Paul Finebaum drags Nebraska football coach for NFL, Big Ten comments

After hearing Matt Rhule compare the Big Ten to the NFL, long-time college football talker Paul Finebaum had some comparisons of his own.

Nebraska Cornhuskers coach Matt Rhule compared the Big Ten to the NFL, and then Paul Finebaum heard about it. / Robert Goddin-USA TODAY Sports

Matt Rhule continues his quest to rebuild the Nebraska Cornhuskers football program, but some of his recent comments trying to hype the Big Ten didn't land very well with Paul Finebaum.

Rhule suggested that the conference should be putting four teams into the College Football Playoff every year, and that the Big Ten is "the NFL of college football in my mind."

Paul Finebaum implores Matt Rhule to "stay in your lane."

"Don't worry about the big boys because you're not one of them...You're talking like you belong at the table with Ohio State and Georgia — you don't...And leave the punditry to the professionals." pic.twitter.com/UrulCPBhke

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 26, 2024

"Man, stay in your lane," Finebaum said after he heard all that.

"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."

Then he dragged Rhule for his own NFL tenure.

"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 table with Ohio State and Georgia."

Nebraska does share a conference with some playoff contenders while as a program it hasn't played in a bowl game since 2016 and hasn't won more than 10 games since 2012.

Carolina went 11-27 under Rhule's watch and the offense ground to a halt in his last season, scoring 16 or fewer points in three of five games and over 20 twice, going 1-4 overall before his firing.

But he does bring something of a reputation as a program builder, and re-builder, at the college level.

After a 1-11 debut at Baylor, Rhule won seven games and the Texas Bowl, and in Year 3 had the Bears at 11-3, playing for the Big 12 title, winning 11 of its first 12 games, and finished in the top 15 of the AP rankings.

Rhule also helped revive the Temple football program before then. After going 4-7 in the year prior, Rhule took the Owls from 2 wins to 10 in two seasons, winning 20 games in his last two years on the job there.

Nebraska went 5-7 last season and failed to score more than 17 points in any of its losses, but the program landed a major coup when it earned the commitment of five-star quarterback Dylan Raiola.

Raiola's addition could be the critical piece in the puzzle for an offense that lost five games by one possession last season, and Nebraska's defense brings back an expected seven starters from a unit that was strong against the run.

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