Matt Rhule seems to be doing it again.
The longtime college football coach has developed a reputation for turning around programs from Year 1 to Year 2 — often with impressive improvements, including in win totals. Now, Rhule has Nebraska football back in the national conversation in college football.
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At 3-0 on the season and ranked No. 22 in the US LBM Coaches Poll, Nebraska is out to its best start since 2016. It is the first time the Cornhuskers are present in the national polls since being a preseason-ranked top 25 team in 2019 under Scott Frost.
The success of the Cornhuskers this season might be “new” for those surrounding the Nebraska program, given recent years. But it isn’t for Rhule: Just look at the turnarounds he engineered at Temple and Baylor.
Here’s a deeper look at Rhule’s history of turnarounds from Year 1 to Year 2 at his past stops in college football:
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Matt Rhule turnaround at Temple
Rhule served in numerous assistant roles at Temple from 2006-11 under former Owls coaches Al Golden and Steve Addazio before taking over as an assistant offensive line coach with the NFL’s New York Giants. Following a one-year stint in the NFL, Rhule returned to Temple in 2013 for his first head coaching job.
Rhule’s first season saw the Owls go 2-10, the worst the program had finished since going 1-11 in 2006. Then came Rhule’s second season at Temple, when the Owls started their upward trajectory. The season started with a season-opening win in SEC country at Vanderbilt and included the program’s first ranked win in 16 years — vs. No. 21 East Carolina — as Temple went 6-6.
By the time Rhule left Temple following the 2016 season, the Owls had two 10-win seasons, won an American Athletic Conference title and saw time ranked in the national polls for the first time since 1979, which was also their most recent 10-win season (before Rhule led the program to 10 wins in both 2015 and 2016).
Matt Rhule turnaround at Baylor
Rhule’s success at Temple helped land him a “Power Five” job at Baylor in 2017.
When Rhule took over the Bears program, the situation and circumstances were different than when he took over at Temple: Baylor had a recent history of success on the football field, but was rocked by a sexual assault scandal, prompting the school to fire Art Briles. Jim Grobe came out of retirement to lead Baylor to a 7-6 season and bowl game win in 2016 before going back into retirement.
Rhule’s start at Baylor was rocky, as the Bears started the 2017 season 0-8. The Bears would finish the season 1-11 overall and 1-8 in Big 12 play, with the lone win coming against Kansas, who likewise went 1-11 on the season.
The next year, Baylor saw improvements under Rhule as the Bears not only started the season with three wins in their first four games, but also improved their win-loss differential by six games, finishing 7-6 overall. The 2018 season also brought the first bowl game appearance at Baylor for Rhule, one in which the Bears beat Vanderbilt 45-38 in the Texas Bowl.
Rhule’s third season in Waco saw Baylor start 9-0 and finish with a No. 12 ranking in the US LBM Coaches Poll. Per ESPN, Baylor was the third FBS team since 1937 to flip an 0-7 start to a 7-0 start in a two-year span. Baylor would finish with 11 wins in 2019 under Rhule, who jumped to the NFL to coach the Carolina Panthers the following season.
Matt Rhule turnaround at Nebraska
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2023 record: 5-7
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2024 wins: 3-0
Rhule returned to the college ranks in 2023 following his unsuccessful stint with the Panthers.
Even with the sub.-500 record, Rhule’s first season in Lincoln could be described as a “success.” The Cornhuskers finished 5-7 overall, but had more than four wins for the first time since 2019. And, cold comfort that it was, Nebraska was competitive in the games it lost, falling by a single possession in five of its seven losses.
Now, three games into the 2024 college football season, history looks to be repeating itself once again. Rhule has Nebraska at 3-0 for the first time since 2016, with the Cornhuskers just two wins away from tying their win total from last season.
Rhule addressed his history of turnarounds over the summer when appearing on “The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast” in July. During his appearance, he said his “Year 1” is more about building culture and setting high standards than hoping for immediate success.
“We are not afraid of failure. We’re not afraid of going 2-10, 1-11 in our first year. Everyone talks about building a culture and they don’t even know what that is sometimes,” Rhule said. “To me, it’s getting the best people possible and setting high standards for how you do things.
“If that means that I’m gonna play the guys who will do things right early on and we might not lose or we’re trying to recruit freshmen that take a quick fix, we’re willing to go through that. Our bad year here (Nebraska) was 5-7 instead of 2-10, which is much better than 2-10, thank goodness.
“I think once the players realize like, ‘Hey, these guys are for real man. Coach Rhule would rather lose than win doing things the wrong way so we’re not going to buy into doing things the wrong way.’ I’ve never fired a coach after the first year. If you go 1-11, 2-10, everyone thinks you’re going to fire them. But I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? We did our best work this year.'”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Matt Rhule Year 2 turnaround: Record, history for Nebraska coach
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