Everything Matt Rhule said this week on Michigan scandal, Big Ten officials

Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule, just like every other coach in the Big Ten, has some strong opinions about the Michigan sign-stealing scandal.

Whether you’re already sick of the story, or if you can’t get enough of it, it’s not going away anytime soon. Jim Harbaugh and the Wolverines have become the epicenter of the college football world (until, that is, the next notable scandal in CFB inevitably comes into our laps) as new headlines and details emerge every day – and, seemingly, every other hour.

Rhule made some of his own headlines this week – in addition to making some a little over two weeks ago, shortly after the Michigan story broke – by being one of the rare coaches in the Big Ten to go public with some of his opinions on the entire saga at his weekly press conference on Monday.

It was an intrigue-loaded and opinion-fueled 35 minutes with Rhule. Here’s everything he said about the Michigan scandal, how the allegations have affected his team and more frustrations he voiced on Monday about the Big Ten’s replay review system – in addition to video of the full press conference interview.

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On Monday, Oct. 23 – four days after Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger and Dan Wetzel first reported the Michigan sign-stealing allegations – Rhule was asked his thoughts on sign-stealing and said “sign-stealing happens every game.”

“There’s nothing wrong with teams looking over trying to steal our signs,” Rhule said. “There’s nothing wrong with us looking at their signs. … I will not carry that over into going and filming someone else’s practices or something like that, or filming someone else’s games. That’s completely something different. And I’m not saying that happened, but I think what’s wrong partly in our society right now is we say someone does something against the rules. And sports need rules, right? Sports need rules to keep competitive balance, and when something does something against the rules, we say ‘well, should that really even be a rule?’ It is the rule. We don’t get five downs. In-game stealing of signs … that’s all part of the game.

“... But if there’s a rule, the rule should be followed. I’m not speaking about what’s happening right now because I don’t know what happened, but if that is happening somewhere, it’s completely, completely wrong.”

Rhule’s stance against what Michigan has allegedly done has not changed since he made those comments. Rhule took an even stronger stance this week, though, after all of the details that have come to light ever since the initial report.

“We're sitting at 5-4, we own 5-4,” Rhule said. “We’ve had one game where the team scouted us, and we had two games where replay was wrong. That's tough to swallow. That’s where we are. The issues about giving up sacks and turning the ball over, those are the main issues we are gonna work on controlling.”

When later asked for clarity on if he was referring to Michigan illegally stealing signs when he said a team has “scouted us,” Rhule shrugged and said “come on,” making it clear he was talking about the Wolverines’ program.

“I feel for our players,” Rhule said. “At the end of the day, they are out there battling for bowl eligibility. We are sitting there with a 5-4 record. You have a touchdown taken away from us at Minnesota and a touchdown added to them at this game. I called Harlon Barnett on Saturday night and texted back and forth with him Sunday morning. I don’t want to do anything to diminish Minnesota or him.

“I’m just saying, for our guys, I gotta sit up in the front of the room, and they say they’re watching ESPN and watch (Purdue coach) Ryan Walters speak some facts and saying ‘What do you think coach?’ My number one job is to advocate for these guys and push them to be great. I wanna say that it’s kind of crappy. It’s good for our guys to learn that no one cares, no one feels sorry for us. Those plays happened in this game last weekend, and it doesn’t change the score. The other thing happened. It is what it is, and we can control what we can control.”

Rhule said on Oct. 23 that no one from the Big Ten has reached out to him to discuss or ask him questions about anything regarding Michigan stealing their signs during the Huskers’ 45-7 loss to the Wolverines on Sept. 30. On Monday, he said that has not changed.

“No one is having conversations with me (from the Big Ten),” Rhule said. “At the end of the day, what’s the Husker prayer? Dear Lord, the battles we go through in life, we ask for a chance that’s fair. That’s all I want. Every game, I want the 60 minutes of the game to be fair, not tilted one way or the other. I just want to do things right so our players learn the difference between right and wrong, even in competitive equity. I think it’s a shame when people say ‘well, it wouldn’t have mattered.’ It is what it is. Other people have talked about it. It happened, whether it affected it or not, none of that matters to me.

“I just feel bad for our guys. They look at me like ‘hey, coach, what are you doing about this?’ So I do feel like I need to say something on their behalf. We carry this record, but I just want everything to be fair. That’s all I care about.”

One of the ways Michigan is reportedly defending itself in the sign-stealing saga is by saying that the recruiting staffer at the center of the scandal – Connor Stalions – acted alone and that they had no knowledge of his actions. Stalions, who resigned from Michigan last week, said as much via a statement upon giving his resignation, saying that Jim Harbaugh was unaware of Stalions’ extensive operation.

Rhule has a very large, extensive group of coaches and support staffers to help him run the Nebraska football program. Would there ever be a time in which one of his assistants would be running amok like Stalions and not be accounted for?

“There’s not an analyst on our staff that wouldn’t be at an away or home game with us,” Rhule said. “At a home game, there’s not one person who doesn’t have duties designed. At an away game, there are some people that we’d leave behind. There’s not a coaching analyst on our staff that doesn’t travel with us and have a job. … At the end of the day, it is what it is. I’m only speaking for our team. I don’t ever want to cast shade on other people or other teams. I’ve been that guy, when the whole world is kind of taking shots at you. I’m not saying that.

“What I’m saying is I just want the 60 minutes of the game fair. That’s all I want – the 60 minutes of the game fair. And if we have a game – and it’s a big game – and we have recruits from all over the country come in, and the game gets ugly quickly and ugly right away and those kids all look at me. Even if you lose, it’s more entertaining if it’s a little closer. I want everything to be fair. At the same time, when I called my son after the game, he said to me ‘tough calls, dad. Control the controllables.’ That’s my 18-year-old son. We’re going to control the controllables, and I do appreciate the Big Ten and the way they handle things.”

If you’re a Nebraska fan reading this, you already know the situation, so we’ll just sum it up nice and quick: Gabe Ervin Jr. didn’t score a touchdown that WAS a touchdown against Minnesota. The Huskers threw a pick in the end zone on the next play. It was a game they lost by three. Michigan State scored a touchdown that WASN’T a touchdown. It was a game they lost by three.

Maybe Nebraska doesn’t wind up winning either game, and there are plenty of other reasons the Huskers lost both times. For a team where the margins are so, so small between winning and losing – and playing in a Big Ten West division where the margins are just as small – and where points are so hard to come by, yeah, it’s impossible to say the results of those two replays against Nebraska weren’t hugely significant.

And it’s easy to argue Nebraska would have been in a really good, if not great, position to win both games if what should have happened had happened – the correct calls being made by Big Ten replay official Tom Kissinger, who assumedly had the exact same video angles everyone else did when watching Ervin put the ball over the plane and when watching MSU’s Montorie Foster lose control of the ball as it hit the ground.

Well, Husker fans, you should feel good about at least one thing: You have a coach who has essentially the exact same mindset as you.

“It’s a unique game to talk about the officiating,” Rhule said this week post-Michigan State. “I have a lot of respect for officials. I do have to say something in defense for our team too. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be out there and call a play. I don’t usually say very much, like the pass interference (against) Malachi (Coleman) and the facemask (against) Heinrich (Haarberg). I’m not out there doing what they do. If we don’t have officials, we can’t have sports. I don’t want to complain about those things. We’re sitting here at 5-4.

“This is my fourth head coaching job and year 11 as a head coach. I’ve never had a touchdown wrong on replay. We lost two games by three points. (The decision after replay review was) wrong twice this year. (They) were wrong in Minnesota and it was wrong here. That doesn’t mean we lost the game. We aren't excuse makers. The type of team we are right now, we can’t have seven points spotted. Again, I am not complaining about the officiating – it's the replay (reviews). It's difficult for me to understand. I know the people at the Big Ten are working hard on it. I have a lot of respect for them. I would’ve liked to have one more shot from where we were at the end of the game at the 45-yard line. I would’ve liked to hit (a pass over the middle), cut and (spike the ball) and kick that field goal. I feel bad for our players about that.”

Rhule added that he is appreciative of the Big Ten league office for its communication all around and for the way it has handled the fallout from those replay reviews.

“They’re very communicative and if you send a play in, they get back to you,” Rhule said. “They don’t always agree with you, but you learn a lot about them. They’re doing everything right. It is what it is.”

So, does that mean the Big Ten office has reached out to talk with Rhule about the officiating and reviews in the Michigan State game, specifically?

“I’ll just leave it at this: I think everybody is on the same page that that was not a catch for the touchdown,” Rhule said. “I think everybody is on the same page that (Haarberg's second fumble) was not a fumble and either should have been ruled (incomplete) or gone to replay and overturned. There’s a difficulty with the speed of those things sometimes, and I don’t have a timeout to challenge it because we used our timeouts at the end of the game. I think everyone is on the same page. Even in replay, there’s a human error factor. But our players did deserve one more play and that shouldn’t have been a touchdown. But that is what it is, we have to play better to not put ourselves in those positions moving forward.”

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