Matt Rhule puts Ethan Piper on the spot at Big Ten Media Days with impossible question

It’s not quite the classic ethical parable of the trolley problem, but Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule had a doozy of conundrum for Ethan Piper. The offensive lineman is one of three Nebraska players who joined Rhule at Big Ten Media Days this week, and the head coach took a chance to ask his player what might be a tough question.

For Piper, though, the choice was easy. Given the choice of Rhule or offensive line coach Donovan Raiola, Piper is taking his position coach.

“Hey this is Matt Rhule here for all of Husker nation with a pivotal question for Ethan Piper,” Rhule said in a video shared by HuskerOnline’s Robin Washut. “Ethan, you’re standing over a cliff. You’ve got me in one hand. Holding me, trying to save my life. You’ve got Donny Raiola in the other hand.”

Here’s @CoachMattRhule bringing absolute heat on Ethan Piper at #B1GMediaDays #Huskers pic.twitter.com/7mLWgNFKwN

— Robin Washut (@RobinWashut) July 27, 2023

“You already know the answer,” Piper said, interrupting.

“You have to let one go,” Rhule said. “Who are you letting go?”

“You know who I’m letting go,” Piper said with a grin.

“You’re letting me go?” his coach said.

“Oh yeah,” Piper said without pause.

Rhule turned and looked to the camera.

“This is going to be one heck of a camp,” he said, walking out of shot.

Rhule wants to make Nebraska a fearsome opponent again

Rhule outlined his bigger picture vision for the program, which includes making multiple steps, one at a time.

The first is to earn respect.

“There was a time when Nebraska football was feared, and we certainly want to get back to that,” Matt Rhule said. “We want to be a team that you say, you know what, that team’s feared. But we’re not at that point yet. We’re at a point right now where I believe we have to take back the respect of what it means to play in Nebraska and to be Nebraska.”

Nebraska is just 23-45 since the team last put together a winning season in 2016. So there’s quite a long way to go before Nebraska gets to the point of being feared again.

Of course, Matt Rhule won’t want his players focused on anything quite that big picture anyway. He wants them locked into the task at hand each and every day.

That’s the way they’ll ultimately start working toward respect and then feared.

“I want people to respect when they see that white helmet with that red ‘N’ on it,” Matt Rhule said. “So I want our fans to respect us when they pay their money to come watch us play. I want our opponents to respect us. I want all of college football to respect the way that Nebraska plays the game. Most importantly I want our players to respect what it means to be a Cornhusker and what it means to be at Nebraska.”