Not So Fast, Rhulebreakers

Nebraska’s deconstruction squad must look beyond their short-term urges. It's way too soon to write off the 2026 season.

Matt Rhule has made his share of mistakes, but he's building a strong culture, he makes needed adjustments and he is Nebraska football's best path forward. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

A brief study of Nebraska football since the arrival of Mike Riley in 2015 shows that “winning the offseason” is the kiss of death.

Top-25 recruiting classes that caused optimism didn’t turn into top-25 teams on the field, mainly due to lack of player development. That was a legitimate complaint under Riley and Scott Frost, and some of its effects carried over into the Matt Rhule era, but there’s evidence to show that Rhule is making slow progress on that.

Now, however, the narrative appears to be flipping. Apparently “losing the offseason” has become the problem. So say the Rhulebreakers who populate social media.

Over the last six weeks, the angry side of Husker Nation has been claiming that Rhule and his coaching staff have already botched any chance they had at winning more than six games in 2026, which features a much tougher Big Ten slate. These folks have seen the future, and they’re already waiting for another miserable November, at which point they get to crow, “I told you so!”

Seems to me that losing the offseason — or at least keeping a relatively low profile in matters of hiring and recruiting — would be a welcome change around here. Anything to reverse the mojo around Stadium Drive, right? You’d think the change would make them happy, but you’d be wrong.

The Huskers lost each of their final three games of 2025 by at least three touchdowns, including a 37-10 defeat at Penn State. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

There’s a distinct crowd of people — a relatively small population, I think, but a disproportionately vocal one — who are building an anti-Rhule bandwagon with anything they can get their hands on, and this is one of their main talking points since the Las Vegas Bowl loss to Utah. They thought Nebraska’s only chance to break .500 this fall was to sign a top-10 transfer portal class. Or a top-25 2026 high school recruitment class. Or sign the best defensive line coach in the league. Predictably, they’re upset.

They’re quite disappointed because Rhule isn’t bringing in talent they would consider elite. No matter that linebacker Owen Chambliss was rated the fourth-best linebacker transfer by the college football staff on the Pro Football Focus website, which also rated another newly signed Husker, Dwayne McDougle, as the third-rated transfer at safety. But Chambliss was not rated in the overall Top 100 of sites like ESPN. Neither was McDougle. The perpetual pessimists say, “Rhule didn’t spend enough money.”

The anti-Rhule squadron is quick to attack the 2026 high school recruiting class, which, as everyone knew a year ago, would be a unusually small one, due to Nebraska’s need to comply with the House v. NCAA ruling that limits roster sizes to 105. Predictably, the Huskers’ 2026 class was rated near the bottom of the Big Ten, despite a five-star cornerback in Danny Odem and a promising four-star offensive tackle in Claude Mpouma.

It’s a hopeful sign that 330-pound run stuffer Dylan Berymon, rated a four-star recruit, walked away from the Texas Longhorns and signed with Nebraska earlier this month. There’s talent there, but not big numbers, and that irritates the Rhulebreakers to no end. Well, let’s check back on this class in three years.

Focusing on player development has become passé in the age of NIL and the transfer portal — or so goes the argument from some quarters. | Nebraska Athletics

The Rhulebreakers have more grievances. Because NIL and the transfer portal have become so important, they say, paying transfer portal prospects top dollar trumps everything else. Developing talent is almost pointless, the new narrative goes. If Nebraska develops a quality player in 2026, he’ll likely jump ship to another school that’ll pay him more money in 2027. Built upon that leap of logic, their default conclusion is that Rhule’s whole strategy about wanting to be a development program is bankrupt.

Rhule has made his share of mistakes. He’s also responded to them well. After a discouraging three-game slide to end the 2025 season, Rhule made some necessary changes in his staff. I think those will pay off. The Rhulebreakers apparently do not. But it’s worth noting that Nebraska plays in the toughest, most competitive conference in college football, the place where the best coaches do business. That makes it easy to overreact when comparing the Husker staff to Ohio State or Oregon or, yes, Indiana.

And here’s the overreaction: “Almost every one of Rhule’s coaching hires except for Mike Ekeler has been a bad one,” the narrative goes, “and now Rhule has run Ekeler out of town.” By that same leap of logic, most of Rhule’s new hires since December, including defensive coordinator Rob Aurich, defensive line coach Corey Brown and special teams coordinator Brett Maher, are bad hires. They may be, but that’s a premature judgment. Give them a chance and see what you’ve got by mid-October.

Rhule has provided folks with plenty of reason to watch him like a hawk. But he has proven himself an adult in the room, a calm and rational steward of the program who showed more leadership than anyone else in the athletic department at the time of Trev Alberts’s unexpected departure. Look, I’ve criticized him for everything from throwing the ball in the red zone late in a 13-10 home loss to Maryland in 2023 to wearing his camo cap backward at the Las Vegas Bowl. But I think it would be hard for Nebraska to do better right now, at least, and the transition to “better” would be ugly and lengthy.

Williams Nwaneri and his teammates on Nebraska's defensive line will be looking to improve on their 2025 production. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

I follow Green Bay Packers football, and believe me, the Pack has its share of downsiders on social media. I’m amazed at how many of them want to get rid of Matt LaFleur. This contagion is not confined to Husker Nation. I realize fans are gonna fan, and I won’t change many people’s minds, but living through the wreckage of the Steve Pederson/Harvey Perlman era has taught me to seek and appreciate signs of success. I think you can hold coaches to high standards without allowing pessimism to run rampant. It’s healthier.

Here at the start of spring football 2026, there are a few recent signs of success. Personally, I think Rhule has done a pretty good job addressing the offensive and defensive lines, which I said in December had to be their main focus. “Everything else is gravy,” I wrote.

On defense, I’m watching for growth from Riley Van Poppel and Williams Nwaneri, while anticipating good things from transfer Owen Stoudmire and the aforementioned Berymon. On offense, I anticipate a big upswing under new offensive line coach Geep Wade, and Lonnie Teasley, the run game coordinator, with transfers Brendan Black (Iowa State), Paul Mubenga (LSU) and Tree Babalade (South Carolina) as candidates to make big contributions.

Additionally, there appears to be some substantial gravy on campus now, with the arrival of former UNLV quarterback Anthony Colandrea, the return of Daniel Kaelin, and the aforementioned Chambliss and McDougle, plus Iowa State transfer Will Hawthorne at linebacker.

Rhulebreakers, I propose that there’s reason not to write off the 2026 season quite yet.

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