Matt Rhule brings renewed optimism to Nebraska Huskers football after hire
ON IF HE CAN TURN THINGS AROUND QUICKLY…
“Yeah, I think some places can. I think you're seeing that in some conferences. I don't know that you're seeing as much of that in places like the Big Ten that are kind of built off of, you know, big, strong physical football. I think if you're running kind of, you know, spread and, you know, bring some guys in, they can learn the system quickly. When I look at Nebraska and we're going to be engaged in the transfer portal and we're going to be engaged in high school recruiting and we're going to try to go find the best players that want to be here for the right reasons. But you know, Nebraska was built off of player development. It's one of the reasons why I took this job and one of the reasons why I felt like it was a fit for me because there's nothing I like better than seeing a guy like Dion Dawkins, who really isn't recruited by anybody, comes to us and he's a starting left tackle in the National Football League. Hasson Reddick is a walk-on and he's one of the top staff producers in the National Football League.
“I love that developmental process of taking guys to places that no one expected in the recruiting process and so you know, we will try to flip the roster fast. You know, they went out and beat Iowa on Friday, a tremendous job by them so I don't think it’s as bad as people would think, you know, I think there's some really good players here and we're gonna exhaust all means.”
ON CHANGING THE CULTURE AT NEBRASKA…
“Yeah, I think it's getting the right people on board. Both coaching staff, the administrative staff and players. You have to have the right people. You'll find a collective purpose, a common purpose. I mean, we all want individual success and accolades and there's nothing wrong with hey, I want to make money, I want to do this, but at the end of the day, we all have to also care about the team. And then you have to just really, really, really work hard. You know, one of the things I noticed the last couple years and you know in the NFL is that there's a lot of really talented players coming in. Players coming from some schools that I don't think had been challenged a bunch you know, I think people were so nervous about coaching the way you're supposed to coach that the kid would transfer.
“You know what, young people are resilient, young people respond to coaches who care about them and want to make them the best that they can be. And, you know, we're gonna build a tough physical team here. I don't know how long it'll take. But you know, if you do that, if the players know that you care and that they know that you have their best interest, they're having a good experience, they'll let you coach them and they'll stick around.”
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