The ‘cookie-cutter model’ Matt Rhule is working to avoid at Nebraska, and why it matters

“Your comfort zone is the casket where your dreams go to die.”

Rhule has shared that message with Nebraska’s players because there’s a key lesson to be learned from it — the danger of contentment. During a speech in front of the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, Rhule laid out how the contrasting fortunes of confidence and complacency will impact Nebraska’s success moving forward.

It all starts with internal belief.

As Nebraska’s players tried to overcome a rough start to the 2022 season, then-interim coach Mickey Joseph and offensive coordinator Mark Whipple publicly questioned whether the players believed they could win. Victories over Indiana and Rutgers injected some confidence into the team, yet Nebraska still ended the season with a losing record for the sixth year in a row.

There are plenty of transfers on this year’s Nebraska team with no firsthand knowledge of those struggles. But for the players who’ve been part of crushing defeats and tough seasons, entering the 2023 season with renewed confidence will be key.

“A lot of young people think that confidence is, ‘Hey, I know I can do it,’” Rhule said Wednesday. “Confidence is when you’re laying on the ground, when you’re at your deepest, darkest, worst moments when no one else believes in you. Confidence is the belief inside that, ‘I will come back better.’”

Building self-belief on the football field is certainly part of Rhule’s goal with that lesson — but the message isn’t limited to on-field performance. Rhule said that he and his staff are at Nebraska “to educate” and that players should come to college “to learn how to learn.”

Some players are ready to accept that challenge right away, while others need a push in the right direction.

“So many of the kids that I coach, the No. 1 thing I have to work on them is that they don’t have the confidence to speak up and say, ‘Hey, I believe in this,’ or ‘I want to learn about this,’” Rhule said. “They just want to kind of follow the cookie-cutter model; we want to shatter that (model).”

Breaking free from that lack of confidence is a process — and it’s one that involves a couple of Rhule’s common sayings. Throughout spring camp, Nebraska’s players repeatedly spoke about their goals to get 1% better every day in some aspect, a teaching that the NU coaching staff uses to represent the progress of growth.

The other motto, “One of Us,” represents Rhule’s belief that his coaching staff and the entire Nebraska football program should operate like a family. Rhule offered a slightly different version of that motto on Wednesday. Regardless of the opponent across from Nebraska, Rhule said that “everything should be about us” when Nebraska takes the field.

Adding that “every game that we play in is a big game,” Rhule spoke of how he’s realized how many family memories are made around Nebraska football. Seeing 60,000-plus fans pack into Memorial Stadium for a Spring Game was a reminder of the enduring passion Nebraska fans have for their football team, but it’s also a reason why Rhule is eager to avoid complacency.

No matter what Nebraska accomplishes in 2023, Rhule will be looking for more in the years that follow — because that mindset of incremental growth is what drives success in his eyes.

“It’s really humbling to work in a place where we know that if we aren’t good next year, people are still going to come,” Rhule said. “The loyalty of the Nebraska fan base is unbelievable. It’s kind of a blessing and a curse; you can get soft (because) of that.”