Matt Rhule not worried about 'same old Nebraska' claims

Nebraska’s opener felt too familiar for those in Lincoln. After routinely blowing winnable games, Matt Rhule opened his career with the Cornhuskers with a loss on a game-winning field goal by Minnesota after taking their largest lead of the game, albeit with that margin only being seven points, in the fourth quarter.

However, Rhule doesn’t want to hear anything about this 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 matchup from Minneapolis was a heavy contest that didn’t have much scoring. Nebraska’s four turnovers were too much to overcome, though, as they closed the first half with two interceptions and ended the game with a lost fumble as well as another interception.

Even so, this 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.

Rhule confirms Marcus Washington sat in first half due to academic suspension

Matt Rhule confirmed that Nebraska WR Marcus Washington did not play in the first half of Thursday’s 13-10 loss to Minnesota because of an academic suspension.

“He was suspended in the first half from the summer,” Rhule said in his post-game press conference. “Nothing disciplinary just academic concerns.”

Washington, who was the team’s second-leading receiver last season, finished the game with three catches for 31 yards.

Last season, Washington finished the year with 31 catches for 471 yards and one touchdown as one of the team’s top options after Trey Palmer.

“It’s good to get Marcus out there. He loves to play the game,” Rhule said. “It was good to see him get out there and fly around. He’s healthy. He sat the first half, came in the second half. Moving forward I think he’ll be a key contributor for us.”