maybe why will they end up doing that? We got to be fair here. We're a fair Radio program on middays with Matt Michael Severe coming up next on the 1620 zone radio network.
- [21:13]
A
With the American Express Platinum card, I can unlock experiences like no other. Since I'm always booking my next trip, I love that I can earn points on travel plus a resi benefit. So you know, I'm hitting the restaurants everyone's talking about and you can find out your welcome offer after you apply, which could be as high as 175,000 points for experiences like no other. There's nothing like platinum. Learn more@americanexpress.com Explore Platinum Terms apply.