Matt Rhule reveals new tradition he's introducing this season at Nebraska

As first-year Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule strives towards establishing his culture, he’s brought a fun new tradition with him. The Cornhuskers may be are in the middle of the spring practice, but the work of their players this offseason could determine their gameday appearance this football season.

“It started when I was the offensive coordinator at Temple, Al Golden was the head coach, and then I did it when I was the head coach there and then when I was the head coach at Baylor,” Rhule said. And then Willie Taggart took it to Oregon when he went there, so it kind of became something.”

So what is the new tradition? One that puts an elevated value on the team’s single-digit jersey numbers.

“I got really tired of having a guy in my program who had spent three years as number 47 getting ready to play and wanted to wear No. 1 or No. 3 and he had earned it and then we would give it to a recruit.
So what we decided was 1 through 9, now 0 through 9, would go to the nine or now 10 toughest guys on the team,” Rhule said.

Nebraska’s opponents should be wary of anyone wearing a single-digit number this season for the Cornhuskers, as it will serve as a mark for one of the team’s toughest members. Toughness isn’t easy to define, but will be something voted on by the people most qualified for the job.

“When I say ‘toughest’, we define that for the guys. Really the guys who best exemplify what it means to be a Cornhusker, to be accountable, to be dependable, to be tough, hardworking, competitive every single day,” Rhule explained. “As we get into training camp, it wont’ be the coaches, the players will vote on it, and we hope it becomes a tradition. As we have whole heartedly embraced all the great traditions that are here, hopefully this will be something new that people will get in to and there will be a long line of guys who earn that jersey number.”

Incentivizing single digit numbers not only serves as a neat new tradition, but likely one that will further motivate players individually through the offseason, as Rhule explained more about the history of the tradition that will now be adopted by Nebraska.

“A lot of respect for the guys that were in those single digit jerseys because it’s not fun to have your number taken away. I think the cool thing now is as recruits say it to me, as guys say it to me, can I wear number 3? Absolutely, just have to earn it,” Rhule said. “And there’s no delineation, the first guy that we vote in, he picks whichever number he wants, the second guy he picks whatever number he wants. And overtime, at least at Temple, like hey 6’s were all kind of this position, the number 3’s were all DBs. I’ve had freshman earn it, I’ve had seniors earn it, I’ve had times where we didn’t get to all nine unfortunately early on. We’ll have nine or 10 guys here, there’s plenty of guys who deserve those numbers.”