Matt Rhule unleashed a little vitriol aimed at a specific section of Nebraska football fans and how they’ve talked about Garrett Mcguire.
It might not seem like a real shock that the Nebraska football head coach is defending one of his own hires. After all, if Matt Rhule didn’t believe that his young wide receiver coach was the best for the job, he wouldn’t have hired him. However, the fact that he took aim at Nebraska football fans specifically this week should raise a few eyebrows.
For the most part, Rhule has been very cautious about saying anything negative at all about the Husker fanbase. He’s been careful because he knows he has to win them over. But he turned into a bit of a papa bear when the conversation turned to some of the negative things about McGuire on Tuesday.
"“He’s had a lot of people question him. Which really honestly hurts us in recruiting. People are following us, and I keep hearing this narrative coming from our own people. So we’ve had to battle that a little bit.”"
The narrative that Rhule is likely referencing is that McGuire is simply too young and too inexperienced for a position coach job for a major program like Nebraska football. It was a narrative that started among some Husker fans just hours – if not minutes – after he was hired.
We won’t know whether or not he really is ready for this big a job for a while yet. However, Rhule would very much like people to chill on disparaging his assistant coach until that assistant coach has actually given them something to complain about. That’s entirely fair.
Nebraska football coach takes aim at fans
Just what kind of negative recruiting is coming out from any Garrett McGuire “slander” would be interesting to hear. Certainly some people were uneasy about the hire when it happened, but it’s been a few months. Almost all comments about Nebraska football coming from the fan base have been overwhelmingly positive.
That’s to the credit of Rhule and his staff. They’ve seemingly done everything right since they hit town.
That’s what makes Rhule’s comments even more eye opening. He seemed especially sensitive to negative talk about McGuire. It will be interesting to see how this narrative evolves as the Nebraska football team prepares for its first season under the new coaching staff.