Deion Sanders-Matt Rhule feud, explained: Why last season’s Colorado-Nebraska game was ‘personal’

Even in a sport like college football defined by rivalries, the venom between Colorado and Nebraska stands out.

The Buffs and Cornhuskers share not only a border, but a lengthy and often contentious history. From the time Colorado emerged as a power in the late 1980s until both programs largely faded from national relevance in the mid-2000s, Colorado and Nebraska often took part in one of the most consequential games of a given season, with the winner getting an inside track at a conference or even national championship.

When the two sides announced in 2010 that they were going their separate ways — with the Buffs to the Pac-12 and the Huskers to the Big Ten — what was a fixture on the college football calendar became more sporadic, with just two meetings between the programs from 2011-22.

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Last season, however, those dormant passions were reignited. With both programs led by high-profile first-year coaches, Colorado and Nebraska met on a picturesque day in Boulder in front of a sold-out Folsom Field and nearly nine million television viewers.

The storylines heading into the Buffs’ 36-14 victory extended beyond the longstanding beef between the programs. Rather, it was the two coaches who commandeered the spotlight.

As Colorado and Nebraska prepared for one another in the days leading up to the game, much of the attention shifted to perceived animosity between Buffs coach Deion Sanders and his Nebraska counterpart Matt Rhule.

How’d it get to that point? Here’s a look back at the ultimately short-lived feud between Sanders and Rhule and where things stand heading into Saturday’s rematch in Lincoln, Nebraska:

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Deion Sanders and Matt Rhule feud, explained

Before they were hired to their current posts, Sanders and Rhule had a brief history with one another.

In November 2017, near the end of his first season at Baylor, Rhule became the second major-conference coach to offer a scholarship to Sanders’ son, Shedeur, now a star quarterback at Colorado. Rhule and the Bears signed two players from Trinity Christian Academy in Addison, Texas, where Sanders worked as an assistant coach from 2017-20.

When Rhule arrived at Nebraska and Sanders at Colorado after the end of the 2022 college football season, what had been a limited relationship took on a new and entirely more public form. Not only were their new employers historic rivals, but they were scheduled to face off in the 2023 and 2024 seasons.

With those variables in place, a beef between the two began to simmer.

Throughout the spring of 2023, in the early stages of his Nebraska tenure, Rhule spoke with reporters about his team’s workouts and practices to offer insight into where the Huskers were in the months leading up to his first season on the job.

Over that period of time, he made several comments that caught the attention of many beyond the Nebraska fan base.

That March, he spoke of the blue-collar identity his team was assuming, noting that videos posted on Nebraska’s social media channels were “always of us working. They’re never of us talking. This program is built on work. It’s not built on hype.”

The following month, shortly after the transfer portal opened, Rhule offered his thoughts on the portal and the larger idea of modern roster construction.

“I hear other schools (say) they can’t wait for today, the transfer portal, they can’t wait to go out … I can’t wait to coach my guys, let me tell you that,” Rhule said. “I’m not here … I’m not thinking about anybody else but this team out here.”

Both comments were viewed as veiled shots at Sanders, who had attracted the attention of much of the college football world that spring with posts on social media and his unorthodox, overwhelmingly transfer-reliant approach to assembling his first roster at Colorado, which was coming off a 1-11 season. Sanders ultimately brought in 87 newcomers for his 2023 team, the majority of them transfers, while 53 scholarship players for the Buffs transferred out by the end of spring 2023, some of whom were effectively cut.

Sanders was transparent about his affection for the transfer portal, posting a video on social media of him dancing the day it opened, along with the caption “You know where to find me.”

Among those reading between the lines of Rhule’s comments was Sanders himself. In the days leading up to last September’s matchup, the first-year Colorado coach proclaimed “This is personal. That’s the message of the week: This is personal.”

After the Buffs’ win over Rhule’s Huskers, Shedeur Sanders echoed those sentiments.

“The coach said a lot of things about my pops, about the program, but now that he want to act nice — I don’t respect that because you’re hating on another man, you shouldn’t do that,” he said. “It was just, all respect was gone for them and their program. I like playing against their DC, I like playing against them, but the respect level, it ain’t there cause you disrespected us first.”

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Are Deion Sanders and Matt Rhule still feuding?

Whatever acrimony existed between the two is now apparently gone.

This week, both coaches have expressed respect and even outright admiration for each other.

“First of all, I have a ton of respect for Matt Rhule,” Sanders said Tuesday. “He’s in, I call it, our class of coaches. We all took on a tremendous test that year (2023) along with coach (Kenny) Dillingham (at Arizona State) and several others so I feel like we’re a fraternity. I root for that class of head coaches that came in that year. He was a professional and did a phenomenal job, maybe not the job that he aspired to do, but he has a ton of experience and I love what he’s accomplished in his college coaching career.”

Rhule extended his praise to Shedeur Sanders, who he called “one of the best football players I’ve ever coached against” in July. If there were any lingering questions about how he views the Colorado program under the man known as “Coach Prime,” those were answered this week, as well.

“Not at all,” Rhule said when asked if Saturday’s game is a clash of cultures. “They’re a competitive culture. They go recruit and get the best players they can get. They do well in school. They don’t get in trouble off the field. And they compete. I respect what they do.”

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Deion Sanders-Matt Rhule feud: Why 2023’s Colorado-Nebraska game was ‘personal’