State of the Nebraska Cornhuskers: Why does the pre-season hype feel different in 2024?

TJ Birkel joins me from the Common Fan Podcast to talk Nebraska football, including what it's been like for Nebraska coming to the Big Ten, how Matt Rhule is changing the culture, and why the pre-season hype feels more justified this year than in previous ones.
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[@benjammin2929]

Just watching the team last year, there's an obvious mindset shift. Even when they lost one score games, it was clear they were trying to win until the end. In previous seasons, it always felt like the Huskers gave up when things didn't go their way. Culture matters.

[@bigtenfootballtalk6144]

Yep, I feel very similar. Rhule's leadership was very evident from game 1.

[@mattp5991]

I drank the Scott frost Kool-Ade like most fans. What we now know is that Scott is a good game day assistant coach, or at best a good OC....and that had a lucky season as a head coach at UCF. Major college football is a big business and requires a detail-oriented CEO. Scott Frost either isn't that, or crumbled under the pressure of the job. The rumors of him missing meetings, calling the Riaola family to beg out of a BBQ cookout because he's too drunk, him and his friends spending way too much time at the country club, etc....have all been verified as true. I don't knock him for those things. They are what they are. Frank Solich spent a LOT of time in Lincoln bars and some of Frank's older assistant coaches refused to go out on the road and recruit because of their "bad knees" and other health issues. Being on a pressure-cooker big-time college football staff is a young person's game and if you're not young you'd better be working out and eating right. It all comes down to a head coach needing to be a detail-oriented CEO to the point of having OCD about details. I feel like Matt Rhule has Bill Callahan's detail-oriented OCD, Bo Pelini's fire and passion for football, and Mike Riley's caring, people skills. Add to that the fact that he can command a room due to his father being a preacher....and the fact that he doesn't have an Ego that needs stroked by only recruiting 5-star kids tells me that NU has found the right fit for the next decade or two (if Penn State doesn't come calling on him...AND if Rhule can avoid a triple-bypass heart surgery in the next 5 to 10 years). Hopefully, we'll start killin' it....or we'll likely DIE trying. "If we DIE, we DIE!" GBR!!! ❤🌽🏈🔥🔥🔥😎👍

[@mattm402]

Because even with making freshman mistakes Nebraska has 2 freshman qb's capable of leading Nebraska to a 9 or 10 win season. The schedule isn't that hard. No Oregon. Washington. MI Or PSU.

[@bigtenfootballtalk6144]

The schedule is a big deal.

[@Richard-by6br]

We should have(and I do) count the 93 season as a championship as I refuse to allow the worst college game refering fiasco of all time to take our 'win' over FSU away. We doubled their yardage! Just so you young guys know that we hobestly won that game. Just watch a "full game".

[@bigtenfootballtalk6144]

Nebraska was certainly the dominant program in 90's.