Steven Sipple: Matt Rhule has right approach for Prime show as Colorado shows right away it’s capable of winning now
Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule did what a lot of Husker fans did late Saturday morning. He settled in front of his TV at home to watch Colorado play 17th-ranked TCU. He wanted to see firsthand the flow of the game. He saw a fast-paced, back-and-forth affair that was wildly entertaining.
It surely made Nebraska fans a tad nervous.
In prevailing 45-42, Colorado showed elite skill-position talent. The team is well-coached. It showed resilience. It showed discipline. Deion Sanders‘ players hand the ball to referees and they don’t do a lot chirping. They turned the ball over just once. They played with a chip on their shoulder, so to speak, because they’re aware that many people are skeptical about how Sanders is going about building his program.
Many people remain skeptical.
After watching Colorado myself, I’d be careful with that.
Listening to Rhule on Monday, it seems his respect for Sanders is genuine.
He describes the 56-year-old Sanders as being “a football guy.”
“He’s won at everything he’s done in football,” Rhule told reporters at Memorial Stadium. “He’s won as a player. He’s won as a coach.”
Go ahead and think “Prime” is mostly just a show. But do so at your own risk.
That was Rhule’s message.
“He’s the most serious person about football,” Rhule said. “His poster was on people’s walls for a reason. He’s one of the hardest-practicing, hardest-playing people who ever played the game.
“So, why would you think his team wouldn’t be the same?”
Yes, it’s common sense.
The Weekly Rundown: Nebraska preparing for ‘Prime Time’ stage at Colorado
Bo Pelini’s memory of “Prime” as player
Something former Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini once told me about Sanders stuck in my cranium. In 1994, Pelini was a 27-year-old assistant secondary coach with the San Francisco 49ers, a team that included Sanders.
“It was easy coaching Deion,” Pelini said. “I mean, he obviously was talented, but he came to practice hard every day.”
Sanders earned one of his two Super Bowl rings that season. Grizzled veteran coaches throughout this past offseason told me Sanders’ teams will be disciplined. For all his flash and bravado, he’s an old-school “football guy” at heart, and his teams will play that way, those coaches told me.
There it was Saturday for all the world to see.
No turnovers and six penalties (for 35 yards).
Nebraska fans would’ve taken those numbers in the opener.
Nebraska assistant strength coach CJ White surely expected to see a disciplined Colorado outfit. White previously worked as director of strength and conditioning for Jackson State, which Sanders built into a FCS power before taking over for CU.
“CJ told us early on, ‘Let me tell you how they’re going to practice, let me tell you what they’re going to do,’” Rhule said.
In other words, Colorado won’t take Nebraska by surprise; that’s a positive for the Huskers.
You perhaps heard Urban Meyer’s recent assessment of the Colorado situation.
“He’s (Sanders) hired really good coaches,” Meyer told Colin Cowherd. “I went to the meetings and I watched the practice. They have I believe 70 new scholarship players (actually 68). So I call this thing the ‘grand experiment’ and I’m telling you, Colin, that was not what I expected. I didn’t know what to expect, but I saw a very good team. I saw talented players. His son’s an excellent quarterback.”
Bottom line, Shedeur Sanders will be the best QB on the field Saturday, maybe by far.
Nebraska fans may tire of all the CU praise
Man, all this Colorado praise has to annoy the bejesus out of Nebraska fans. Am I wrong? I mean, this is a heated rival of Nebraska’s we’re talking about.
What’s more, many Nebraska fans long have had an inferiority complex. Even when Nebraska was winning big during the 1990s, Husker fans often expressed frustration about being overlooked by the national media and whoever else.
Now, look what’s happening. Prime is what’s happening. I mean, people know Sanders by “Prime.” The guy stars in TV commercials that appear during broadcasts of CU games. It’s all a bit much. But such is the level of his stardom.
Meanwhile, Nebraska takes a back seat this week to the big show transpiring in Boulder. That’s not necessarily a bad thing for Rhule’s crew. Nebraska can quietly go about its business as the secondary act. Plus, Colorado’s win Saturday surely got Husker players’ attention, and even they might soon grow tired of all the talk about Prime and his program.
It might create a harder edge for Nebraska players. They’ll need it because Prime’s crew plays with an edge.
There I go again. I’m already getting tired of praising CU.
Rhule proceeds with excellent approach this week
So, here we go. It’s Colorado week. How it feels is not necessarily what we expected, all this nervousness in Husker Nation.
What ever happened to patience with a first-year coach?
Or maybe fans can be patient and nervous at the same time.
Nowadays, fan base’s patience seemingly lasts until the first dispiriting loss, is my read.
Think about it this way: If Nebraska were to start the season 0-2, all it would have to do is win six of its final 10 games to reach a bowl game for the first time since 2016. No problem at all.
It helps matters that Rhule proceeds this week with an excellent mindset.
“This has to be about football,” he said.
It can’t be about the Prime Show in Boulder and all that entails.
It’s not all about playing an up-tempo attack in high altitude.
No, it has to be about basic football — blocking and tackling, Rhule said.
Yes, of course, this week to a large extent is Rhule versus Sanders and their different ways of building a program. Sanders overhauled his roster largely because the previous team lost by an average of 29.2 points per game.
Rhule didn’t face as drastic a situation. Not even close.
By the way, Rhule calls himself an “incrementalist.” He’s a “process guy,” he said.
He wants to build his program largely with high school players as opposed to leaning on the transfer portal.
He also wants you to know that Nebraska is playing at a higher level than it did early last season, when both Scott Frost and Erik Chinander were fired by Sept. 18.
“To turn the ball over four times and have two false starts inside the five versus a Big Ten opponent — and have the lead (late in the game) — is outrageous,” Rhule said of last week’s 13-10 loss to Minnesota.
“In my mind, the way you build a program that’s built to last — and not just a flash in the pan — is you just keep improving the things that aren’t good,” Rhule said.
There obviously are different ways to build.
Sanders is showing us that his rather extreme way might work, whether we like it or not.
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