Matt Rhule explains trust in Nebraska's offensive line

Matt Rhule is new to the Nebraska job and hasn’t had a chance to work his players through a practice yet, but he’s already been vocal that he likes the Nebraska offensive line he inherited.

Rhule has praised the previous coaching staff for their evaluations when it came to the recruits they had lined up in the 2023 recruiting class up front.

“I said when I first started this, this is a long, arduous journey,” Rhule said. “I’m glad that people are a little bit excited that we were able to create some buzz in recruiting. But they’re all just 17 or 18 years old. We’ve got a lot of work to do. But I just meant the staff did a good job. I liked the committed O-linemen when I got here.”

The new coach has also done his homework, going back and watching game tape of the Nebraska offensive line from a year ago.

Despite the overall criticism of everything that happened in 2022, Rhule saw some positives.

“I was studying last year, like our counter cutup from last year,” Rhule said. “I think they ran 28 versions of counter, old school double-team on the front side, go kick someone out. They averaged six yards a carry on it.

“It’s so easy to say, ‘Oh, it’s the O-line. Oh it’s the O-line,’ it’s just, it is what it is. It’s so easy to say that, but like there’s a responsibility from the quarterback, from the receivers, from the running backs, from the tight ends, to help the O-line. But there’s a responsibility from the coaching staff to have an identity. Don’t tell me what we can’t do, tell me what we can do.”

Prevailing narrative on O-line play is the easy out

What Rhule was really trying to emphasize, it seemed, was that it’s a little too convenient to just pin everything on poor offensive line play.

“I’m not saying anything bad, I just think it’s so easy as a coaching staff to sit there and be like, ‘Hey, we’re not good enough up front,'” Rhule said. “I have no idea how good we are. I think there’s some players I really like.”

He even provided one individual example on the Nebraska offensive line.

“I walk by Dylan Parrott, a walk-on offensive lineman and I’m like, ‘Man, I would kill for him at some of the places I’ve been,’ watching him move and how big and strong he is,” Rhule said. “I haven’t seen him play yet, so I can’t crown him, I’m just saying there’s some guys with some talent. And I just don’t want to take the easy way out. I don’t want to sit here and say, ‘We’re not good enough here, we’re not good enough there.'”