Former Nittany Lion player and graduate assistant [autotag]Matt Rhule[/autotag] is close to returning to the Big Ten to become the head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers, according to ESPN.
Rhule was fired by the Carolina Panthers earlier this fall when his team was 1-4 on the season in 2022. During his two plus season as the coach of the Panthers, he had a tumultuous record of 11-27 which was a far cry from his college coaching records.
After Rhule left State College, he made the rounds in the college ranks with stops as a head coach at Temple and Baylor. Both schools went from winning one and two games to 10 and 11 games by the end of his tenure. He has proven he can turn programs around quickly and efficiently and that is what Nebraska would be hiring him to do. He did that by turning those schools into places that could regularly pull in top 25 recruiting classes when they traditionally didn’t.
Nebraska has zeroed in on former Carolina Panthers coach Matt Rhule as @HuskerFBNation’s next head coach, and the two sides hope to finalize a deal in the coming days, sources tell ESPN.
— Chris Low (@ClowESPN) November 25, 2022
Right now, Nebraska has the 33rd ranked class according to 247Sports. Given Rhule will have the holiday season and an additional two months to recruit before February’s traditional national signing day, the Cornhuskers could easily land a top 25 class.
While the financial and year totals are yet to be disclosed, Rhule would have a chance to turn Nebraska into a double digit win team for the first time since 2012 when they made a Big Ten title game appearance.
Starting out small though, Nebraska can hope that Rhule allows them to win more than three games for the first time since 2019 when he starts during the 2023 season.
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