Matt Rhule believes Deion Sanders is good for college football

Nebraska has one heck of an interesting matchup on their hands for their second game of the season as they’ll go on the road to face the new-look Buffaloes of Colorado. Matt Rhule is just as invested in that game too considering who he’ll be coaching across from.

Rhule complimented Deion Sanders during a recent appearance on ‘The Herd’. He said that Coach Prime is a very positive thing for college football because it generates interest and does so in a place and conference that isn’t a typical venue or arena for the sport to watch.

“I’ll be honest with you: I’ve followed it from afar, you know, because they do such a good job of filming everything. I think it’s good for football right now,” Rhule said.

“College football can’t just be, like, in the southeast and a couple of schools in the north. It’s got to be what Lincoln (Riley) is doing at USC, what Coach Sanders is doing in Colorado, hopefully what we’re doing in the middle of the country. Like, this has to be a nationwide thing,” explained Rhule. “You can tell that Deion and his staff? They’re going to recruit relentlessly and they’re gonna they’re gonna have their team ready to play.”

If nothing else, Sanders has already proven that he can generate intrigue. His show finally maxed out at Jackson State and he has since taken it on the road to Colorado over the course of this entire offseason. Now, it’s less than two weeks from its opener against who else but last year’s national runner-up in TCU.

Then, a week later, the Cornhuskers will come to Folsom Field for a matchup between two first-year head coaches at their respective programs. Considering how many eyes will be on that game, one that, even a year ago, wouldn’t have earned a second glance, Rhule is as excited as anyone about that contest and getting to square off with Coach Prime in a few weeks time.

“It’ll be a great, great game,” said Rhule. “To think that Nebraska vs. Colorado is relevant again, will be on national TV? I think that’s pretty cool for the game.”

Rhule addresses the expectations of the fans at Nebraska

As excitement swells prior to the 2023 season, Matt Rhule can feel the buzz in Lincoln.

It’s been seven years since Nebraska last had a winning season and 11 years since the program won double-digit games in a single season. That comes after decades of dominance from the Cornhuskers.

“I think people? They’re at a point now where it’s been seven or eight years. I think people are just hungry for a step in the right direction,” Rhule said during ‘The Herd’ on Wednesday. “People are excited about the things that we’ve done. The way we’ve recruited, the way we’ve tried to get around the state.”

Rhule does think there will be a bit of a building process, noting it won’t all happen in one year. What he wants to focus on initially is making sure that everything’s being done the right way.

“I know people want to win, but they also want to do things kind of the Nebraska way,” Rhule said. “For me, being here, it’s like college football’s version of like chicken soup for the soul. This is great. Tom Osborne came up the other day just to shake my hand and wish me luck in the first game. You want to talk to someone like me that loves college football, I’m pinching myself.”

“Yes, there’s expectations and people want us to win. But we also need to kind of go back to playing the way that Nebraska’s used to,” Rhule said. “We need to be a physical team, we need to be a hard-nosed team. We can’t lose games in the fourth quarter.”