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Nebraska football is showing a great deal of respect for Ohio State ahead of their Saturday matchup. Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule went as far to deny name, image and likeness is giving their competition a bad name.
The Buckeyes have adapted to the current landscape of NIL, which has led to high-profile recruits and transfers landing in Columbus. While many college football fans will argue that Ohio State has “bought” its way into the national title picture, Rhule begs to differ.
The second-year Nebraska head coach got asked if the much-publicized NIL has given OSU more of an advantage compared to teams like his. He disagreed and instead praised his opponent from top to bottom, via Sam Gellenwater of On3.
“I want to first give credit to Ryan Day, okay, in that those guys are at Ohio State because Ohio State wins and people, players want to go to a winner, okay,” Rhule said. “I mean, so, while there is, you know, an NIL component to everybody?”
Rhule reminded that the Buckeyes were winning even before NIL emerged as a popular acronym.
“Ryan has won, right. Urban (Meyer) won, Jim Tressel won. You know, Ohio State has won a ton so kids want to go be a part of one of the best programs in the country, right. You know, best receiving corps over the last however many years, all first-round quarterbacks,” Rhule continued. “To me, Ohio State’s roster is not about NIL. It’s about guys saying, ‘Hey, I want to go play at a place that competes for championships’, you know.”
How Ohio State presents different challenge for Saturday
Rhule is dealing with more than preparing his team for the traditional Big 10 conference heavyweight.
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He's trying to lift the spirits up inside a locker room that endured an embarrassing 56-7 defeat at the hands of Indiana. Nebraska watched the Hoosiers carve up the Cornhuskers defense with 495 total yards including 215 rushing. Indiana also exploded with a 21-7 second quarter to put the game away early in Bloomington.
The Hoosiers are officially the conference's most red-hot team at No. 13 and 7-0 overall. However, Rhule's Cornhuskers are an immense underdog heading into Columbus. The Buckeyes are favored by 25.5 points to knock off Nebraska.
Furthermore, Ohio State is ranked much higher than the Hoosiers, coming in at No. 5 overall. They're very much in the picture for the College Football Playoffs. The new format can now take 12 teams, including award the Big 10 champion with one of the top four seeds should they fall between No. 1 to No. 4 in the top 25.
How can Rhule get the Cornhuskers to counter such an insurmountable challenge? All he cares about is watching a competitive group at Ohio Stadium.
“For us? Like, for us to get to that point, we’ve got to win enough to justify players taking a chance on us until we’re at the top of the mountain and then everyone wants to come,” Rhule said. “You know, you can’t have many 56-7 games, right. You’ve got to go compete at a high level. We’ll get there.”
Saturday will mark the ninth meeting between both programs. The series got launched in 2011 when Nebraska left the Big 12 for the Big 10. The Cornhuskers claimed victory in the first meeting 34-27 in Lincoln. However, Ohio State has snatched seven straight wins in this matchup with the closest margin by only five points.
