Matt Rhule is attempting another second-year turnaround at Nebraska with Philly filling up his staff and roster

Matt Rhule’s coaching journey has become well-documented since he left Temple in 2016. He inherited a 4-7 program following the 2012 season, and by 2014, his Owls were 6-6. They then upset Penn State in 2015 en route to a 10-4 record.

When he left for Baylor, he inherited a program amid a sexual assault scandal, went 1-11 in his first season, and became bowl-eligible by the second year at 7-6. By the third year, the Bears were in the Big 12 championship game.

His NFL stint as head coach of the Carolina Panthers fizzled out, but Rhule now enters his second year at Nebraska, a program starving for consistent success. Will he once again find second-year success at the college level, coaching in a Big Ten that just expanded from 14 to 18 teams, becoming the so-called NFL of college football? He certainly seems to think so, with a veteran-led team heading into 2024.

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“We’re proud of the players, and we have 20 graduates heading into the season; we’ll have 10 more in December,” Rhule said during Big Ten media days last week in Indianapolis. “So when we go to our bowl game, we’ll have 30 college graduates on our team.”

Later, the former Penn State linebacker doubled down on those comments.

“I expect us to be a really good team,” Rhule said. “I expect us to be competitive; I expect us to be in the mix in this conference. [At] 5-7, again, that’s not going to be good enough. … I’m confident this team expects us to be a good team. And I think we have the depth to withstand injuries.”

Rhule is already trying to speak a bowl game into existence. But he’s not doing it alone; he’s bringing Philly along with him for his third head coaching stop at the college ranks.

Here are just a few of those connections on the coaching staff alone: offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield, Temple’s offensive coordinator from 2013 to 2015; Ed Foley, his special teams coordinator who spent about a decade in Temple’s program; E.J. Barthel, the running backs coach who was the Owls’ coordinator of on-campus recruiting in 2016; Rob Dvoracek, a former Temple linebacker who served on Rhule’s staffs at Baylor and the Panthers and coaches linebackers now; Terrance Knighton, another former Temple player who now coaches the defensive line; and Glenn Thomas, co-offensive coordinator who coached with Rhule at Temple.

There are Philly-area high school players featured on the roster, too. Defensive lineman Elijah Jeudy, from Northeast, is in his second season with the Cornhuskers, and so is defensive back Rahmir Stewart of Imhotep, who’s entering his redshirt freshman season. Maurice Mazzccua, a running back, played at Neumann Goretti, and his younger brother, offensive lineman Micah Mazzccua, transferred from Florida. Defensive back Kahmir Prescott signed with Nebraska in December after starring at Neumann Goretti.

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The future looks bright for the Cornhuskers. Dylan Raiola, a five-star quarterback from Georgia, could be at the helm at some point this season.

“The game comes natural to him,” Rhule said of his star freshman.

Rhule likes to play young players, hire high school coaches since he spends so much time around them, and doesn’t plan on going after tenured quarterbacks in the transfer portal, he says. He thinks those will be keys to his success in Nebraska’s rebuild, along with having legendary coach Tom Osborne hanging around and former Cornhusker stars Eric Crouch and Tommy Frazier to lean on.

“I don’t care what people say about what I’m doing right now, but I care very much that when you look back at what I did 10 years from now that most of the things I did were right, or I did the best I could,” Rhule said. “It seems the best thing is if we look back in 10 years is to bring in young players and play them and let them play through their mistakes and eventually have a confident guy out there.

“You’ve got to have some flash now. You’ve got to make some plays. And you have to have the freedom to make plays — we can’t be safe.”

Nebraska is tentatively scheduled to play in 2025 against Penn State, Rhule’s alma mater, but even from afar, he has admired what James Franklin has done with the Nittany Lions.

“Penn State will always be a special place to me,” Rhule said. “I’m grateful to James [for] the job he’s done at my alma mater. Sometimes it’s ridiculous; I hear people give him a hard time. Penn State’s a nationally relevant program year in and year out. He’s probably going to have them in the [College Football] Playoff.”

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