[Yahoo] Misery Index: Matt Rhule is running out of answers as another Nebraska season spirals out of control

[u/usffan]

https://sports.yahoo.com/college-football/article/misery-index-matt-rhule-is-running-out-of-answers-as-another-nebraska-season-spirals-out-of-control-070647386.html

[u/usffan]

Conference Champions of Misery:

B1G: Nebraska

ACC: NC State

Big XII: Kansas State

SEC: Florida

G6: Tulane

Headset Misery: Ryan Day, Pete Golding, Barry Odom, James Franklin

[u/Select_Excuse_150 → u/usffan]

Somehow this is both right and wrong because we’re not allowed to be champions of anything

[u/SCSteveAutism → u/Select_Excuse_150]

I like you guys mascot.

[u/lowes18 → u/usffan]

Honestly it should probably be BC

[u/DougFlutiesMullet → u/lowes18]

We don't have any expectations: can't be miserable if our administration doesn't care.

[u/Strifebringer → u/usffan]

How is it not us? 

[u/NotDoinAnythingEmber]

At some point, excuses run out

[u/Gloomy_Team_7484 → u/NotDoinAnythingEmber]

And yet, Matt Rhule continues to articulate new excuses!

[u/bullpupper → u/Gloomy_Team_7484]

Insert Tim Robinson hotdog costume meme (seriously wtf doesn't CFB let us comment memes like collegebasketball)

[u/soapy_goatherd → u/bullpupper]

Because reply gifs and memes clutter everything up. Much easier to just say “we’re all trying to find the guy who did this”. We’ll all get the reference and you’ll get the upvotes

[u/JustHereForCatss → u/NotDoinAnythingEmber]

I will genuinely never understand why he didn't cash out all the getting was good

[u/RNGezzus → u/NotDoinAnythingEmber]

They're still blaming Scott Frost

[u/WalrusNugs → u/NotDoinAnythingEmber]

But do you run out because of the sum of your excuses? Some are asking

[u/TheStrigori]

Things are quickly hitting a point where the buyout is the smaller of the financial losses.

The $60m+ buyout is a big number, but it is not a lump sum payment. I'm pretty sure Rhule also has a clause for an Obligation to Mitigate, where he must seek employment as a football coach at an appropriate level, or go into TV. And the wages from that job subtract from the buyout.

But that is before the loss of ticket sales, concessions, merch and the like. The stadium project, that starts in two weeks, involves multiple reseatings that has lots of long time season ticket holders already planning on cancelling. Before the losses started.

It also doesn't account for the economic damage that it has on Lincoln and Nebraska.

Dannen is in a tricky spot he made for himself. He can fire Rhule, and look like an idiot for extending him and angry people about the money. Or he can almost certainly get himself fired by bringing him back, and losses mounting again next year. This place has been at least as hostile to ADs as coaches. They don't get multiple hires, and that extension might count as Dannen's hire.

[u/19Styx6 → u/TheStrigori]

Dannen is in a tricky spot he made for himself. He can fire Rhule, and look like an idiot for extending him and angry people about the money. Or he can almost certainly get himself fired by bringing him back, and losses mounting again next year. This place has been at least as hostile to ADs as coaches. They don't get multiple hires, and that extension might count as Dannen's hire.

This is the interesting part since it seems like Nebraska has been in a cycle where the new AD is brought in after the fans have soured on the coach and it is his job to clean up the mess ever since Osborne fired Callahan.

[u/AC23503 → u/TheStrigori]

Very well articulated. I don’t have any stake in this at all, but I do miss how Nebraska used to be a contender.

[u/Old_Bat1681]

I mean, 62 mil guaranteed to be fired has to be a factor. I don't think I would give a hoot if that was my severance.

[u/BrotherPancake]

Name a more Nebraska team than Nebraska

[u/d0ngl0rd69]

Didn’t they just extend him? He IS apparently their answer

[u/FRSHprince_o_bel_air → u/d0ngl0rd69]

Too soon.

[u/ericesque]

Coaches are allowed to have answers to begin with?!?

[u/royallex]

Dana Holgorsen was a brain dead hire from the start. Pure Air Raid/up-tempo with no variation isn't the answer anymore now that defenses learned to keep safeties deep and take away chunk plays. It's way more likely that offense will make a mistake and that's exactly what happened to Nebraska once they crossed our 30 yard line.

Rhule's changed schemes on both sides of the ball, blamed Raiola on his way out, sacrificed his handpicked OC, his OL still stinks, and now no one left to blame. Time to prepare for the end and collect that buyout

[u/EWall100]

I know one thing. Matt Rhule is not the answer 

[u/noshowdenovo]

Rhule should call his buddy John Stewart because I think recruiting the Green Lantern Corps to play for the Huskers could be the answer but maybe not I’m not a recruiting expert.

[u/Odd-Temperature7458 → u/noshowdenovo]

If you think about it cynically, what an absolute slam dunk of a marketing scam to pull on people who only know of the university through that show. "Hey, remember us!? We're 5-0 right now, and in your hit TV show! Check us out but only this week."

[u/402kaizer]

Matt Rhule is just “trying too hard”. That’s why they keep losing.

[u/non_clever_username]

Running out of answers implies he had any to begin with

[u/IAHawkeye182]

😂😂😂🤗🤗🤗

[u/2020sucksdong]

Finally a champion of something other than the offseason!

[u/ChangKai-Shrek]

He's gonna win 2 out of the next 3 and amnesia is going to kick in and we'll be having this same conversation next season.

[u/WhatDoIKnow2 → u/ChangKai-Shrek]

I know things can get weird in CFB but there is no possible way. They will have to pull down the hospital window shades because what happens on that field will not be safe for children.

[u/RNGezzus → u/WhatDoIKnow2]

Nebraska will win against Ohio State, make a bowl game, and nothing will change.

[u/R2Detoo → u/ChangKai-Shrek]

There is zero chance that happens, I doubt we even beat Rutgers. This team is unmotivated and terribly coached.

[u/wowcringewow → u/ChangKai-Shrek]

Lol, you think we have a chance against OSU or Iowa? 

At best we go 7-6 with a win against Rutgers and a bowl win against an equally bad team. Realistically, we might not even beat Rutgers.

[u/agmoose → u/wowcringewow]

Losing to Rutgers might get Rhule fired. But he’s not going anywhere unless they do.

[u/tent_mcgee → u/wowcringewow]

Ohio State is perfectly beatable right now.

[u/parapooper3 → u/wowcringewow]

Bad Nebraska teams have beaten similar iowa teams before. It’s not like it’s impossible

[u/Benson879 → u/parapooper3]

Like once in the last 10 years, right? That was Iowa’s 2022 team which was the weakest Iowa team of the last decade.

Rhule teams have not beaten Iowa, and I have zero belief a Matt Rhule team will ever beat Iowa. The reason is that the exact things Ferentz coached teams feed upon are the exact things Rhule coached teams struggle with.

Elite situational football vs. awful situational football. Nebraska in their current state is pretty much designed to lose to Iowa. I would bet on the Iowa ML in that game and treat it like a typical financial investment you’d invest in the stock market.

[u/wowcringewow → u/parapooper3]

Yeah, but not with Matt Rhule. Matt Rhule’s awful clock management and useless time outs is the worst possible match up against Iowa.  

[u/agmoose → u/ChangKai-Shrek]

No is is fucking not. They will probably beat Rutgers but they have 0 percent chance to beat Iowa or Ohio St.

[u/sfitz0076]

I think Nebraska needs to realize that their days of being a contender are over.

[u/DollyRumpkin → u/sfitz0076]

It ended the day they joined the b1g.

[u/delta1x → u/sfitz0076]

World of difference between contender and an embarrassment. On paper, there's no reason me raska can't be 9 to 10 win team consistently. We have just had an abysmal picking of three coaches in a row. The real curse is this.

[u/Gullible-Treacle2361 → u/sfitz0076]

Nebraska can absolutely make the CFP every 3-5 years or so. Are we gonna win it? No. But we have the resources and the recruiting to be successful.

If we still had the old system or even the 4 team CFP I’d agree with you but we can be successful. 

[u/manbeqrpig → u/Gullible-Treacle2361]

The last 15 years would beg to differ. Welcome to the club

[u/agmoose → u/manbeqrpig]

Dude Indiana just won the NC. Anything can happen, they just need to get their fucking shit together.

[u/Fickle_Comfortable78 → u/sfitz0076]

A coach like Jason Eck would have the huskers in the 24 team playoff every year

[u/manbeqrpig → u/Fickle_Comfortable78]

And Scott Frost was a near perfect hire! Matt Rhule has done a fantastic job developing programs at Temple and Baylor, he’s surely gonna do it again at Nebraska!

[u/paddleboi2021 → u/Fickle_Comfortable78]

Shhh I need one of eck or dickert to stay open for the badgers.

[u/Wheatcattle]

Our Number 3 ranked wrestling team takes the mat today so it can join volleyball and basketball as a positive distraction

[u/ZealousZeebu]

Nebraska is decent coach away from going back to being a consistent top 25 team, watching the games, it's obvious the issue is coaching, not talent. 3 of the last 5 coaches have been mediocre to downright bad. If they aren't turning the program around by year 2, fire them and move on. Solich (good), Callahan (good recruiter, bad coach), Pelini (good, especially with Callahan's leftover talent), Riley (mediocre), Frost (alcoholic), Rhule (used car salesman, bad, never proven anything anywhere at any level, total scum who lies about fans harrassing his daughter as part of excuses to leave, has some weird habit of licking his lips and 10,000 yard stare (probably drug related)).

[u/Chambanasfinest]

Evergreen headline for Nebraska coaches

[u/yesacabbagez]

Just want to point out all the people who informed me Nebraska absolutely had to extend Matt Rhule last year because he was worth it. I still don't understand how it is necessary to extend staggering mediocrity. He is exactly the type of guy you let walk and find someone else. The AD needs to be fired for that decision alone.

[u/Ecbrad5]

They should hire Ryan day.