Five of the first six games Nebraska plays in 2024 will come in Lincoln. Husker faithful will get a good look at their team throughout August and September before playing four games on the road in the second half of the season.
While most head coaches might want a balance, Matt Rhule is excited to be in front of the home crowd more often than not early. He mentioned Nebraska not starting a year 1-0 since 2019, having four consecutive opening-game losses. None have been at Memorial Stadium either.
UTEP will be this year’s first game and Rhule is hopeful getting a win will begin a wave of positive momentum toward the program.
“My hope now is that playing at home, playing in front of our fans, not having to deal with the crowd noise and the hostility — maybe that will help us,” Rhule said. “Maybe it will help one of the young, freshman quarterbacks. Not dealing with crowd noise.”
Rhule made his Nebraska debut at Minnesota last season on national television. Thursday night with the Golden Gopher fan base bringing a lot of energy and leading to a three-point loss. The following week was a huge rivalry game against Colorado in Boulder with the hype of Deion Sanders backing the Buffaloes.
Starting 0-2 before playing a game at home meant there was a steep hill to climb. Nebraska got out of it for a bit, winning five of their next six. All but one of those games were played in Lincoln.
“Last year, we went on the road to Minnesota,” Rhule said. “It was a sellout. They did Gold Out. Next week we go to Colorado, Big Noon Fox. It’s a sellout. Then we finally come home, regroup, and we finally go on a little bit of a run.”
There is a flip side to playing early games, though. Two road games fall in October with another two in November. None of them are easy, on paper, heading into the season. A mixture of Indiana, Iowa, Ohio State, and USC is as difficult of a road schedule as you will see in the new-look Big Ten.
Rhule is banking on good results in their own stadium to build confidence before facing those opponents.
“It’s coming,” Rhule said. “You’re going to Ohio State, you’re going to USC. You go to Iowa. We’re going to have to learn to deal with it as the season goes on.”
Finding the right quarterback is important for every program. That’s especially true at a place like Nebraska, where head coach Matt Rhule is in the process of rebuilding the program.
However, it’s important to remember that a quarterback cannot fix all of a team’s problems on their own. It’s important to have players around the quarterback to help them out, as Rhule explained during an appearance on Always College Football.
“I think it’s everything,” Matt Rhule said. “I think if you want to ask your quarterback to try to be one of the best players, he can’t try to do things outside of himself. He’s got to stay within himself, let the game come to him and just distribute the ball and make good decisions and trust the people around them. So, whether it was really bulking up our offensive line and bulking up our protection whether it was going out and getting weapons at the wide receiver position, the tight end position, and the running back position.”
In 2023, Rhule’s first season at Nebraska, quarterback was a major concern and the team saw three quarterbacks take a significant number of snaps. However, as Rhule explained part of the issue for those signal callers was the youth they were working with for weapons. It’s an issue that he doesn’t expect to be a problem next season.
“Kind of what happened to us last year, we lost three receivers and we played a bunch of freshmen out there, and they played their way through it. Guys like Jaylen Lloyd, Malachi Coleman, they played through the highs and lows of being a true freshman and now in the spring, they know what to expect. So, you see them making big plays,” Rhule said. “We bring in Isaiah Neyor. We bring in Jahmal Banks, two really accomplished players as older players, and what we have now is a receiver room that we think is eight, nine, 10 guys strong that can go out and win in the Big Ten.”
Matt Rhule still has to make a decision moving forward at quarterback. As of now, Dylan Raiola and Heinrich Haarberg around among the quarterbacks battling to be Nebraska’s starter.
Matt Rhule says Dylan Raiola is capable of starting as a freshman
Matt Rhule believes that Dylan Raiola has the makeup to be capable of starting as a freshman. A lot of that, he explained, comes down to his family.
“He was raised in a football family. His grandfather played at the University of Miami. His Dad was obviously a 14-year pro in Detroit. A great, great offensive lineman. His uncle, Donovan, he works for us. Great offensive lineman at Wisconsin and the NFL… It’s an athletic family, it’s a football family. Dylan, to me, comes in as a young player but he understands that it’s a 24-hour deal to be the starting quarterback at a place like Nebraska. think that background has helped him walk in here in a really mature way,” Rhule said.
“He wants to be a pro. He doesn’t just want to walk in and learn the pass plays. He wants to learn how to flip the protection and what are the run checks. He’s up early in the morning, he’s working at it all the time.”
Nebraska is looking to add a more reliable and proficient passing game starting this season. Several additions could help the ‘Huskers to do that, including the pickup of WR Isaiah Neyor.
Matt Rhule explained Neyor’s potential impact in Lincoln during a recent interview on ‘Always College Football’ with Greg McElroy. He noted how their offense is hoping to add a different dimension with a pass attack that they don’t see as much of within their own conference.
“Yeah, I think, when you look at the Big Ten? You put on a bunch of Big Ten games. Then you put on, like, SEC games, obviously I’ve been in the Big 12. I think the difference you see is explosive passing games,” Rhule said. “Like, there’s just not as much of it in the Big Ten. There’s a lot more underneath passing games, controlling the middle of the field. Maybe some of that has to do with weather at times.”