The value of ‘my guys’ as assistant coaches? Nebraska’s Matt Rhule explains

Matt Rhule couldn’t sleep. So he got to work early.

The new Nebraska coach arrived at Memorial Stadium well before the sun rose Tuesday. He posted a picture to Twitter at 5:06 a.m. of the illuminated years of the Huskers’ five national championships. He dove into the endless tasks of hiring staffers and recruiting players all while learning a new place.

Rhule also took a break to record a podcast with a Fox Sports national NFL reporter. Over 20-plus minutes appearing on the “The Season with Peter Schrager,” the former Carolina Panthers coach touched on his time in the pros and stories from his career.

He began by marveling at where he is now.

“It’s outrageous here,” Rhule said. “I’m sitting in an office and facility that is nicer than any place I’ve ever been and it’s only here for like three more months before we move into our new $150 million facility. So no matter where you are in the country, if you’re really serious about training and you’re really serious about your body and sports science, if you’re serious about your academics, we have as much if not more than anyone else.”

The past few days have been a whirlwind, Rhule said. He and his family spent nearly a full day in their vehicle last weekend on the road from Cape May, New Jersey, back to their home in Charlottesville, North Carolina. His wife, Julie, drove the entire way while the new NU leader was on the phone with recruits, current players and prospective assistants.

Rhule has already begun hiring staffers, including a strength coach and at least half of his 10 on-field assistants. All have previously worked under Rhule, who is arriving at his fourth stop in 11 years as a head coach.

There’s a reason for that common theme, Rhule said. If he made mistakes in the NFL, one was hiring men for their experience but who “didn’t maybe always connect with me.” The thought is front of mind as he assembles his staff at Nebraska.

“I do things differently,” Rhule said. “I’m going to be a highly demanding guy. I want things done a certain way. I want us to serve players. The players don’t serve us, we serve the players. For me, it’s about me identifying the right guys so it’ll be a lot of my guys that come, guys that trust me and believe in me.

“To be a player-development program you have to have coaches that love — love — helping players get better. I’m not just talking about your great players. I’m talking about who’s the strength coach that’s working with the walk-on that probably will never play? You know what? The walk-on that people thought would never play at Temple was (linebacker) Haason Reddick (an eventual first-round draft pick in 2017). If you just pour into young people and you help them they’ll have better lives and some will work out for you. My take has been, hey, if you come here we’re going to build something special. There’s no doubt we’ll win, but we’ll affect a lot of lives along the way. And the biggest thing is we get to do it our way here.”

Other notes from the Rhule interview:

Asked what he would do differently from his time at Carolina, Rhule said he “probably would have taken another job.” He signed a seven-year, $62 million contract with the Panthers in 2020 and went 11-27.

His runway for takeoff, he said, ended up being shorter than the original vision.

“It’s a great place — wonderful people — but I don’t know if I was a fit there,” Rhule said. “At the end of the day, we talked about how we’re going to have a four-year plan, a five-year plan. If you tell me, ‘Hey, we’ve got a two-year plan,’ then I’m going to go sign a bunch of free agents and do it. So what was a four-year plan became a two-year, five-game plan real quick.”

Who reached out to support Rhule when he was fired in October? Like texts after a loss compared to a win, the list was relatively short.

The first, he said, was Philadelphia Eagles executive VP Howie Roseman, who knew Rhule from his Temple days when the Eagles and Owls shared Lincoln Financial Field.

Kansas City coach Andy Reid, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick and former Vikings coach Brad Childress — who Rhule had never worked with — were others.

Rhule said his favorite current NFL players include Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker — he plays “scary hard,” Rhule said — Atlanta Falcons defensive tackle Grady Jarrett and San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams.

He also called former Husker and Panther running back Ameer Abdullah “one of my favorite players I’ve ever coached.”

Rebuilds at Temple and Baylor required a knowledge of every rule and edge in order to craft the best roster possible, Rhule said.

He’s been studying up on nuances of the transfer portal and name-image-likeness to find new advantages at Nebraska.

“They’re coming off 3-9 and 4-8 so the only way to fix that is to make sure the players you have you’re coaching up and developing and getting big and strong,” Rhule said. “But you have to go recruit and you have to get guys in the transfer portal. You have to upgrade the roster.”​