In the weeks leading up to his team’s first game of the year, it’s hard to imagine Deion Sanders could have handled criticism worse. On the contrary, Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule met criticism with his usual brand of humor, once again demonstrating a thick skin that Coach Prime doesn’t possess.
Earlier this offseason, Rhule took criticism over his comments that he believed the Big Ten deserves to have four teams make the 12-team playoff. ESPN analyst Paul Misconstrued Rhule’s comments, claiming the Husker head coach was saying Nebraska deserved to be in the playoffs.
In response, Finebaum told the Nebraska football coach to “stay in his lane.”
Nebraska football head coach demonstrates thick skin
“Matt stay in your lane okay,” Finebaum said on an ESPN segment. “Job one win enough games to get to some stupid bowl game. Don't worry about the big boys because you're not one of them.”
Until this week, Rhule hadn’t so much as acknowledged those comments. When he finally did, he made a joke out of it.
"I have an autographed book from Paul (Finebaum),” Rhule told assembled media. “(He) talked about what a great coach I am. Things have changed I guess."
He said all of that with a smile. He didn’t issue a letter saying that he would no longer answer questions from Finebaum or anyone else affiliated with ESPN.
He didn’t even rail or complain or act the victim. He just laughed it off.
Yes, Deion absolutely took quite a bit more criticism from the Denver Post than Rhule took from the one-off in Finebaum, but Coach Prime has literally never handled the criticism well. That has in part, led to more of it.
One more time, Matt Rhule shows that he was the correct choice for Nebraska football and that Deion Sanders would always be the wrong one. And that’s not even counting the fact that he’s simply, a better coach.