The Nebraska football team won't simply be made up of recruits who picked the school because of how much money they can make off their name, image and likeness, according to head coach Matt Rhule.
Rhule encourages players to profit off NIL deals, but the new Nebraska football coach recently made it clear that his recruiting pitch to potential Cornhuskers has little to do with money.
“And name, image and likeness — I think players have a right to monetize what they can do and what they do on the football field and how it markets out into the real world,” Matt Rhule told 247Sports' College Football Recruiting Show. “I'm all for it. We're not going to just buy young people. We want people that want to be here. But if they're here, we want to make sure that they get taken care of based upon their accessibility out there in the real world.”
Nebraska football has the No. 3o recruiting class for the 2023 season, according to 247Sports' rankings. Rhule takes over a team that has posted a losing record in six straight seasons.
“I think the biggest thing is recognizing that it's still about making sure that young people have a good experience,” Rhule said. “Making sure that you have a plan for them. A vision for them. And then that your current players can speak to, ‘Hey, you know what they say is true.' That's the No. 1 thing for me. For us, going to the transfer portal, knowing that there's some players out there that either knew us from our previous staffs or recognized us from the NFL — that obviously helped us as we try to get the program back to where it needs to be.
NIL deals weren't legal for players during Rhule's previous stops around college football. Rhule won 10 games in his final two seasons as Temple's head coach in 2015 and 2016. After going 1-11 in his first season as Baylor's head coach, Rhule turned the program around with an 18-9 record over the next two seasons.
Rhule signed a seven-year, $62 million contract to coach the Carolina Panthers in 2020. He was fired with an 11-27 record as an NFL head coach during the 2022 season.
Nebraska gave Rhule an eight-year, $74 million contract to be the Cornhuskers coach.
Follow Us
Subscribe