P.J. Fleck, Matt Rhule to Set Friendship Aside for Four Quarters Friday

Each coach will be doing everything he can to beat the other's team Friday night, but after the final whistle, they'll probably start making plans for another fun offseason trip.

Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck and Nebraska coach Matt Rhule have become good friends over the years, culminating in a Kenney Chesney concert experience this past summer. | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

For Nebraska coach Matt Rhule, this season has been an odd year of coaching against some very familiar acquaintances.

Against Akron in Week 2, Rhule was able to avenge what he calls one of his worst losses when he was at Temple. Back then, Joe Moorhead coached Fordham University and beat Rhule’s Owls team on a last-second Hail Mary. Rhule’s Nebraska didn’t need a Hail or a Mary in its rout of Moorhead’s Akron squad this year.

Then fast-forward to the Michigan game where Rhule coached against interim Wolverines coach Biff Poggi. Turns out, Rhule was the first person to welcome Poggi to Charlotte when still serving as the head coach of the Carolina Panthers. At the time, Poggi had just taken the job to be the head coach of the Charlotte 49ers.

Acting Michigan head coach Biff Poggi got the better of his friend and Nebraska coach Matt Rhule earlier this season. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

All of those stories are unique and add their own little twist to the game, but this week might take the cake. Rhule and Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck aren’t just friends; they’ve even somewhat vacationed together.

“We went to the Kenny Chesney concert together this past summer, which was a lot of fun,” Fleck said during his weekly press conference. “Coach (Dan) Mullen, who was at UNLV, myself and coach Rhule, we kind of all met up there and he’s a fantastic human being.”

For anyone who has kept up with Nebraska football, it’s no surprise that Rhule was out and about with his peers. He most recently flew out to Vegas right after his team’s win against Houston Christian to support Bud Crawford in his championship fight against Canelo Alvarez. Simply put, Rhule isn’t afraid to have a little fun, as long as his team is doing it on the field as well.

Matt Rhule had some words of encouragement at Bud Crawford's sendoff in Omaha. Crawford faces Canelo Álvarez on Saturday in Las Vegas to become the undisputed super middleweight champion of the world. pic.twitter.com/Pm650pqzqs

— Hurrdat Sports (@HurrdatSports) September 11, 2025

That’s certainly been the case through six games this season. Nebraska is 5-1, and looking to lock in bowl eligibility before Halloween, just a year after his team needed until the second-to-last game of the regular season to clinch a postseason berth. The difference in 2025 has been Nebraska’s ability to have the upper hand late in games, and Fleck credits a lot of that to how deep NU’s roster is.

“You look at their offense, I mean – (Dylan) Raiola is playing better than he’s ever played,” Fleck said. “They’ve got a very deep running back room. They’ve got three to four wideouts who can flat out fly and make huge plays and change the game instantly. They’re big up front, big tight ends.”

The list literally did go on for Fleck during his Monday press conference, and it’s yet another iteration of a change in direction for the Huskers. In years past, even under coach Rhule, most opposing coaches would offer up their stock compliments about the team, but then would dive into all of the competitive advantages they felt they had on Nebraska. By the final whistle of those games, the entire country saw that those coaches were right.

The Huskers found some success against Minnesota the last time the two teams met, but inevitably it led to another close loss for NU. It sets up yet another game where Nebraska hopes to right some wrongs come Friday night. | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

However, Fleck is the latest coach in a string of them this year to acknowledge that this Nebraska team is different and game planning for them is a bit more strenuous than in years past.

“I did an interview (Monday) morning and somebody said, ‘I think they’re finding themselves,’ and I said, ‘I think they found themselves,’” Fleck said. “I don’t think they’re looking. They’re ranked 25th in the country, so we’ve got a lot of work to do in a short week. That’s a huge challenge for us, and we have to get a lot better in a short amount of time.”

While the compliments are certainly pouring in from the head man at Minnesota, the Golden Gophers aren’t exactly slouches this year. They’re entering the game at 4-2 with a blowout loss to No. 1 Ohio State and a narrow loss to Cal being the only games counting against them.

Minnesota found it to be tough sledding against top-ranked Ohio State on Oct. 4, falling to the Buckeyes 42-3. | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Because of that, many experts are expecting another close game between the Huskers and the Gophers. Right now, Vegas has Nebraska as an 8.5-point favorite after originally opening NU up as 5.5-point favorites. All that means is that the money is laying Nebraska’s way for now, but the Huskers are also the team that’s still getting used to winning these tighter games.

For Minnesota, they’ve been doing it for some time under Fleck, and he said it’s still one of his top preachings every week in practice.

“You’ve got to be able to win close games,” Fleck said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s Minnesota or if it’s whoever – you’ve got to find ways to win close games. I talked about that all offseason, and if you look at our best seasons we’ve had here, eight wins or more, we’re usually pretty good in one-possession games. If we’re not, what could it have been if we did win those one-possession games?”

MINNESOTA GETS THE WIN OVER NEBRASKA 🙌

(via @CFBONFOX)pic.twitter.com/eeeLalV4bK

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) September 1, 2023

Minnesota has had Nebraska’s number as of late, going 8-2 against the Big Red in their last ten meetings. Fittingly enough, the last four have all been one-possession games that have all gone the Gophers’ way. Fleck and his team won by three back in 2023 and won by a touchdown in the three meetings before then, spanning from 2020 to 2022.

However, Fleck would be the first to tell you that none of that matters come Friday in Minneapolis.

“This Nebraska team has nothing to do with seven years ago or five years ago,” Fleck said. “This is Matt Rhule’s 2025 team of the Nebraska Cornhuskers that is very deep, very good. This is the 2025 version of Nebraska, which is the only one I’m really concerned about. We’re 0-0 against Nebraska in my mind.”

Fleck isn’t 0-0 against his friend in Rhule, with that 3-point win in 2023 being against the first Nebraska football team Rhule was able to coach. Now, Fleck is gearing up for a “Year 3” Rhule team, and he knows it will be a battle on the field Friday night in the Twin Cities. Afterward, though, he says both he and Rhule won’t take long to get back into “friend mode.”

Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck has all the respect in the world for Nebraska coach Matt Rhule ahead of their showdown Friday in Minneapolis. | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

“I think he’s a wonderful football coach, but a really good person, and you know we’re so competitive when you get to the season, but out of season I think you see everybody for who they are as people, and it’s a lot of fun and you have a lot of shared interests,” Fleck said.

Nebraska and Minnesota kick off at 7 p.m. CDT Friday, and the game will be nationally televised on FOX.

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