Report: Nebraska closing in on deal to make Matt Rhule next head coach

Nebraska seems to be in the home stretch of completing its head-coaching search.

According to multiple reports on Friday, including ESPN's Pete Thamel, Nebraska is negotiating a deal with Matt Rhule to become the school's next football coach with a deal expected to be completed in the coming days. 

Rhule previously coached the NFL's Carolina Panthers but was fired earlier this season after two-plus disappointing seasons. The Panthers still owe Rhule more than $34 million. 

Nebraska's football program has been a bitter disappointment over the past few years, with the 2022 season being its sixth consecutive losing season. The school has not won more than five games since the 2016 season. 

Scott Frost was supposed to be the coach to turn things around, but he was fired just three games into this season following a 16-31 tenure over parts of five years.

While Rhule's tenure in the NFL was awful, he does have a track record of turnarounds at the NCAA level. He turned Temple into a 10-win team (in back-to-back seasons) by his third year there, and he had a similar turnaround at Baylor by taking the Bears from one win in his debut season to 11 wins just two years later. 

Some coaches are just better suited for success at the college level, and based on what we have seen from Rhule in his three head-coaching stops so far, he might be one of those people.

Nebraska better hope that he is because it needs something to turn that program around.