It's Third and Ten for Husker Head Coach Matt Rhule

One of the reasons Matt Rhule was hired by Nebraska iwas his ability to turn around struggling college football programs.

Rhule's first collegiate head coaching stop was at Temple where the Owls went 2-10 in his first year (2013), 6-6 (2014) and 10-4 (2015).  (Note:  Prior to Rhule, the Owls had only one 10 win season in school history.)

His next stop at Baylor (2016) was similar to his stint at Temple:  1-11 (2017), 7-6 (2018) and 11-3 (2019).

Both third years produced at least 10 wins.  Pretty impressive.

And in Rhule's first two years at Nebraska, his teams have had similar records: 5-7 (2023) and 7-6 (2024).

The question is, can the Huskers get to double digit wins this fall?

Maybe.  Husker fans are eternal optimists.  I hear a lot of fans throwing out predictions of at least 10 wins in 2025.

Man, I hope they're right.  

What tempers those predictions is a good dose of reality.  This isn't the Temple Owls of the American Athletic Conference or even Baylor of the Big 12.  (A case could be made for the Big 12 in 2019 when both Texas and Oklahoma were conference members.)

The big piece of reality is Nebraska's '25 schedule.  Consider this:  NU must face a list of opponents that includes Michigan, Penn State, UCLA, Southern California, Iowa, Cincinnati, MInnesota and Maryland.

To get to 10 wins, NU is going to have to find a way to beat a few Big Dogs of the Big Ten.

Will this be the year when NU emerges as a national contender?  Possibly.  Yes. Likely? Probably not.

My point is, let's all take a deep breath and cut Matt Rhule some slack.  This is the Big Ten.  He's under an amazing amount of pressure to replicate his third seasons at Temple and Baylor. 

More from Nebraska on SI