BREAKING: Nebraska hires Matt Rhule

Trev Alberts has his man: Matt Rhule has officially been hired as the next head coach of Nebraska football.

Nebraska has signed Rhule to an eight-year contract. Additional contract details will be made available at Monday’s press conference.

“It is a tremendous honor to be chosen to lead the Nebraska Football program,” Rhule said. “When you think of great, tradition-rich programs in college football Nebraska is right at the top of the list. The fan base is second to none, and I consider it a privilege to have the opportunity to coach in Memorial Stadium on Tom Osborne Field. My family and I are so grateful to become a part of the Husker Family, and we can’t wait to get started.”

Rhule becomes the 34th head coach in Nebraska football history. The 47-year-old from New York was most recently the head coach of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers. Rhule was fired from the Panthers on Oct. 10 after a 1-4 start in his third season with the team. In 38 games with Carolina, Rhule went 11-27.

After growing up in New York, Rhule went to high school in State College, Pennsylvania, and was a walk-on linebacker at Penn State.

While Rhule’s stint in the NFL wasn’t successful — he never won more than five games in a season — his time before that in college football was. Rhule is known as a program builder and is 2-for-2 in turning around college programs that have fallen on hard times. In Nebraska, Rhule is hoping to make it 3-for-3.

Rhule’s first head-coaching gig came in 2013 at the Group of Five level at Temple. The Owls finished 4-7 under Steve Addazio in 2012. Rhule took over for Addazio and went just 2-10 in his first season, but progress followed. In Rhule’s second season, 2014, Temple finished 6-6. Rhule then went 10-4 in 2015 and 10-3 in 2016, his final season with the Owls before taking the next step in his career — Baylor.

Rhule went 28-23 in his four seasons with Temple — 20-7 the last two years — and had the Owls ranked in the top 25 in 2015 and 2016. He guided the Owls to their first conference championship since 1967.

Rhule was hired by Baylor in December 2016 and spent the next three seasons in Waco before trying his hand at the NFL. Rhule, who reportedly chose the Bears over Oregon during the courting process, took over a tough situation at Baylor as the program was coming off the sexual assault scandal under former head coach Art Briles.

Like Temple, Rhule endured a poor transition season at Baylor, finishing 1-11. But 7-6 with a Texas Bowl win followed in his second season. Then 11-3 with a Sugar Bowl appearance in his third, a season in which he was named the Big 12 Coach of the Year. The rapid progress caught the attention of the NFL, and Rhule jumped to Carolina following the 2019 campaign. Rhule actually finished 19-20 in his three seasons with Baylor, but 18-9 in his final two.

While at Baylor, Rhule's teams were 0-11 against ranked opponents. Rhule did beat Texas in 2019, which finished the season ranked No. 25. At Temple, his team’s were 2-4 against such competition.

For someone who never coached football in Texas before taking the Baylor job, Rhule showed he could recruit the state. Showing good judgment in hiring the right staff played a major part in that. Rhule identified a well-known and respected Texas high school coach to help his transition in Joey McGuire, and that move paid off. According to Rivals, Baylor finished third in the Big 12 recruiting rankings in 2017 and fourth in both 2018 and 2019. McGuire is now in his first season as Texas Tech’s head coach.

Alberts has ended the months-long speculation about who will lead the Cornhusker football program going forward after Mickey Joseph was named the interim head coach on Sept. 11 following the firing of Scott Frost.

During an appearance on Sports Nightly in September, Alberts discussed whether or not a candidate who has prior head coaching experience is a requirement for the next Nebraska head coach.

“I never like to use words like ‘must’ because these are very definitive words that sometimes it really limits you," Alberts said. "But, obviously, at a place like Nebraska, I think this is a place that has enough demands that experience matters, I think track record matters.

"I think head coaching experience would certainly be wonderful, but I don’t like to use very definitive words in case something happens that leads us down the path to someone who doesn’t have head coaching experience.”

During the press conference following Frost’s firing, Alberts said he’d be doing a national search. Nebraska hired the search firm Collegiate Sports Associates. That was also the same day Joseph was tabbed interim head coach.

“We’ll continue to do a national search, and we'll see how the season unfolds,” Alberts said then. “But I think we have an opportunity to hire an outstanding coach who can lead our program. And I'd love to see Mickey grow into that, and we'll just see where it goes. But again, we'll do a national search. And if at that point Mickey is an obvious candidate, he'll be part of that conversation as well.”

What was Alberts looking for in a head coach? He laid out some of what he was looking for in September.

“I’ve always believed great coaches are people of character. They’re people managers. They’re culture builders,” he said. “I think they’re grinders — a lot of the great ones don’t have a whole lot of hobbies because (coaching) is all they know.”

Rhule spent the first half of his coaching career on the defensive side of the ball before switching to offense. After beginning his career as a graduate assistant at Penn State in 1998, Rhule coached linebackers at Albright and defensive line at Buffalo from 1999-2000. After spending the 2001 season coaching UCLA’s defensive line, Rhule went to Western Carolina and stayed there from 2002-05, holding roles of special teams coordinator, linebackers coach, run game coordinator and assistant head coach.

It was after his time at Western Carolina that he first landed at Temple. Rhule was the Owls’ defensive line coach in 2006 before transitioning to offense in 2007 as the quarterbacks coach and recruiting coordinator. From 2008-10, he was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. The 2011 season was his last in his initial stint at Temple, and he was the offensive coordinator and tight ends coach.

Following the 2011 campaign, Rhule was hired as the New York Giants’ assistant offensive line coach and learned from ​​Tom Coughlin. He spent one year there before being hired as Temple’s head coach in 2013.

Rhule is married with three children.

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