The Nebraska football team knows that it's got its work cut out for it this weekend against Maryland for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is that it's the Huskers' first actual road game of the year and the first time they've played more than 210 miles away from home.
The Cornhuskers' head coach is taking special precautions to get his squad ready for Saturday afternoon. That includes leaving for College Park a day early. NU will get on the road on Thursday so they can better adjust to being away from Memorial Stadium and on East Coast time.
Nebraska football faces first true road test vs Maryland
Franklin: We did not handle last week’s loss well. We also lost some players in that game, during the week. Then, everything else. Travel. Everything else. Did not come out with the right energy to start the game. … That’s my responsibility.
— Daniel Gallen (@danieljtgallen) October 4, 2025
In the process, the Nebraska head coach made it clear that even if his team loses on Saturday, he won't be offering up lame excuses as to why. In the process of talking about his preparations, he threw some subtle shade at Penn State coach James Franklin, intentionally or not.
"The No. 1 thing is we don't complain about it, Matt Rhule said when asked what he and his team are doing to get ready for a challenging road game 1,200 miles away from where they've played all season. And even if he didn't mean to take a shot at Franklin, it's hard not to think of the Nittany Lions' loss to unranked UCLA this weekend and the comments their head coach made directly after as the motivator for Rhule's quote.
"We did not handle last week’s loss well," Franklin said following the worst loss in his career. "We also lost some players in that game, during the week. Then, everything else. Travel. Everything else. Did not come out with the right energy to start the game."
Complaining about travel isn't solely a James Franklin thing. Earlier this year, USC head coach Lincoln Riley drew fire for also seemingly complaining about having to go from the West Coast to the East Coast. It was the other way around for Frankin's crew.
Matt Rhule isn't afraid to speak his mind, but he also doesn't go out of his way to throw shade. However, it's pretty clear that if he didn't mean to take a shot at James Franklin, the comments were on his mind. They were comments the Nebraska football coach disagreed with. Which is once again why Husker fans should be happy to have a coach who doesn't allow that kind of nonsense excuse-making.