Coach Matt Rhule Says Michigan Is 'Everything' He Wants To Build At Nebraska

Nebraska coach Matt Rhule talked Michigan football heading into game week.

Michigan (4-0) will hit the road for the first time this weekend. The Wolverines will head to Lincoln to take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

Nebraska is sitting at 2-2 this season under first-year head coach, Matt Rhule. The Huskers lost the first two weeks before winning back-to-back games against Northern Illinois and Louisiana Tech. 

Rhule, who has coached at Temple, Baylor, and the Carolina Panthers, spoke with the media on Monday to talk about Michigan. Rhule talked about building the Cornhuskers like Jim Harbaugh has built Michigan, he spoke about J.J. McCarthy, Blake Corum, and much more. 

Here is everything Rhule had to say about the Wolverines. 

On how much Michigan is in line with what he wants to build Nebraska to be:

“Everything. You think about when Coach (Jim) Harbaugh first came in, he was taking over after a couple years of not being a great program after being a great program. He recruited. I worked at one of his camps when I was the head coach at Temple. You guys probably don’t remember, but he was the guy that started the satellite camps. It was a big controversy at the time. He was the first person to go at 12:01 to someone’s house for recruiting. I did that. I didn’t like doing it, but I did it, because he was doing it. He’s had a real impact on the game. Sometimes I’ll have recruits say to me ‘well, Coach, are we going to be good? Should I go to Michigan?’ Well, he did it. And that’s what we’re doing. His blueprint for building that program, for the way that they play, a lot of those things are similar. Obviously, we want to have a little bit of an option element at times, too. So there’s differences, but the overarching blueprint for being great on the o and d-lines, having good quarterback play, being physical at tight end, all those things – that’s what we’re doing.”

On preparing for Michigan's defensive line and trying to run the ball against the Wolverines:

"Michigan is a good team up front in terms of their defensive line, in terms of getting off blocks. They’re not really trying to fool you necessarily. I mean, they will pressure you. They are as good a team in terms of playing with their hands and you think you have a window and they get off. So you have to be content with two and three and four-yard runs. You have to get your backs to run hard. There’s not going to be gaping holes against Michigan. It’s not going to happen, it’s going to be that type of a game."

What concerns Rhule the most about facing Michigan:

“They’re all excellent players. I think, when you look at a team like Michigan, I think that you look at everybody that they have. You look at all the great backs that they have. Their quarterback is an excellent player and he can beat you with his feet. Just when you think you can overload the box, he can pull a zone read down. He can run a quarterback bounce play. He can spin it. It’s an excellent, excellent, excellent offense, put together with a great offensive line, great tight ends, great backs. It’ll challenge every single aspect of every single thing you do defensively because they’re not afraid to say ‘hey, we’re going to run this ball and get it to the unblocked player.’ The standard for them is ‘hey, make that guy miss. And if he tackles you once, you have to make him miss the next time.’ That’s the way we look at football, and when we’ve had big plays, it’s a play like Heinrich (Haarberg), where the guy is unblocked and he makes him miss and scores a touchdown. I’d say they’re good at what they do. It’ll be a challenge for our guys – a good one.”

What makes J.J. McCarthy arguably the best QB in the Big Ten:

“I think they’ve got a great passing game. He’s got tremendous protection, so he’s got time and he operates on time. He knows where to go with the football. If you play man against him, he goes to the route that they designed to beat man. He attacks coverages. As I said, he’s excellent with his feet too. He’s a dual-threat quarterback that plays as a pro-style quarterback, but when he needs to, he can run. He’s got poise. The game is never too big for him. I’ve watched a lot of tape on them. I watched them last year, I watched them this year. They’ve beaten two 3-1 teams. They’ve beaten two teams that were undefeated other than playing them. They beat them pretty soundly. He’s played against good competition. He’s just good at everything he does.”

If Blake Corum reminds Rhule of anyone in particular:

“Corum is an excellent player. I don’t know who I’d say, necessarily. I think he’s got elite burst, vision, lateral quickness. He’s tough to tackle. I think a lot of people make the mistake – if you try to tackle him low, you’re going to bounce off his legs. Who that is, I’m not great at those kind of things. I’m sorry. He possesses a lot of traits that make him hard to tackle and hard to defend.”