Matt Rhule, Nebraska plan to catch Georgia as perceived hardest-practicing team in college football

Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule has been working hard to build a new culture in Lincoln, Neb., and right the Cornhuskers ship that has gone astray the past decade much like how Kirby Smart revitalized Georgia. He told a story this week from about a scout watching the team practice this year that should make Nebraska fans feel good about the direction of the program.

“We had one scout come in and said, ‘man, you guys are the second hardest practicing team I’ve seen in college football,'” Rhule said during his press conference Monday. “I had him tell the team that. Because I think sometimes they look at me like, Why are we practicing so hard? Well, when a guy comes up and it’s gonna be two names, and he looks at the guy from University of Nebraska late or as a free agent, he knows these guys know how to practice. Those are the things they ask. Obviously they’ll ask me some more things about guys but the base thing is that: What’s the football character, learning? If it’s a first round pick, maybe more about, ‘Coach once he has some money is he going to continue to love the game or does he know the game just to make some money.’ Those are the things people are asking me.”

Rhule was asked if he could reveal which team the scout had named as the hardest-practicing team they had seen.

The first-year head coach agreed to divulge the team. It was Georgia, the two-time defending national champions. And Rhule said they will reach the Bulldogs’ level.

“We’ll catch ’em,” Rhule said. “It’s University of Georgia. And that doesn’t mean Alabama — that’s gonna go viral. I’m gonna have all these fan bases yelling at me. I’m just saying what another person said of the teams he’s seen. But I know how Georgia practices. It’s been great to have MJ (Sherman) here to tell our guys, you know on Thursdays when we come out guys in baseball caps and we walk through, they’re in shoulder pads and helmets.”

Rhule has Nebraska at 4-3 through the first seven games of the season. The team has finished with a winning record since the 2016 season when the team went 9-4 under Mike Riley.

Now in his third college head coaching job, the 48-year-old Rhule turned programs around very quickly in his first two jobs at Temple and Baylor. But those two teams won a combined three games in Year 1 under Rhule before both winning double digit games in Rhule’s third year on the job.

“I am not saying we’re the second-hardest practicing team,” Rhule said. “That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying a scout said that and I had him say it to the team. But I think, again, it’s just the ethos out there of you want people to know this is what a Nebraska guy is. You come into a team meeting and if you don’t have a pen in your hand, or you come into a meeting and you don’t have a pen in your hand, you’re out. You’re not in the meeting.

“When we have guest speakers come in to talk about life skills or something, they see all of our guys with pens and pads. They’re like, ‘what is this?’ Well, it’s because I had a guy come in one time and say, ‘Matt, you know, I go to other teams, they take notes and your guys don’t take notes.’ And I was like, I’m failing these guys because they’re gonna be taking notes someday at Google. They’re going to be taking notes someday at the Washington Commanders. They better take notes here. Everything we do is designed to help them be pros in life.”

Still Matt Rhule knows if wants to catch Georgia there’s more work to be done. And even if they don’t, he still has a plan to prepare his guys for life after football.