Last season was the first year that Nebraska football had Matt Rhule as their head coach, and it didn't go as well as Cornhuskers fans hoped. In fact, it had a lot of shades of the Scott Frost era. Nebraska was a very competitive team, but they couldn't close out games and they lost a lot of close ones in the final minutes. One thing that could've helped the Cornhuskers is being better prepared for road games.
Matt Rhule was the head coach of the Carolina Panthers before he came to Nebraska football, and environments in the NFL just don't get as hostile as they do in college football. Rhule talked about that at Big Ten Media Days on Wednesday, and he knows that his team has to be better prepared for road games this year.
“Biggest thing I regret last year, the NFL (games) is kinda quiet,” Rhule said, according to a tweet from Brett McMurphy. “We opened our first 2 games in hostile environments (at Minnesota & Colorado). We have to be better on the road.”
The first game of the Matt Rhule era was a road game against Minnesota. The Cornhuskers had the ball up by seven with under five minutes to play in Minnesota territory. Then the Cornhuskers fumbled. Minnesota went down and scored a touchdown to tie the game, but Nebraska got the ball back with a chance to go win it. They threw an interception, and the Golden Gophers kicked a field goal as time expired to win the game.
Losing close games that should've been won was the story of the Scott Frost era at Nebraska, so that was an unfortunate way for Rhule to start his tenure. That was just one example, too. It happened other times, and that is what has stopped Nebraska from finding success in their nearly decade-long bowl game drought.
A look at Nebraska's 2024 road games
This season, Nebraska football once again has some crucial road games that they will need to do a lot of preparation for. The Cornhuskers have five games on the road in 2024, and two of them are in extremely daunting environments.
The Cornhuskers play Purdue, Indiana, Ohio State, USC and Iowa on the road this season. The two that they really need to be prepping for are the Buckeyes and the Hawkeyes.
Both Ohio State and Iowa are known for having difficult environments to play in, and neither team loses at home very often. Kinnick Stadium, home of the Hawkeyes, has been a deathtrap for top-five teams during the past decade as Iowa has rattled off some impressive upsets at home.
Ohio State has lost just two games at home under head coach Ryan Day. The Buckeyes lost to Oregon at home in 2021, and then they lost to Michigan at home in 2022. That is going to be an incredibly difficult game as Ohio State is expected to be one of the best teams in the country.
Going on the road is never easy, especially in the Big Ten. Matt Rhule admitted that he regrets how Nebraska road games went last year, so he knows that that is something he needs to be focusing on in year two.
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