Matt Rhule's headphone toss was about 'fighting' for Nebraska football
It’s safe to say that Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule and the Big Ten conference referees are not planning on exchanging Christmas cards. In fact, it’s safe to say that were it up to Rhule, the refs would be getting something a bit worse than a lump of coal in their stockings.
In every game the Huskers have played this season, the referees have not done a great job of calling either a fair or consistent game. And while you’d love to blame it on the Big Ten refs being solely to blame as the worst crew in the nation, it was the Big 12 crew in the Colorado game that made that contest into a “ref show.”
On Saturday afternoon, after several very wrong calls by the referees, including one that led to an NU touchdown get called back due to an offensive pass interference call that absolutely did not happy, the Nebraska football head coach apparently had enough.
Immediately following a holding call that was not, in fact, holding against the Huskers, Rhule flung his headset onto the ground. The refs noticed his act of anger, which almost certainly was accompanied by some choice words, and penalized him 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Nebraska football coach fought for Huskers
After the 28-10 win over Purdue, Rhule was asked about the penalty and he was not particularly apologetic about it.
“Someone here is going to have to fight for Nebraska,” he said. “I’m going to fight for Nebraska.”
In that rather short answer where he made it clear he wasn’t going to rip into the refs more than that, it was clear he still wasn’t happy about it. The Huskers head coach has made comments similar to that in other games this season.
It’s clear Nebraska football’s head man has not been thrilled about the job the referees are doing this year. He’s mentioned before that he was afraid of getting fined. It looks as though frustration boiled over.
He was of course, right to be angry. And luckily, it didn’t end up hurt the Huskers much as they still moved to 4-1 on the season and 1-1 in the Big Ten, with a comfortable win.