Remember the Nebraska Cornhuskers HC Matt Rhule who talked big, warning Deion Sanders’ Colorado Buffaloes? The man was all confident that his QB Dylan Raiola—the Patrick Mahomes’ doppelgänger—would give a hard time to Buffs QB Shedeur Sanders. While the Cornhuskers did give the Colorado Buffaloes a hard time with a 28-10 win on September 7, things started going downhill not long after that.

After the team’s 34-3 win against Northern Iowa, it’s like they were stepping into a spiral one game at a time. Their first loss of the season came on September 20 against Illinois (24-31). And come October 19, the Cornhuskers went into a full-blown meltdown, picking up four consecutive losses, prompting the community to raise questions that Rhule wouldn’t like to answer. On the contrary, there are also some who’ve taken a different route—helping the program understand where the problem lies—including former Cornhuskers defensive end Adam Carriker. 

The retired player came up with the much-needed boost for Rhule as Nebraska got yet another blow from Iowa Hawkeyes.   

While Black Friday was all about celebration for others, sadly Rhule and Co. did not fall in that category. After all, the Hawkeyes tore them apart with a 13-10 loss on a walk-off field goal. If we take a look into the history, nine of the last ten games in this series have gone Iowa’s way.

Surprisingly, Rhule’s boys had a 10-0 lead at halftime but eventually, they started raining blunders. For instance, Kaleb Johnson’s touchdown came at the worst possible time along with misplay by the punt return. It’s hard to believe that it’s the same Huskers that crushed Deion’s army just two months back. Going deep into this, Carriker thought of holding the reins tight. In a YouTube short, he started, “Number one we got to get a killer instinct.”

Furthermore, he also talked about turning one’s fortunes around despite facing heartbreaking losses. Comparing opponents to a “freaking snake”, the 40-year-old said, “Certain people when they get up, they don’t let up. They don’t play or expect to be in a one-loss game. It’s gonna happen. But you put your foot on the throat, you twist it, bam! And you cut the head off the freaking snake. All right, we got to develop a killer instinct. It is that simple.” But that’s not all…

Carriker also spoke about the importance of mindset—the recipe to make or break one’s game. “I was in DC, we’re walking off the practice field one day…Darrion Scott, who had been in the NFL…he looks at me and he goes, ‘Adam, you’re a good guy with real a-hole tendencies’. And I don’t think I’ve ever been so complimented in my entire life. In other words, ‘Off this field, you’re a good dude. On this field you’re n a-hole. Not dirty, not cheap. But good god, I don’t like going against you at all’.”

“I say this with all due respect. Matt Rhule needs to have the best coaches available. If it’s guys that are already there, keep them. If it’s somebody else that’s somewhere else, let’s go get them. Somebody who’s available, we need to have the best coaches available on staff. And it’s that simple and the evaluation of who the best coach is all right needs to be based on performance. Nothing else. Point blank.”“In my humble opinion…we need to get better with basic things. Penalties, turnovers…special teams,” Carriker mentioned.

Having said that, the HC has taken accountability for their latest mishap as his buyout figures have started to do rounds.    

Matt Rhule has his eyes set on a turnaround

Yes, the Cornhuskers fans by now might be thinking ‘enough is enough.’ After all, the Hawkeyes made the most use of the last second and came up with a 53-yard field goal. It’s hard to believe that it’s the same Nebraska that limited Iowa to just 20 total offensive yards. Also, their QB Raiola’s feat was not up to the mark as he completed 22-of-32 passes for 190 yards without any touchdowns or interceptions, and a completion percentage of 68.75%. So as their season came to an end with five losses, fans started a hate parade on Rhule’s program, even though luck played them badly as the officials made a bad call.

The loathing continued as comments like “Nobody choke quite like the Nebraska Cornhuskers,” “Matt Rhule can’t coach,” Quite the fun ride for Nebraska, a 6-6 season with a 5 star QB, Dylan Raiola!” started to pour in. Obviously, fans lost their faith in the HC as the detested word ‘buyout’ for the Big Ten HC started to gain traction on social media.  

As per the reports, his buyout would be a measly $56,287,500 as of December 1, 2024. But kudos to Matt Rhule; he did not shrug off the responsibility now that things look rough. Instead, he took the accountability, “(We) wasted a great opportunity to get a win. Very similar to last year and probably years previous, found a way to lose the game at the end.” So what’s the next step? “Those guys, they’ve won a long time, they believe and they make the plays all the way to the very end and we’ve got to catch them,” assured the HC. Looks like, Rhule has already started to gather his weapons to cut off the snake’s head off!