Matt Rhule on closing the gap with Michigan: 'We're not in that conversation right now'

For the past few seasons, Michigan has been the class of the Big Ten. Under head coach Matt Rhule, Nebraska would like to get to that point. However, the Cornhuskers aren’t there yet following a blowout loss to the Wolverines on Saturday.

After the game, Rhule admitted that Nebraska isn’t in the conversation with Michigan for the time being when asked about closing the gap with teams like Michigan.

“I can’t answer that right now,” Matt Rhule said. “They’re the number two team in the country. We’re not in that conversation right now.”

Nebraska lost to Michigan on Saturday by a score of 45-7. The Cornhuskers didn’t get on the scoreboard until the fourth quarter of the game. Throughout the game, time of possession and third down conversions proved to be issues for Nebraska.

Of course, Matt Rhule has had success rebuilding programs before. He referenced one place he rebuilt the program, at Baylor.

“To me, it’s holistic. I stood on the field at Baylor, forgive me for talking about another school, but I stood on the field at Baylor in 2017 as they were beating us 59-16 or something. They’re throwing balls in the end zone and laughing at us, and I told Charlie Brewer and all those guys, ‘We’ll come back here and we’ll beat them.’ We beat them the next year. Two years later, we beat them 45-whatever.”

Matt Rhule was referencing the Oklahoma State game in 2017, a year that Baylor went 1-11 during a massive rebuild. The next season, Baylor beat Oklahoma State and went to a bowl. By 2019, Baylor was playing in the Sugar Bowl. Rhule is hoping to replicate that success at Nebraska by continuing to put in the work, even if they’re not there yet.

“So, we’re gonna recruit. There were recruits there today. Hopefully, they say, ‘Wow, I can really come make a difference.’ We’re gonna develop, we’re gonna keep coaching these guys, we’re gonna coach these guys this week. They were in the same spot last year. 2-3 last year. They battled. They won some games, we’re gonna have a chance to win games,” Rhule said.

“The biggest difference is I’m not gonna get up here and make excuses. I’m not gonna get up here and blame the players. We’re gonna recruit, coach, develop. We’re gonna learn from this game. This game sucked. Pardon my language. This game stunk, but, at the same time, we play again Friday.”

This Friday, Nebraska will take on Illinois in a key Big Ten game for both teams.

“So, that’s kind of the approach. It’s a methodical process, one step at a time, and again I’ll probably watch the tape and I’ll see some things. I’ll see some young players out there playing and say, ‘Man, he’s gonna be really good,’ and Tony [White] will make the corrections on defense and we’ll keep coming along as an offensive line and we’ll get there.”

Matt Rhule updated the injury status of DeShon Singleton, Luke Reimer

Following the game, Matt Rhule shared an injury update on defensive back DeShon Singleton and linebacker Luke Reimer. For Singleton, it’s a knee injury but Rhule doesn’t know the severity of the injury yet.

“It was his knee,” Rhule said. “He got cracked on the side and maybe his knee got stuck in the turf or something. I don’t know. He was in a lot of pain and was out. I don’t think it’s an ACL as of yet, but we’ll see. They’re gonna obviously do the tests and all those things.”

As for Reimer, it was a scarier situation. He had to be taken to the hospital from Nebraska’s team hotel ahead of the game.

“Luke was not available for us today. Our thoughts and prayers are with Luke. He was unfortunately taken to the hospital this morning from the hotel, so we’re hoping that he’ll be ok. Expect him to be ok. But we’re just erring with abundance of caution for him,” Rhule said.

“So, obviously, Luke was injured this week and just so you guys know, I never lie to you guys. He said, ‘I’m gonna be fine.’ And he just started having some yesterday and they said it was nothing. They gave him an antibiotic and the antibiotic didn’t heal it. So, they just wanted to rule out infections, MRSA, and all those things. I don’t have knowledge of it now, but that was a complete and total surprise to me this morning. It was actually at breakfast.”