Matt Rhule has more than 20 years of coaching experience. He started out as a volunteer assistant at Penn State in 1998 before working his way up to a position coach, a coordinator and, ultimately, a head coach.
The latest challenge for Rhule is at Nebraska as the Cornhuskers’ head coach. After a 5-7 season in his first year with the program in 2023, expectations are high this fall with five-star quarterback Dylan Raiola now in the fold.
Rhule and the Cornhuskers will face one of their toughest tests of the season early on in Week 2 when the Colorado football team travels to Memorial Stadium.
For Rhule, it’ll be a matchup against “one of the best football players I’ve ever coached against.”
“The one thing we always have to remember when we talk about Colorado is how great Shedeur is,” Rhule told Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt on the latest episode of “The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast.”
“He (Shedeur) is one of the best football players I’ve ever coached against. We blitzed him, I think we sacked him like 10 times, we hit him a ton and he stood in there.”
Sanders was a main reason why Colorado beat Nebraska (36-14) for the third consecutive time in 2023.
The projected first-round NFL draft pick completed 31 of his 42 pass attempts (74%) for 393 yards and two touchdowns (rushed for another TD) despite being sacked seven times by the Cornhuskers’ No. 11 defense in the nation.
Sanders’ celebrity status and social media persona can often times overshadow his impact on the field.
“Everyone sees Shedeur on commercials, they see the swagger that he plays with, but he’s an unbelievable competitor and he’s tough,” Rhule said.
Sanders led the Buffaloes to a win over Nebraska in front of a sold-out crowd at Folsom Field. In 2024, the 73rd edition of the Colorado-Nebraska rivalry will take place in Lincoln and air on national television (NBC).
It will be the Buffs’ first game played on NBC since the 1995 Fiesta Bowl.
“You take Shedeur, Travis Hunter, all the players they have and you take Coach (Deion) Sanders, they’re going to come into our place as a really good football team with dynamic players that you have to compete with. How good is it for that part of the country to have this game and to have it be on national TV at night?
“How good is it for the game of football? I just don’t want football to become this area of the country and this area of the country. I want it to be from coast to coast. I want all 50 states. What Deion (Sanders) has done, in my opinion, is he’s made football relevant to maybe people who weren’t watching it.”
The Sept. 7 matchup will help define the season for both teams. Nebraska owns the series lead (49-21-2), but Colorado is 3-3 at Memorial Stadium since 2002.
Follow Colorado Buffaloes sports reporter Scott Procter on X.
