Nebraska has offered former Carolina Panthers coach Matt Rhule its open head football coaching job, according to sources with knowledge of the negotiations. Here’s what you need to know:
- Rhule, 47, was at the top of the Cornhuskers’ target list in recent weeks after he was waived by the Panthers on Oct. 10. Nebraska fired former coach Scott Frost on Sept. 11.
- Rhule was offered the job earlier this month, sources said, and then Nebraska came back to him this week with a stronger package.
- The parties are working to resolve details; Nebraska is optimistic a deal can be reached to name him its head coach this weekend.
- Mickey Joseph, a former Huskers associate head coach, served as Nebraska’s interim coach and led the Huskers to a 24-17 victory Friday at Iowa in their season finale.
background history
Talks between Nebraska athletic director Trev Alberts and Rhule intensified this month, and activity on the transfer portal restarted in early December. The early signing period opens two weeks later.
Rhule resurrected programs at Temple and Baylor from 2013 to 2019, winning 10 or more games in three of his seven seasons, and is viewed as a homegrown recruit by outsiders. He’s from New York and coached on the East Coast, aside from one season at UCLA as an assistant and his tenure at Baylor, but he knows the Big Ten as a former defensive back at Penn State.
Rhule also thrived in an unfamiliar environment in Texas, helping the Bears rebuild after a sexual-assault scandal threatened to destroy the program.
His contract with Carolina also increased his level of appeal to Alberts. Rhule signed a seven-year, $62 million deal in 2020 and is owed more than $40 million through the end of the deal. Any salary paid to Rhule by his next employer is subtracted from the amount the Panthers are owed, so the program could get a bargain relative to Rhule through the first four seasons of his deal.
Nebraska finished the season 4-8 after its upset at Iowa. Alberts attended Iowa City. The second-year Nebraska AD native of Eastern Iowa traveled separately from the Huskers to attend the final game of the season. An introductory press conference in Lincoln for Rhule could come as late as Sunday. Nebraska officials, without direct instructions from Alberts about the weather, have reserved the Hawks Championship Center for use to host a recruiting event.
Mandatory reading
(Photo: Jim Dedmon / USA Today)