Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule is the latest victim of an ESPN personality going for outrage rather than offering up a take that could ever be accused of due thought. And the weirdest part is that the pundit seems outraged by College Football Playoffs comments far from outrageous.
During his Big Ten Media Days appearance, Matt Rhule said that he believes the Big Ten should always get four bids in the playoffs. The coach’s rationale was that the B1G is “the NFL” of college football. While his comments are a stretch, they weren’t totally ridiculous. Unless, apparently, you’re Paul Finebaum.
During a recent segment on ESPN, Finebaum blasted off both barrels at the Nebraska football head coach. In part, he said Rhule needed to “stay in his lane” before ripping into his tenure at Carolina.
Nebraska football coach gets ripped for correct take
“Matt stay in your lane okay,” Finebaum responded. “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.”
“We saw what you did in the NFL you were a complete disaster in Carolina you somehow got this job in Nebraska and you're talking like you belong at the at the table with Ohio state and Georgia. You don't. Just try to win maybe six games. Quit choking big games on the final play and leave the punditry to the professionals.”
There’s several things wrong with this segment of course. The first being that at no time during Rhule’s comments did he say Nebraska belongs in the playoffs. He’s going to bat for his league.
If the Big Ten got four teams in, would it stand to reason that the Huskers might some day be one of them? Of course. But Rhule wasn’t arguing they are now.
The low blow about the NFL aside - because we’ve heard that before and it’s still silly considering the disaster that has been Carolina for quite a while now - Finebaum’s outrage is about three degrees higher than it needs to be when you actually listen to Rhule’s comments.
It should also be noted that ESPN inserted “automatically” into the Nebraska football head coach. In his comments, he did not, in any way, allude to four Big Ten teams getting in, no matter what.