“THEY DON’T FEAR YOU! THEY DON’T RESPECT YOU! AND IF THAT SOUNDS LIKE COACH SPEAK, THEN YOU HAVE THE WRONG BRAIN!“
“IF THEY DROP BACK TO TRY AND THROW IT AND THAT QUARTERBACKS NOT ON THE GROUND, THEN I WANT NEW GUYS IN THERE RUSHING! I WANT THEM HIT! IWANT THEM NEVER TO SAY OUR NAME AGAIN!“
“AND IF MY STANDARD’S TOO HIGH, THEN LEAVE!”
When the team stood before Nebraska Head Coach Matt Rhule at halftime of the Akron game, these were a few of the remarks which exploded from his mouth. The players were likely
surprised initially; after all they held a 33-0 lead and a 397-58 advantage in total yards. This didn’t sound like there was a need for a proper tongue lashing.
I don’t know if Coach Rhule had been tipped off that someone had made a recording of the locker room speech before his weekly Monday press conference around 11:30 that morning. I tend to think that was the case, and Matt being Matt, decided to get out in front of it with his best weapon – honesty. Yeah, I did it and here’s why I did it.
“I went after them, I freaking lost it in the locker room. I was pissed. We let them drive the ball down the field right before the half and (they) almost make a field goal. Like, where’s the killer instinct, right?”
Without near the volume, he explained to the press exactly the message he was trying to get across.
“I don’t want to be a joke, you know? I don’t want to be a – I want us to be a football place, right? Football teams – you put away the people you’re supposed to put away. You don’t let them have life. So I wasn’t happy before the half, right? And then, when we went to take a knee and they cut us? That’s something that we had no issue with what they did. That’s something you do at the end of games. Their kids are trained to do that. But they don’t fear you.“
And for anyone who has only seen his public persona and thinks maybe all the positivity doesn’t harden a football team the way they need to be hardened? Well, let’s just say his thoughts on how he wants the opposition feeling after a game probably opened their eyes a little.
“Teams are supposed to come in and they’re supposed to say – I never want to – they’re supposed to walk up to their AD and say, ‘Don’t schedule them again.‘ That’s the mentality we’re supposed to have, and that’s why I went off in the locker room to the coaches and players. I just want to make sure – that’s my job, right? It’s not Matt Rhule. It’s the head coach of Nebraska. That’s what we’re supposed to do – we’re supposed to play these teams. They want to come here, they want to play here. We’re supposed to make them never want to play here again. And so that was what I was pleased about in the second half, that I thought we didn’t let up. We went down and we scored again, scored again, scored again.”
So the message was delivered. How was it received?
This is where a solid culture comes in. If you have a coach who just lives by screaming and placing blame, the howling speeches are eventually going to be met by “here we go again” eye-rolling, tuning out and, eventually, some quitting and transferring.
But if there’s established love and respect between coaches and players, even criticism delivered with the volume turned up to 86 is focused on and taken in the spirit of improvement, not embarrassment. Not all coaches are the same – from the biting dry humor of Dana Holgorsen to John Butler’s intensity to the energy and enthusiasm of Mike Ekeler and Terry Bradden, each coach has their own personality and vibe.
And now here had come Matt Rhule’s thundering at them like a semi headed for the runaway truck ramp. How did they take it? In exactly the spirit in which it was intended.
Said defensive tackle Elijah Jeudy? “That’s just the standard. You know, we’ve been preaching all week, you gotta put the teams away that’s supposed to be put away. So that was about playing the whole time. That’s nothing new to us.”
When Dylan Raiola was asked about it, his response gave some folks chills.
“That’s our leader and that’s our guy that we trust and that we love and care for tremendously. So when the head of the snake says that, we respond and we take it seriously. And, as you saw, we went out after the half and we went back out there, defense got a stop and the offense moved down and scored. So, he just challenged us, and we answered the call. And I think when you have those types of moments, it’s it builds a lot of team character. And when you have a coach that cares that much when you’re up 33-0 at half, you’ve got something special.”
Just how special will begin to be determined starting in a couple of weekends, and against far tougher competition than Akron and Houston Christian.
But for now, if online fane response is any indication, this moment may not just have further united the team but lit a fire under the fan base as well. A quick search on Twitter certainly seems to indicate the approval rating hovering around 100%.
And speaking of Twitter, here is the full halftime speech. Will Compton posted it shortly before 5:00pm, the rest of sports media soon followed and, thanks to Rhule’s mid-day press conference, instead of a “what’s going on” moment, it was instead an, “Oh, I’ve been waiting for this!” moment and fans had another reason to want to run through a brick wall for the coach.
