Matt Rhule shares what defensive success means for Nebraska

Head coach Matt Rhule undertook a fairly large rebuild at Nebraska. To this point in the season, there has been some good and some bad for Rhule and the Cornhuskers, but one obviously impressive thing has been the team’s defense.

Ahead of Nebraska’s biggest test yet, hosting Michigan, Rhule broke down what the team’s defensive success has meant to Nebraska.

“It’s a step in the right direction for the blueprint of what we want to do,” Matt Rhule said. “I’m not a super big stats guy in that I think they can be misleading, but for a team that was 108th last year in rush defense and it’s not like we played — we’ve played a Big Ten team. We’ve played a Pac-12 team. We faced a team in Northern Illinois. So, we faced some good teams.”

Matt Rhule may not love stats, but they’re more than friendly to the Nebraska defense. The Cornhuskers have allowed 14 points or less in three of their first four games. The only one they didn’t was against Colorado, who Nebraska let score 36 points, but only 13 first half points. That’s good for 18.5 points per game, which is 33rd in the country.

In particular, Nebraska has been an incredibly stingy defense against the run. Through four games, the Cornhuskers are only giving up 46.2 rushing yards per game. That’s the best in the entire country, just ahead of Miami and Utah.

“I think it’s trending in the right direction. This is a team that’s gonna come in that’s gonna try and prove the point against you and run the ball at you. So, guys have to be up to the challenge, but just from a 50,000 foot view, what we’re doing and the blueprint that we want to have is moving in that direction. So, we just have to keep accelerating it each week.”

Heading into the game against Nebraska, Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh has taken note of that defensive success and is impressed with what he’s seen.

“Stopping the run and being able to run the ball is a is a winning winning formula in football,” Harbaugh said. “We’re just gonna have to play good. It’ll be a game of blocking, tackling, focusing on fundamentals, reads, getting off blocks, defeating blocks, playing the assignment, the right alignment, being in the right technique — A lot of focus on real football fundamentals and technique.”

Matt Rhule discusses what first win means for Nebraska 

Matt Rhule got his first win at Nebraska against Northern Illinois. After that game, Rhule reflected on what that meant for the program.

“I know, for a lot of the fans and for a lot of people who care deeply about this program, this game was probably about having some hope that things are moving in the right direction. The players? I appreciate them. Like, I go to that bus today, we walked out to that bus, and I’ve never experienced anything like that. I’ve never experienced the crowd and all those things. That was great. I thought it was awesome. I think the crowd played a huge role today,” Rhule said.

“I think the biggest thing? As much as it was hope for a lot of people that this is working and we’re moving in the right direction? For me, this was about belief. I believe that what we’re doing is working, I believe we’re doing this the right way. I believe that we can overcome the first two games and being close but not close enough. The players showed a lot of belief and showed a lot of belief in each other. In today’s day and age, that can be hard. But we have special players. I’m glad that they got the win the way they got it. That’s how we’re going to play, at least for right now.”