Master builder: Matt Rhule's plan for Nebraska needed one last thing -- the ability to adjust

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LINCOLN -- Whirlwind days, quicker than his favorite slot receiver on a short screen. Days crammed with learning, teaching, leading.

He was hired by the architect with the project still under construction. A few beams visible here, a fresh coat of paint needed there.

Dana Holgorsen had been an architect himself for a few projects. Now as Nebraska's offensive coordinator, his job was to help finish what Matt Rhule and his first coaching staff started.

Holgorsen got the building functional with a bowl berth and winning season, signed a contract and started to settle in for Rhule's Year 3, when blueprints became 10- and 11-win seasons at Temple and Baylor, respectively.

"Master communicator," Holgorsen said of his boss. "Master organizer. Fantastic leadership skills."

Rhule describes himself as "deliberate." No detail is too small or uninteresting. No rock unturned.

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His press conferences are half-hour fireside chats to fans and players, via media questions. The two-finger point he uses in selfies with recruits and fans is designed to look like the state of Nebraska. He shares praise -- and the occasional question -- about food from the Huskers' $7 million-a-year nutrition operation. He has special teams coordinator Mike Ekeler use a second office in the weight room to stay in contact with players.

Purpose, purpose, purpose.

"My intentionality is through the whole season," Rhule said.

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With his coaches, too, including the three new coordinators headlined by Holgorsen -- the former West Virginia and Houston head coach hired nine games into last season, a move that would have seemed desperate were it made by a coach less deliberate.

There's a method to Matt Rhule. It's not quite madness. But it's hardly timid.

"His ability to lead men -- lead coaches, lead players -- is very impressive," Holgorsen said.

Said Ekeler: "The infrastructure that I walked into was amazing."

Said quarterback Dylan Raiola: "You look at what he's done in the past and all you can do is trust his process. You see it works."

At the time Rhule took over in late 2022, it would have been hard to envision any of those individuals at Nebraska.

Raiola was committed to Ohio State -- for a few more weeks, at least. Holgorsen was leading Houston to an 8-5 season. Ekeler was deep into a coordinator tenure at Tennessee with longtime friend Josh Heupel.

Rhule, meanwhile, assumed the reins of a program lacking success, hope, belief. Lacking what receiver Jacory Barney, in declaring he wants to lead the nation in punt returns, said early in training camp.

"I feel like if you work hard enough and you put the work in behind the doors," he said, "when your time comes, you should be ready for that moment."

How did Rhule get Nebraska ready for this moment?

He first signed a large recruiting class back in 2022, full of in-state players for development. He did it again one cycle later.

He began a yearlong pursuit of his future quarterback, Raiola. He put slogans up all over the building -- "One of Us," "Body Blows."

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He brought along a system of players voting which teammates earn single-digit jerseys for their effort, consistency and confidence.

Like his former college coach at Penn State, Joe Paterno, used to do, he saw a safety -- in John Bullock -- and moved him to linebacker, where Bullock would log 120 tackles over two seasons.

Rhule instituted a rigorous offseason program, built a large support staff and lobbied for an ambitious nutrition program that became the first collegiate partner with Flik, which services NFL teams.

Rhule went to work, too, on deepening Nebraska's relationship with a primary NIL partner in the 1890 Collective. He built a bridge to former, disaffected players who felt left out of the program, rejected the idea of a curse hexing NU's play in close losses and preached culture, culture, culture.

Example: If Nebraska was going to have a top-flight nutrition program, players would be expected to check into the cafeteria for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even if they went home after practice. Even if they wanted a to-go box, which could be found in one of the offices.

And if a guy didn't like that?

"So the people working 18 hours a day to make you dinner, that's ridiculous?" Rhule said. "I'm making you come in? I apologize."

Rhule suggested, in mid-August, that the last of the players who didn't like checking in for dinner left. Raiola saw something similar since January.

"It went from begging guys to do things, to now it's the standard," Raiola said. "It doesn't have to be explained to anybody. Guys just embody everything you ask them to do. It's recovery, it's sleep, it's study, it's being around your teammates."

Another example: NU sets its training camp scrimmages and practices at different times of the day to simulate games at 11, 2:30 and evening. They walk through not just a game scenario but the entire run-up to the game.

Meal. Optional chapel time. All of it.

"We spent hours just practicing showing up," said Rhule, who asked Big Ten officials to call Nebraska's most recent scrimmage tight to test new defensive coordinator John Butler's preference for physical pass coverage. (The result: Too many penalties and a potential tweak to the approach.)

Rhule's emphasis on physicality and culture flipped the performance of the defense -- which in 2022 ranked 77th in the FBS in points allowed. His recruiting persistence landed Raiola, five-star son of Husker offensive line legend Donovan Raiola, as the franchise quarterback. And halfway through the 2024 season, NU was 5-1 and ranked 25th in the coaches poll.

Three straight losses later, it was clear Rhule and Raiola were missing something.

Cue up Holgorsen, who was fired by Houston after the 2023 season and initially rebuffed Rhule's interest in his play-calling skills for the entire campaign. Holgorsen needed some time to unplug after 13 years as a head coach in programs with far tighter budgets than Nebraska.

He was a consultant of sorts for TCU when Rhule came calling again in early November, after the Huskers' loss to UCLA.

This time, he said yes.

As a head coach, Holgorsen has a better winning percentage (57.1%) than Rhule (51.4%) -- though Rhule left Temple and Baylor right after he got the programs rolling. Yet Holgorsen has learned a considerable amount, he said, in his short time with Rhule.

"Every time he has an opportunity to stand in front of a group, he's good at it," Holgorsen said. "That's in staff meetings. Daily. Motivational. Tactics. I don't know which direction he's going in at times, and he ends up making his point."

Rhule's administrative staff, Holgorsen said, is "twice as big" as the ones Holgorsen had at WVU or UH, but he oversees each department effectively. The size and scope of NU's new Osborne Legacy Complex helps Rhule manage it, too.

"Nobody's on top of each other," Holgorsen said. "The recruiting department's back in their world. The operations has their wing. Strength and conditioning is in its world. Nutrition is in its world, academics is in its world. We have so much space.

"We're blessed with the best facility in the entire country. Nobody's tripping over each other.

"Here's when you get too many cooks in the kitchen -- when you have people trying to do different jobs in the same room. That doesn't exist here."

It helped create a team that Ekeler suggests could be "the most disciplined team in America." Every player takes notes, he said. Every player is "exactly where they're supposed to be" at practice.

"It goes from the head ball coach, to the strength coach, Corey Campbell -- best I've been around -- it's so many different levels," Ekeler said. "I'm beyond excited to get out there and see these guys put it on tape."

After interviewing several candidates, Rhule was glad to land Ekeler, who desired a return to his home state and NU's program. Special teams had been a notable weakness for Nebraska in 2024, nearly costing the Huskers against Rutgers and Boston College and costing NU a chance at victory at Iowa.

Ekeler, like Holgorsen, was a necessary addition to the blueprint.

Holgorsen is likely more aggressive than Rhule with some of his calls -- when Rhule might prefer to run, Holgorsen might dial up a pass -- and Ekeler insisting on rugby punter Archie Wilson meant Nebraska had to let its newly signed punting transfer, Jack McCallister, go somewhere else.

And to help the Huskers make their Year 3 jump, Rhule -- always big on development -- opted to sign double-digit transfers, including several starters. Landing the services of players such as receiver Dane Key, linebacker Dasan McCullough and guard Rocco Spindler likely took decent NIL money. Nebraska spent it.

It turns out an important piece of Rhule's process is the ability to adjust.

Not that he or those around him have lost sight of the fundamentals: A program built on physicality, details, persistent presence and a shared mindset from Raiola -- the team's star -- down to the 125th man on the roster.

"Sometime this season, down the stretch, we're going to need each and every one of each other to make a play," Raiola said. "Make a stop, or we're down two scores and we've got to come back within five minutes of the game."

Rhule has been on campus roughly 32 months. Time that moved quickly, like Holgorsen's offense might when it has a defense on its heels.

The project has reached a point where the lead architect has made those around him architects, too. They have the hammer and they're also contributing to the blueprint, mirroring Rhule's view in their own words.

"Leadership's a contact sport," Ekeler said. "You've got to open up your mouth and tell your buddy, 'Pick it up.' That's what I think we've got. Coach Rhule's done an amazing job. I walked into this."

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