Matt Rhule admits relief to become bowl eligible at Nebraska

In his second season with the program, Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach Matt Rhule has the team bowl eligible. For the Cornhuskers, this has been a long time coming and will be their first time getting to a bowl since 2016.

Following that game, Rhule admitted that there was a sense of relief that came with getting to bowl eligibility.

“Yes. 100 percent,” Matt Rhule said. “100 percent, and again it’s relief in that I’ve got the benefit of doing this twice before, and I think I said to you even when I made the change with Dana [Holgorsen], I look at the weight room, I look at the training room, I look at sports science, I look at sports psychology, I look at the player development, I look at the recruiting, I look at all the things we’re doing and believe it’s all right and it’s all going to pay off in a big way. It’s just, I look at the players and they’re coming in every day, and then it’s a close loss, it’s a close loss. Will this work? Will this work?”

Nebraska started the season 5-1 but went on a four-game losing streak. That put getting to six wins and bowl eligibility at risk and would make it seem like the team was almost cursed. Still, the Cornhuskers earned that win against Wisconsin on Saturday.

It was a convincing win for the Cornhuskers. Nebraska won the turnover battle, committed fewer penalties, and held the ball longer. They rushed for 180 yards while freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola may have had his best game, throwing for 293 yards and a touchdown. That led to a 44-25 win.

“I would’ve liked to have gotten our sixth win a long time ago, but there’s something really important to us about playing Wisconsin. To be quite honest with you, we sat there and we watched the Wisconsin game. It looked like it wasn’t gonna work out where I was gonna be the head coach, just couldn’t make things work. I remember watching that game and watching Wisconsin just kind of beat us up on the line of scrimmage and pull away at the end of the game. Then, soon thereafter Trev [Alberts] and I were able to work some things out before the Iowa game. So, to come full tilt two years later, to be able to run the football in the game, to be able to stop the run, yeah, I’m proud of them,” Rhule said.

“But it does feel like relief. It feels like relief because I want those older players to leave here like [Isaac Gifford] said when he was walking out at halftime, I want to change the program forever.”

From this point, Matt Rhule will look to continue to build on this success at Nebraska. That means finishing this season strong before going into next season with the expectation that Nebraska makes a bowl, rather than the hope.

“Obviously, we’re not where were in the ’90s, we’re not there,” Rhule said. “Just in terms of the, we’re not snake bit. There is no curse. You’ve gotta just go play good football. If you play good football, good things will happen. So, we’ll have to do that Friday versus a great team.”

Nebraska will finish the regular season on the road against Iowa. After that, the Cornhuskers will play in their first bowl game since 2016.