Matt Rhule calls for Nebraska to be ‘body blow organization’ as Huskers eye bowl eligibility

Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule has proven that he knows how to build up a winning college football program.

Rhule had successful stints at Temple and Baylor, taking over programs that were struggling and leading them to 10-win seasons, prior to coming to Nebraska.

Rhule is now trying to build Nebraska into a winner, as well, and he has the Cornhuskers playing good football heading into the final stretch of the regular season.

Heading into Saturday’s game against Michigan State, Nebraska has won five of its past six games and is one win away from being bowl eligible.

Rhule recently joined On3’s Andy Staples and shared how Nebraska has been able to turn its season around after an 0-2 start.

“We’re kind of doing the same process we did at Temple and Baylor,” Matt Rhule said. “We practice really hard during the week – try to convince the guys that it’s really not about starting fast, though we’d love to start fast. But we want to kind of be like a body blows organization that tries to play physical and get it to the fourth quarter and be confident and make plays.”

Nebraska has scored 62 points in the fourth quarter, which is its most of any quarter. Rhule doesn’t believe that’s a coincidence. He takes pride in the fact that his team seems to get better as the game goes along.

“I think the players have just really bought into it,” Rhule said. “We practice really hard. I think they get some confidence when the game is on the line in the fourth.”

Matt Rhule weighs in on what bowl eligibility would mean to Nebraska

With a win on Saturday, Nebraska can earn a bowl berth for the first time since 2016. It would be quite an accomplishment for Rhule in his first season.

He spoke with On3’s Andy Staples about what becoming bowl eligible would mean.

“Make no mistake, we want to go to a bowl game. We need to go to a bowl game. I mean, we need to practice. We’ve got a really, really good young group of players,” Rhule said. “So practicing with those extra practices would be so invaluable, because there’s guys already that I say to myself, ‘Hey, I think he can start at this position next year’ — or, you know, there’s some older guys, like, ‘Man, if I can move him from this to this, I think he can become an NFL player.’”

Nebraska currently has the longest bowl drought in the country among power conference programs. Kansas finally made its way back to a bowl last season, meaning the Huskers officially took over the title of the Power 5 team that has gone the longest without making a bowl. The Cornhuskers last did so in 2016 with Mike Riley as head coach, but have since missed a bowl the past six seasons.”