Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule got a bit of a vote of confidence from Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor and what he’s done so far.
While the two men don’t know each other very well, they’re connected for a couple of different reasons. Right at the top of the list is that both men have coached in the NFL. Taylor has had a more successful run there as he’s guided the Cincinnati Bengals to two straight AFC Championship games and a Super Bowl in his four seasons as an NFL head coach. Matt Rhule was fired just five games into his third season at the helm of the Carolina Panthers.
The other obvious connection is that both men are connected to the Nebraska football program. Rhule as the new head coach and Taylor as a former Husker quarterback. During a wide-ranging interview with On3 staffers Steve Sipple and Sean Callahan, the former Nebraska football signal-caller talked about various topics. Including the way that Rhule has impressed him so far.
“I really don’t know him,” Taylor said as a kind of disclaimer about his next comments “A big part of the coming-into-it process is saying the right things and doing the right things. It seems like he’s passed all the tests to this point.”
Taylor also seemed to hint that he knows that “passing all the tests” this early in the game is a bit easier than it will be later. Rhule hasn’t had to deal with the pressure of coaching the Nebraska football team in a fall game yet.
“You’ve just got to start playing the games.”
Taylor isn’t wrong that the big test will be whether or not he can win games. Husker fans have fallen in love with a coach until things really started mattering before. So for now, Rhule has indeed passed all the tests. He’ll just have to keep passing them when the season comes around.