1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Did Matt Rhule's Spring Press Conference Instill Optimism in you for the 2026 Season?: February 20th, 11:25am

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

Did Matt Rhule's Spring Press Conference Instill Optimism in you for the 2026 Season?Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's time to go one-on-one with D.P. Coming at you live from the heart of Lincoln America, on 93-7 The Ticket and The Ticketfm.com, sponsored by the Downtown Lincoln Foundation. Here is your host, Derek Pearson. On one-on-one on 93-7, The Ticket. First, I am not Derek Pearson here. I'm Jake Boccovin in studio.

Today with Austin Oerman, and we've got a two-hour show ahead of you. Of course, we've got plenty to talk about with Nebraska football taking the podium yesterday. So much going on, not just this weekend, but even right now in Husker softball, getting things going. Hustker baseball is, of course,

going to be playing today in this weekend. Hustker basketball. Of course, women's last night, unfortunately, fell men's get going here in tomorrow against Penn State. So no shortage of topics in Hustkerland. We'll get to all of them, Austin. How are you doing today? Great.

You know, I also am not DP. It's been nice filling in the last couple days, you know, across one-on-one, across the Adam character show. Real question is, how are you? Glad you're back. Yeah, yeah, not too bad. I unfortunately lost my voice a little bit yesterday, and that's not good for radio, unfortunately.

So we've been told. Yeah, it's tough to do a radio show when people can't hear you. So, but back here, close to better than ever, I think maybe a little frustrated with the snow. I'm more of, you know, I can handle the snow when it's, it's Christmas season and looking forward to Christmas. I tried to even get a little jingle in my head this morning to make me feel like if it was going to feel any better. It didn't work.

You can't feel Christmas here right now. Can we do a reverse shout out to Lincoln drivers? I love y'all City of Lincoln. You're my hometown. There's always a special place in my heart for you. But we set a new record yesterday. And I say we very loosely.

We is in the city of Lincoln. All 300,000 odd of us. 91 accidents. reported yesterday. 91. Here's the thing. I thought we were better than that. I'd higher standards for us than that. I know we give you a bunch of crap driving around. You know, everyone's aggressive. Who really knows what they're doing? But come on. Were we really that unprepared for a little snow? Maybe, maybe I just got, you know, the perfect route home where it wasn't that slick. Like, I'm not a perfect driver. I will never once admit to that. You know, maybe it was slick or in other places.

But 91 crashes people? Are we okay? Did we forget how to drive in the snow? No, did we take the nice weather for granted? I hope everyone's okay. I hope they weren't serious. I was a little disheartened, though. Seeing 91 crashes, I mean, that's a lot of insurance claims getting filed. Oh, yeah. And, Bach, I really thought that Lincoln drivers, for all the crap we give them,

what have been able to avoid setting a record even yesterday? Yeah, I guess set records aren't always a good thing, right? That this is one of those cases where it's not. I didn't have to drive last night, of course, because I did sit out, but I did, like I was turning on social media. That's all I saw was people were like, my usual 10 minute route took 45 minutes and all this story. And I'm like, what's going on out there?

Well, Byron says it was more, I know it's the ice. Like I kid that that's the issue. But come on. Snow and ice go together very often. I get, you know, yeah, Lincoln drivers, you have your moments of terability. I didn't think it was that bad yesterday. Again, maybe I just got lucky.

Maybe it was just that my routes ended up being perfectly clear. I didn't think they were. but again, I'm not trying to pat myself on the back for not getting in a crash. More people didn't get in a crash than did. But 91 crashes, people? That's a lot. I thought we were better than that. I had faith in you at least a little bit.

I think you're right, though. I think maybe it's just late in the season. We weren't ready for it. We're prepared. I thought we'd gotten over it. I'm not sure. Whatever it is. I was disheartened.

I really was. Yeah. Well, hopefully it's a better day today. I can see even folks out there plowing as we go looking out the window here on 11th. in O's Strait. Yeah, be safe out there if you're driving. Always tune into the ticket, of course, in your radio dial. And I think that helps with a little bit of safety, too.

I'm not sure how, but you don't have to question it. Just take it for what it is. So, yeah, yeah, snow bad. I think we can all agree with that. Hopefully the sun comes and melts it away pretty quickly here. Austin, what was your kind of biggest takeaway from the Husker football press conference the other day? I got to tell you, and I don't know if you felt this way, it just felt a little

bit refreshing to me. I almost felt a new hope. I'm not quite predicting nine wins this year, but it's, it was kind of nice with all the offseason and maybe not necessarily the best conversations revolving Nebraska football just because of the way the season ended, all that, that that that rule really kind of pivoted and said, you know, this is the start of this season, doesn't have a whole lot to do with last season, you know, college football, you're going to have new rosters, all that, a little bit of a pivot to from, hey, we're not. you know, this isn't retooling or anything like, it's just kind of like, okay, yeah,

college football, this is how it is. I felt a little bit optimistic coming out of those out of that press conference. For me, Bach, it wasn't necessarily optimism, but it was, oh, wait, I actually do kind of care about these guys. They're going to mess with my heart for 13 Saturdays, you know, 13 games next year.

And I was ready to let them not do that. But I did. I was actually interested in what they had to say, and I was kind of surprised by it. You know, maybe it's, It's the fact that they hadn't spoken in a while, you know, six weeks or so since the Transfer Portal signing day. I don't know what it was, but yeah,

I was actually interested to hear them talk. And it wasn't, you know, overly newsworthy. There are, you know, plenty of things to talk about and take away. But there wasn't that one big headline. Can you believe that he said this? Can you believe he didn't mention that? This was about his run-of-the-mill for a press conference, as I think you can get.

I think the entry report was a big deal. I mean, you hear a guy like Gunner, Gatula, who I think is a key piece on the offensive line in some role, missing all of spring, not ideal. Dawson Merritt challenging for a role, Rex Guthrie, trying to establish himself. Those are guys that I was a little disappointed to see there on the injury list. But at the start of spring, Bach, you know,

I'm always going to take what the coaches say with a grain of salt. Wide receiver core they seem excited about. I'm going to knock 10% off that excitement until we see what they do. Nelson, Mosey, Ives, the five running backs, the Dana Holgerson mentioned, I get why you mentioned him, but you just ran through the names. Should you have a starter established by now? Probably not, but I'm kind of tempering my enthusiasm for that position as well.

And I get what Dana Holgerson saying at some point, if you want to add someone, you have to get rid of some at the same point. But, you know, I thought Dana Holgerson was fine up there. I thought Rob Orich handled the moment pretty well, all things considered, said all the right things, and I think in the right way. And Jay and I talked about this a little bit, the tunnel of expectations. We have a new phrase. It's not quite the strain.

You know, it's not the Big Ten's going to have to adapt to us. But I did like the tunnel of expectations because, Bach, I do think that that's what this program needs is tunnel vision on football. That's exactly what Rob Orich was saying. And I hope that bears true this spring. Yeah, I hope so too. And again, it was Rob Archer's kind of debut. So I thought, again, that that went well. I think maybe it's some of the most entertaining times was just when the, when the, when they announced the practice schedule was switching.

And it was like, okay, we're going through the questions. And Sip's just like, you can tell it was almost like Sip wanted to know for his own like time purposes of planning. Like what time are you talking about here? I was like, all right. Well, I'd be eating at Perkins this time or I would be at practice. I got to base my scheduler on this, you know. So I need to know what time this starts and ends. So I thought that was entertaining.

And then, you know, I think if there was another question directed at Holgerson of like, hey, the fans are a little concerned about the running back position? And Holgerson, are you, is it the fans of the media? So I think it's kind of interesting because, you know, sometimes those stories, again, maybe can be media-driven. Sometimes it's the media somewhat having to speak for the fans and what's going on there. But I think they're running back position as we see. And as they were talking, a big course of the topic, and we'll play many of those soundclips here in a bit, is just kind of the resources that are here at Nebraska.

and I mean, you mentioned if you, if you had one, you got to let one go and all that. But, you know, especially from just kind of the overall Matt Rule perspective of, it seems like the roller coaster is just kind of up and down. And it's going to continue to be that way, you know, battling with the with the Joneses, right? You have to spend with the money there. And so, you know, it just continues just to be kind of this, okay, he needs, you know, it feels like you need more, you want more, you're asking for more.

and then at some point last season it was, hey, we're pretty good. You know, we're right there. Might not be the top team, but we're right there. And then it seemed like it kind of came back down a little bit yesterday to, yeah, it's the best we've ever done. You know, it's as good a position as we can be, but, you know, kind of going through it as well, it's like, well, we just can't add everyone. There is a finite reason.

And then certainly there is a realm of, you know, of, you know, it's obviously some clarity there and, you know, there's a lot of truth to that. Interesting, too, in pointing out major league baseball as something that you see there, where it's tough to kind of compete with the big guys, the teams with the more money more

often win. And I can't help it. All I thought of was Oregon. Oregon, because you get that, you've probably about two or three times a year in the last three years. Pretty much, that's a big talking point going into the game against Oregon, because they're, of course, the Nike factory.

is Oregon the New York Mets of college football? I mean, I guess the Mets have actually won a championship, unlike Oregon. But, you know, spend all this money. You're out in front. You're flashy to some degree. You can sign the superstars and you just never deliver. You know, that's just a quick offhand comparison. But, no, I think you're on to something there, Bach.

And that's where some consistency in messaging would be great. You know, Matt Ruhle has the reputation for targeting his message, you know, directing. it towards certain groups of people. And it did feel like last year, someone, I don't know who. I don't even want to speculate who, but someone or multiple someone's, you know, in relative positions of authority, told Matt Ruel, dude, we're doing the best we can. You have enough money. Stop talking about it, you know.

And then for him to come back right away now, I forget the exact tenor of his transfer portal press conference, if there's any of that involved there or not. But for the very first press conference of spring, you know, like you said, the best we've ever done, but there's still more work to be done. I think that on its face, that's fine, right? It's a rallying cry. Yeah, we're doing better. You guys, it's an acknowledgement that, you know, spending has increased, that there is more money flowing. And that's good. I think it's supposed to be a pat on the back. But it wouldn't shock me of some of those same people that said, dude, you know, quit complaining. You have everything that you've asked for and probably more. If they wouldn't take that as, again, a little slap in

face. Like, really? I mean, you tried to hide it behind a compliment, but you're still saying that you need more or you want more. Maybe it's as simple as college football is a spending league where whoever has the most money is going to win. I think there's some places you can say that's always been true, but I hope that that's not where we're at. Maybe that's naive of me to think that there's still room for, you know, good old fashioned development and, you know, kind of traditional avenues of getting better in college football outside of, hey, pay for the best players, and that's your ticket to success. But maybe that is where we're at the end of the day.

And maybe Matt rules being realistic that, you know, until Nebraska has a $40 or $50 million roster, he's always going to be asking for more. I just don't know. But, and again, I think it's understandable. And it's a good place. I think for, again, I think overall the, the, the tenor of the press conference was positive.

and if nothing else, just kind of a fresh start and, all right, let's kind of move away from the end of last season, which obviously went in the wrong direction. And here we are moving forward with this team. But it was weird because in that moment, it is to me, and it's not something we don't know, but it is obviously always different when you hear from the head coach. Right.

Is that this, you know, there probably shouldn't be similar, and he didn't put it this way, but he said basically they're in a spot, where they can be within striking distance of the top, you know, of the top teams. And that's, again, that kind of just lets you know where you are at and what your expectation should be for the season for Nebraska, specifically when you go in against the Ohio states and the organs of the world. But of course, everybody's example of why that shouldn't be too much of excuses,

you're also going to play Indiana. And Indiana didn't have all of that. Now, Mark Cuban jumping in. We see Kurt Signetti, in fact, today sign a new contract worth $13.2 million per year. They might start to lean into more one of the money schools. We'll see again. You get a super donor. You certainly can be.

By the way, just one of three coaches making $13 million or more. Okay, so it's Signetti. It's Kirby Smart. Yep. And is it Ryan Day? It is not. It is not. Okay.

Wait a minute. Did Davo get up there? No. No. Okay. You're a good job of kind of the top ranked? Yeah. DeBoer is not up there.

No. Let's see. Did Laining get an extension? No. No. Wait a minute. Okay. Lincoln Riley?

No, that's not made public. Sark. No, no. Wait a minute. You're going to be upset when I tell you. No? No. Okay.

Wait a minute. Got to think this through. Think of who is usually the top paid quarterbacks in the NFL. Guys who signed most recently. Yeah, um, big off season higher. Waiting him? No. I, I give up.

Kiffin. Oh, duh. Yeah, there it is. So yeah, you have three 13 million dollar coaches in college football. Kurtzignetti certainly deserves to be among them.

Kirby does too. And Kiffin is the new guy. I really guess that's kind of how it goes these days or at any time when you're, when you're bidding the money goes up. for kind of the latest, biggest hire of the offseason, and that's where he's at. But, yeah, so, I mean, I think it's interesting, you know, especially with the schedule ahead that we all know, and there wasn't much talk about that, and as well, there shouldn't be. You know, again, I come out from the press conference optimistic.

Well, at the same time, a little bit of kind of setting in place of college football. And Matt Ruhl, a bit, another big part of this was like rules are changing. Things are constantly evolving, all this sort of stuff. but just kind of letting you know as Husker fans, you know, you're not, you're not the Yankees. You know, you're not the Red Sox and the Dodgers. We're kind of trying to move up, you know, from maybe more of the middle of the pack.

And it's certainly higher middle, you know, maybe you never want to say when all the split happened, it was always kind of like was Nebraska's going to be one of the halves, not one of the have knots. And they are, but they're not overwhelmingly that. They're in the halves club, but they're not the ones that are, you know, upsetting the temperature of the room.

They're not the one that everyone wants to go up and talk to at the party, right? Nebraska is kind of kind of waiting in line to rub elbows with and, you know, conversed with the big boys in line. And to be quite frank, it's many miracle that, you know, college sports is having all the issues that it is right now so that, you know,

Nebraska can remain in that club. You know, I think that right now, if you split off into the top 40 teams in college football and then the next 40 or whatever, Nebraska would be in that second year. group trying to fight its way up. You know, still living off of reputation,

which is fine. It works out pretty well for Husker fans. But I think for Nebraska football, the health of the program moving forward, it's probably going to be five, ten years before we get all this, you know, score act, save the NCAA, you know, whatever stuff figured out when it comes to Rev Share versus NIL and all that stuff. But there's going to be a day where even if it's not

fully settled, it's settled enough that we move on to some other problem. And Nebraska better hope that there's a chair for it still at the table. And the best way that that's going to be made possible is by having success. It is finding ways to navigate the landscape like other teams have. Maybe it's as simple as you know, find the money, pony up and navigate it that way. But there's a, there are two worlds. There's one in which Nebraska is still in the big boys club and they're in the top 40 and they're relevant every year. There's another world where Nebraska's fighting to get back there, which is I think

where Nebraska is now and it can't be a four, it can't afford, I think, to be left on the outside looking in when the music stops, I think, for the first time. Yeah, it is kind of, I mean, obviously we all live through so we can understand this. But again, I go back to the times of, you know, maybe early kind of in the in the 2000s or mid-2000s when fans were frustrated when a Husker highlight wouldn't be on college game day. Right. And it was like, well, how are they, you know, turning down one of the, and this was before there was more, you know, it was less obvious the SEC, ESPN were connected.

There were still kind of whispers there, but it wasn't, again, as obvious as it is now. now the way that the TV broadcast stations have kind of taken over the direction of college football. And it was always, you know, so there's a lot of frustration there. Now I'm surprised, you know, it's almost like that Leonardo DiCaprio meme right there. You ever see the Oscar highlight roll through game. You're like, hey, we made it this week. It just does not happen as much. Again, you know, part of that might be still that contract.

But the bigger part is we all, again, I hate to say it, but we all know it. Nebraska just haven't had a whole lot of relevant wins in the last decade. And so like you said, they're just got that one way to fix it and get your belt self back in those discussion is to start winning those games. And hopefully Matt Rule and Nebraska can get that going. Let's take a quick break here on one-on-one. We've got plenty more to talk about from the press conference. We'll play some of those clips and talk more about if this feels like a $25 million

roster. Coming up next year on 93-7, the ticket. Download our app by searching 93.7, the ticket. You're listening to one-on-one with DP on 93-7 the ticket and the ticketfm.com.