PJ Fleck on change in Nebraska under Matt Rhule: 'A massive difference'

Some people back in Lincoln might not be too pleased on Friday morning considering how Nebraska’s opener went last night. However, Minnesota’s PJ Fleck has full belief that the opponent that his team faced on Thursday is one that’s headed in the right direction.

Fleck applauded Matt Rhule’s early job with the Cornhuskers during his postgame press conference following his team’s 13-10 victory. He noted that he could see a major difference in Nebraska based on how they played and competed in Minneapolis to start their year.

“I just want to take my hat off to Nebraska. Matt Rhule is a heck of a football coach,” Fleck said. “You can see a lot of people have the same beliefs on either side of the ball and how you win games.”

“He has got them going where they need to go, not that they need that from me at all. But you can see a massive difference in how hard they play and the resolve and resiliency of that football team,” said Fleck.

Again, some might disagree that Nebraska is too different based on the fashion in which they lost. Even so, there were some positives to take away from their opening loss inside Huntington Bank Stadium.

Most of those pros come from what they did on defense. Their run defense was stout as they held Minnesota to just 55 yards on the ground for an average of just 2.2 per carry. The 13 points by the Golden Gophers also would’ve been tied for the fewest that the Huskers allowed all of last season.

A loss is a loss and isn’t an ideal start to the year for any team. With that said, Fleck seems to believe that it’ll only be up from here as Rhule’s tenure continues this season and beyond.

Rhule not worried about ‘same old Nebraska’ claims

Rhule doesn’t want to hear anything about this outcome being the same old same old from his new program. As he said during his postgame press conference, he said this was the first step on a long journey and that it was actually pretty impressive to be right there with, and even ahead of at times, a Golden Gopher program that has been very consistent in the past few years.

“It’s like I said at the beginning. We’re on the front end of something that we’re building,” said Rhule.

“I look at it the other way,” Rhule said. “To think of the mistakes we made? To have seven penalties, to have the four turnovers and, still, against a good team like Minnesota, who averages nine wins a year, to kick a field goal?”

This outcome lays a base, even if it’s a negative one, for Nebraska to start from. Rhule thinks they needed this game as a lesson and now, from here, it’s all about building from here and leaving this actual outcome, as well as their other outcomes where they’ve come short in recent years, in the rearview.

“Now, we have to fix it. We have to get better. But I’m not even thinking about anything that happened before I got here. It has nothing to do with me,” said Rhule. “I don’t want our players to think about that. I’m thinking about what’s next, thinking about getting back and watching this tape tomorrow, thinking about next week.”

“We need to play this game, we needed to come back and figure it out,” Rhule said. “I think you’ll see a team that just gets better.