Football Video & Report: Dec. 9

Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule met with members of the media on Tuesday. He discussed the upcoming bowl game and coaching changes. 

“It’s been a really good start to bowl practice and bowl season,” he said. “Guys came out with a lot of intensity, and I know they’re excited. On behalf of the team, I’d like to thank the SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl for the invite. It’s an honor to be there. To play in Allegiant Stadium, what an amazing venue it is, after seeing Bud Crawford fight there. So, it’ll be really, really cool for our guys to have a chance to go to Las Vegas and go to a great town, great city, and have an amazing experience. I know Husker fans will show up en masse. I’m pretty certain we’ll set the attendance record for the bowl. Excited about that. Great opportunity to play the number 15 team in the country, led by a legendary coach in Coach Whittingham. Utah’s an astounding football team; they’ve only lost to Texas Tech and BYU, two teams that played in the Big 12 championship game. I’m unbelievably excited about that and the opportunity for our team to get better this week. As relates to us, I’ve addressed one thing. We’ve let three coaches go. Don’t foresee letting anyone else go. Obviously, Coach Butler, I discussed with you guys. Donovan Raiola, who worked his butt off for us for three years. An amazing man, a great football coach. Made a decision to go in a different direction, just as we try to take another step offensively, and just kind of go in a different manner. But I have to thank him for all that he’s done. No one’s worked harder. Very appreciative of him. And then let Terry Bradden go as the defensive line coach. We’re actively pursuing what we’ll do defensive line wise. Thank Terry, for his work and his time here. I can talk a little bit about the coaches that we hired. They’re going through the HR process, and I know that’s all pending. Really excited to add Rob (Aurich) in as our defensive coordinator. What he did at Idaho in one year and what he did at San Diego State in one year. Coordinated top-25 defenses at those levels. San Diego State led the nation in shutouts, held eight of 12 opponents to 10 or fewer points. Ranked in the top-10 in ten defensive categories, including scoring defense, total defense, and pass defense. The people that I truly respect in this game, Jason Eck, the head coach at New Mexico, and Matt Entz, the former North Dakota State head coach now at Fresno. When those guys are speaking on their behalf, Sean Lewis, current head coach (San Diego State). And honestly, Andrew Marshall. Marsh played for him as a freshman and Andrew had nothing but great things to say about coach. Excited to get him here. He’ll get here and go through the HR process, and be around our guys. (Phil) Snow is doing a great job as our defensive coordinator. Phil will coordinate the defense, call the defense, do everything through the bowl game. Coach will be here through the 21st, we’re gonna let the guys go, and then on the 26th reconvene in Las Vegas. I’m anxious for him to get to know our player, get to watch our staff, and kind of move from there. Geep Wade, Geep is really respected as one of the top offensive line coaches in the nation. 22 years of experience. Over the past three years, Georgia Tech has ranked seventh nationally in the fewest sacks allowed, ninth in rush yards per attempt, and 13th in rushing yards per game. He’s a guy that I’ve known for a long time. Never truly worked with, but been around him. He’s excited to be here. Excited for those guys to join. Like I said, we’ll work on the defensive line and look forward to working on that with Rob as we move forward.”

Rhule also spoke on who would be coaching the bowl game. 
“When Snow took over, Snow wanted (Mike) Ekeler to get involved in the defense, so Ekeler has been down there with the edges, as has Phil Simpson and Ira Lewis. If we make a move with Rob with someone, they might come in and help us as well in the bowl game. I think it’s really important that the players get to know the guys that are going to coach them next year and that the coaches have a chance to see the guys. That’s why Geep (Wade) is in here now coaching the O-Line; I want to make sure that the guys have a chance to see what it’s going to be like.”

He talked about why personnel changes were made. 

“As we moved forward, I talked to Rob (Aurich). He had some visions of how he wanted it to be, and that was an area that he had some notions about, ‘this is important to me’. I think it’s important because to have a coordinator to come in and say ‘this is your staff’ is really hard to do, so to have some people that are familiar with what he does is on one side. In terms of offensive line play, as we move forward with Dana’s (Holgorsen) offense and where we want to go, we looked at Geep (Wade), and the recruiter that he is, and the scheme that he runs fits really well with Dana. At the end of the year, I thought we ran the football, and I was very complimentary of our offensive line, sit it’s nothing about that. Like I said, I think Donovan (Raiola) is one of the best offensive line coaches, but I just think this is a fit thing for as we move forward. I don’t want to minimize Geep’s impact he can have in recruiting. We will probably announce another addition here at some point that I think will have a major impact; it’s just not done yet, and I don’t want to say it till it’s done, offensively. There are some things that we want to do moving forward that don’t necessarily reflect anything that we didn’t do in the past; it’s just how we make this jump. We’ve gotten ourselves to be a respected football team, but we want to be a great one. I’m just beginning in some guys that I think can help us do that.”

Rhule also spoke about the decision to hire Rob Aurich.

“The biggest thing with Rob was purely the tape. When I watched the tape, it’s the play style that I want. You see people flying around, you see people playing at a really high level, and for both stops, whether it was Idaho or San Diego State it was in his first year as coordinator. It wasn’t like it was going to take two or three years; it was like right off the bat. I fell in love with the tape, and I fell in love with the film. The interview was very nontraditional. We brought him in here on Saturday, and the first thing he did was he sat down with Phil Snow and met with him for an hour, talked. Then he went with Susan and Jarett, and they toured the building. Then he met me and my son, and we went over to Firethorn and showed him a couple neighborhoods and sat down and had lunch. Then he went and watched three youth basketball games with me; no PowerPoint, no chalkboard, he just had to talk football with me in the chaos of a basketball gym and all that. To me, that is a lot of this job because anybody can prepare and anybody can present, but who can think fast? Honestly, I was blown away. I cancelled a couple interviews. There were a couple people I wanted to talk to in terms of references, but some of the most respected people I know said you absolutely need to hire this guy. I think it was his personality, but as much as anything else, it was the tape.”