Bussin' With The Boys - Best Of The Bus: Coach Matt Rhule’s Expectations For Nebraska + His Thoughts On The NIL World

Episode Date: August 22, 2026

The boys are out in Nebraska where they were joined by head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Matt Rhule. Coach Rhule gets into how disappointing it was missing a bowl game after starting 5-3. He goes onto to talk about everything he learned in his first year at Nebraska, his thoughts on the NIL world and how Trev Alberts leaving affects him and the process in finding a new Athletic Director. At this point Rhule is just one of the boys. Keep your eye out for all of our other spring tour rolling out here within the next couple days/weeks. Enjoy fellas.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches, there's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pasto survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers? Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.za for details and to check availability.

Bell, connection is everything. On the new podcast Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinero and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word Solita, trading the pity for possibility. Listen to Solita on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Hoda Kottenby, host of the podcast, Joy 101 with Hoda Kotbby. You know, I'm always searching for inspiration and useful tools to maximize joy. Like when my friend Henry Winkler offered advice to aspiring actors and really anybody hoping to stand out. You're not hired just to fill time and space. You're hired to fill the space with you. Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast. or wherever you get your podcasts.

Our hometown is not a test tube. 90 miles northeast of Nashville, a battle for the future of America, plays out in one small town. Developers with right-wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land. We need cities on a shining hill. This is Our Town,

a podcast about what happens when a small town becomes the site of a social experiment and fights back. Guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now, did you? Listen to Our Town, on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey.

I don't have to lose. With that, welcome to another episode of Bustin with the Boys. First question, coach. What game was there if we die, we die speech? That was Illinois, I believe. Yeah, that was Illinois. I'm waiting to ask you that. No, no, it wasn't Michigan.

That was Michigan. No. Does your players seem to think it was Michigan? You have to show it to me. What's y'all saying? What's y'all saying that out there? The die. It was that not you.

No, it was NU. Yeah. Oh, it was Northern Illinois? Yeah. Oh, we're bringing the banger. If we die, we die. There we go. That makes you feel better.

If we would have lost the game, I would have died. No, yeah. Strategic, strategic. Yeah, Michigan, Michigan, um, Michigan probably was more like the half-time speech and then the next day. You know, the next day we went out. Next day we went out and said, all right, y'all don't want to play on Saturdays.

We're going to play on Sundays. Now, this is before we knew they had our signal. And I said, that's why we lost. But like before we knew all the kind of controversy around the games. And we went out there Sunday night. We had a Friday game. Sunday night there, my boy Jay lit over there. He's got, he's got like canned footage of like,

I mean, it was, I'm talking about, how long, how long we go for an hour and a half? Like, full play. Like, guys out there, defense talking trash to the offense. Like, literally 24 hours after we just played Michigan. And I said, right, if you don't play on Saturdays, if we get down, we're going to just kind of roll over. Then we'll play on Sundays. And we played. And then we went Friday night to Illinois, and we beat Illinois.

Yeah. So did the players know that they were going to practice on a Sunday? No, the coaches didn't know. No one knew. No, I literally spent the whole day kind of. of going back, because you know, you don't want to overreact, right? But we had had the Colorado game. The Colorado game was our second game of the year.

Tough loss, first game against Minnesota. Second game of the year, 13-7 with like seven minutes left, and we lose 36-13. Kind of got away from this. And I'm like, all right, I'm trying to teach them. Come back, we beat Northern Illinois, beat Lotech, playing Michigan. Get down 28-0, and it's like, ah, darn it. And just, I'm not here to have guys. I love these guys too much to let them say, oh, darn it.

So I went back and forth all day, and then finally I was like, what would you have done back at Temple before all the stuff, right? Before everyone's watching what you're doing. Back at Temple, we had the Hassan Reddicks and the Dion Dawkins and all those like real dudes. I was like, what were we done back then? We'd have gone out and practiced. And so we went out there, and what I saw was these guys come to life. And that's why, you know, we went out.

We beat Illinois. We beat Northwestern. We beat Purdue. We went three game, three or four game, one street. three game win streak. So we got some winners here. But literally it was just like me and my heart back and forth. What should I do? Because as a coach, you have to get up there and present like you know what you're doing. But sometimes you're like, man, I don't know what to do right now because you don't want someone to get hurt.

You don't want to do the wrong thing. But you also want them to know that you expect more from them other than just, if we're going to lose, we're going to lose. But we're not going to lay down. Yeah. How was that throughout the year? Obviously, you're not feeling the expectation of Nebraska and the fan base and everything. everything else and falling short of like being bowl eligible, especially when you had a couple games there at the end to,

to do just that. Yeah, we were five and three, you know. It's five and three to finish five and seven. And it's like anything else, man, it's a double-edged sword, right? My heart really hurt for the, for the older guys, right? Like they had been through so much and some of them came back just to help us get to, to be bowl eligible, to be the team that brought us back. I'm out, I'd walk downtown and students would say, coach, I came back

for another year because I want to go to a bowl game. So I felt that not for me, not expectation, even, just how much the players have put into it. And to lose 20 to 17, and then to lose 1310, and then to lose in overtime, and then to lose 1310 on the last play, two walk off field goals. My heart hurt for those guys, because I really, really, really appreciated those guys. With that being said, sometimes you can go six and six, you can go to a bowl game and go play in a nice bowl game, being a team you should beat, finish seven and six. Everybody's walk around smiling.

Like, we have like an intensity about us. We have an urgency about us that we might not have had. Have we gone and gotten a little bowl, the PlayStation from the bowl game, a nice little jogging suit. So I think there's some positives, but we didn't get it done. That shows, though, you can tell because you're going five and seven and still being one of the top recruiting classes. Talk a little bit about that.

Yeah, I mean, I think as you see this place, like, you know, and again, facilities don't, what do facilities do? What do facilities do? They tell you that football is important here. Our fan base tells people that football is important here. And so we work our tails off. We work hard in recruiting. And just to get people here, because I think once you get here, like you walk around Lincoln, you go downtown, you see the campus, you're like, oh, snap. Like, this is a really, really cool place. And so, you know, the highlights came on. They just turned on the highlights.

You see me covering. But you know what? But honestly, like, I think the big thing is all along players could see like, hey, my history at Temple, you know, being two and ten, then being six and six and then back to back, you know, top 25 teams, you know, back to back conference champions, you know, top 25 at different times in the year. Going to Baylor, being 1 and 11, then being 7 and 6th, then playing in the Sugar Bowl. I think people realize, hey, this is like a coach will try to build it the right way. So to be five and seven, maybe outperformed. So I think a lot of the young players are like, all right, I see it. I see what they're trying to do.

I see how they're doing it. And I think we're going to just going to continue to accrue well. What do you feel like you've learned the first year coaching, being the head coach of the University of Nebraska? That, you know, when I took this job, I was very uncertain. You know, I was very like, no, you just get fired. You're a little scarred, you know, and I don't really know. I'm a northeast guy. I was very uncertain, like, you know, not in a bad way, just like in a, and my wife was

like, that's the job. That's the job. Go to Nebraska. That's the job. Go to Nebraska. So, like, two weeks in, you know, because I was living downtown, my family and my kids were finishing school, I called her. I was like, as usual, you were right. Like, this is a great place. Like, I didn't know how good the people were. I didn't know. I mean, this is a place and you know this, but this is a place where like 60 minutes before the game, everybody's in the stands watching warmups. Like they, they love the players so much that they want to watch, even the guys who aren't going to play, they want to watch them warm up. This This is a place that, like, after the game, win or lose is going to stand up and cheer for you and probably cheer for the opponent.

So it's football done right. And, you know, I love the game of football. And this is a place that loves football. So it's like the perfect match for me, a perfect match for my family. And I think that we can be what we're expecting to be. So you think that's what made your decision easier to leave the NFL and then come back to Nebraska? Well, they made the decision for me when they told me to get my ass. That sounds.

Your key card will not be working anymore. No, but in all seriousness, you know, I had a, I had a chance to go be an assistant coach in the NFL, the New York Giants, and had an amazing experience. You know, working with the O line, the guys like, you know, Chris Sneed, Dave Deal, David Boss, like all these great dudes. And I was a young assistant coach. Being a head coach in the NFL probably wasn't really for me. Like, I love players. and you're caught there sometimes in like you're the guy, you're the guy, you're the guy.

And some guys probably can do it way better than me. Some guys, you know, maybe like a Vrabler or someone who's played, I struggled with coaching you, coaching you and then cutting you. I struggle with my family not being a part of it. Like last night if you'd have been here, the whole team, we have dinner in the Hawks indoor players to tell them, invite their families, invite their girlfriends, coaches invite everybody.

You know, my daughters are walking around. My wife knows not just our players, their girlfriends, their families. He's like, it's college, and it's just a little bit more how I'm wired. It's a little bit more relationship built. So, you know, when Carolina didn't work out, it was like, you know what? Hey, I took a shot at this. It was a great experience, but I really love college football.

And this is a place that I believe does college football right. You know, we're not using players. We're not bringing them in if they're not good enough throwing them out. You know, this is a place that really wants to develop guys. And so that kind of matches who I am. So did you always feel like? you was going to be a coach. I know playing linebacker at Penn State and then being a GA at Penn State right after. Did you feel like this was your calling to be a coach, being around young man,

developing them, developing them and giving them the opportunity to be players in the NFL? Yeah, yeah. From the time I was like, I don't know, five, six, seven, eight years old, I want to be a college football coach. My wife sometimes, she'll say to me like, man, you're so lucky, like, you know what you want to do your whole life. You know, my dad, my dad's a minister, and he's also, but he's also a high school teacher and coach. My uncle's in the Pennsylvania high school coach is All of Fame. Like my whole life I always wanted to coach and coach college football. You know, I never wanted to coach high school.

Never really wanted to coach the pros. I wanted to be a college football coach. And I, you know, being at Penn State, being around Joe Paternal, I wanted to do that. And so being here now, you know, through the journey of Temple to Baylor, Carolina to here, you know, being at a place that when I walk in every day, I walk by five national championship trophies, that's something when I was eight years old. I couldn't have even comprehended. Talk about the Spring League that you've introduced this year. It's been a talk of a couple of my group chats.

Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Positive, negative? Positive. A couple, like, oh, this is interesting. Yeah. But dudes talking, like, you know, it's something that changes it up during the springtime. Yeah, you know how spring can be.

Yeah. You know, I tell you what it is. You know, I was sitting there one day and I kept thinking about, you know, the history of Nebraska. Tom Milesbourne, you know, multiple drills going on, multiple fields going on. So we've always tried to do that, you know, in basketball, like, you know, you can go play summer league, right? You can go play AAU when you're not in season. Baseball, you can go play wooden bat league.

And football, you basically just lift. You know, so how do you get better at football than playing football? So, you know, we have three quarterbacks. We have Heinrich who won the starting job halfway through the year. Unbelievable young man going to get better and better and better. We have Danny Kaelin, elite 11 quarterback for 45 minutes down the road. Dylan Raola, just, you know, one of the top recruits in the country. So we have three guys that want to be the quarterback.

And Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches There's a lot of suspense Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pasto survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers?

Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.com for details and to check availability. Bill, connection is everything.

On the new podcast Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinero, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word Solita, trading the pity for possibility. Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meeting people, and they were like, you smiled at us. Not a lot of people smile around here. It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is, and not the lies you're sold about it.

It can be a time where you push your limits, change your mind, or wake up to a new version of yourself. So whether you're a solo travel veteran or you're too nervous to book your first trip, I hope you listen to Solita on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're a solo. wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Hoda Kotkogee, host of the podcast, Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb. If you know me, you know, I'm always searching for inspiration and useful tools to maximize joy. So this podcast lets us uncover those things together through meaningful conversations

with fascinating people. Like when my friend Henry Winkler offered advice to aspiring actors and really anybody hoping to stand out. You're not hired just to fill time and space. You're hired to fill the space with you. You have something in your guts. You go with it. And Sean Johnson recalled the moment she realized her now husband, Andrew, was the one.

He was just so unapologetically himself and knew nothing of Hollywood. He hadn't been on a plane before without his family. It was so pure. Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast. or wherever you get your podcasts. Our town is small taters by most standards, right? But to the people who grew up here, it's everything. What happens when a quiet Tennessee town becomes the front line in a battle over the future of America?

Developers with right-wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land in the area. The first thing you see when it pops up is pioneers in Appalachia. But they weren't just planning houses. We need cities on a shining hill that exemplify and embody and embody. The Christian way of life. Stop right there. Is that normal? A podcast about what happens when a small town becomes the site of a social experiment.

God need men to rule. Great. And decides to fight back. Do not use my hard work to sell your bull-h-h-h-hob. They're not just opposing what's being planned for here. Our hometown is not a test tube. They feel like they're standing in opposition to an entire administration. Guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now, did you?

Listen to Our Town on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I started thinking about like reps and was like, man, we have enough of linemen, we have enough of this, we have enough of that. What if we just divided the team up into thirds and we just played football? Because, you know, when I was growing up, when you guys were growing up, like, yeah, we had video games, you know, but like you guys probably had phones. I didn't, but like we still went out and played a lot. A lot of my guys, like, they don't, they didn't really grow up playing, they might have played a little basketball. So they play a lot of football. And so let's play.

Let's put the ball down. Let's have officials. Let's let's just play the game and not just do drills. And so that with a creative staff turned into the bug eaters, turned into the rattlesnake boys, turning the old gold nights, taking the old team names. And like,

it's crazy. Like you're trying to tell your guys to be leaders and guys like, nah, try to keep to myself. And then all of a sudden I name someone a GM. Hey, you're the GM of this team. And that team doesn't perform.

He's like, hey, you get cut tomorrow, bro. Like, hey, if you don't know your stuff. Like, all of a sudden you see that this level of competitiveness come out in our guys. So it's been unbelievably fun.

And we heard, like, you involved, the injured guys has been the GMs to keep everybody interacted with the team. And I think that's great, like to do something like that. Because let alone sometimes when you injure, it almost feel like the coaches never talk to you, you're not involved. So I think that goes a long way too. So I was watching a couple of a couple of my highlights back there. I saw you. Daydrieve, man. Come on, make that tackle. I okay I don't want to jump around asking you about this but a big reason of why you came here was Treve Alberts what was it like the day you got the phone call that he was going to be moving on

A&M yeah you know Treve had been really cool with me and kind of talking to me about it beforehand like hey this is out there this could happen you know for me for me so so what it was I was in Scotland I was playing I was playing I took my son on like a little golf trip my son's a golfer and you know he was graduating high school he stayed behind in Charlotte so that I could take this job he was like Hey, so I took me and him father-son trip. And I was coming down 13.

And my phone rang and I was Trev and I picked it up. And I was like, oh, dang, all right. Well, hey, I'll call you later. I appreciate it. Then I went on ahead, go ahead and knock that little par in. A little something. A little something. But in my world, you know, of coaching, like people come and go, right?

Like, people move on. We love them. Like, I've had different coordinators. I've had different coaches. players come, they graduate, players come, their free agents, they move on. And I think the biggest thing is always just to make the most of your time when you're with somebody. So, you know, when I got hired, there was a president and there was an ID that hired me that are both gone. But I, since I've been here, like, this is home. Like, I love it here. Like, my wife opened up a business down in Lincoln.

My kids are in school. They're doing well. My son's coming to be a freshman here. Like, this is where we want to live. So, you know, thankfully, we hired Troy Danin, who I have, known since way back at Temple. I mean, he's a rock star. But yeah, it was kind of a little bit of a shock, to be honest with you. How do decisions like that, like affect your, affect you? Well, I think the biggest thing is like, you know, you want to have an AD two things. You want to have an AD who wants you to be the coach. You know what I'm saying? Like, you don't want somebody who's like, yeah, he's the coach, but, but things get dicey. I'm moving on and hire my own guy, right? Like, you want to feel like, hey, this is my guy. Because the one thing I've learned in this job,

you can't do this job well if you don't have like a great, great partner. And you have to have an AD or a GM or, you know, whatever, who's a great partner with you. And so Trev was a great partner. You know, when I was at Temple, you know, we went a ton of games, Pat Krafters. Now the AD at Penn State was like my right-hand guy. Like, we battled through everything together. As a Baylor, Mac Rose was like my right-hand guy. So Trev, I picked coming here partially because he was going to be my right-hand guy.

When we lost him, obviously it's frustrating, but I've known Troy. And so when Troy came in the mix, I was like, all right, that's someone that I really believe in. You know, when you win at Tulane, like, you know how to get things done to win. And we were sitting up in Havelock at one of the bars in Havelock last year watching Tulane play USC. And watching Tulane beat USC and whatever bowl game it was, like, that's mind-blowing. So to have that AD here with us with these resources, I was like, all right, we'll be all right. Yeah, how much were you involved with that decision with getting him here? They asked me for some feedback.

they asked me for some names. I gave him three names, and he was one of those names, you know, and obviously, I mean, I didn't pick it. You know, Chris Caborick was in and president, did all the work on it, but I appreciated them saying like, hey, who would, you know, who would you want? And I said, hey, there's probably a lot of guys. Here's a couple guys I know. You know, he had just gotten to Washington, obviously getting to Washington, going to the national championship game and then leaving to come here. That's hard, and that be hard for him. I think it says a lot about Nebraska, though, that someone would be at a place like Washington and want to come here. So they were really good to be through that process, you know,

asking me. I'm sure they asked Fred, some others. Hey, what do you think? But I knew that, I knew that Troy was a type of guy that would come here. And I'm hoping it's always like, just put this place on steroids. Like, we got the best of the best. But like, what we do need to do is like, we need to like have an urgency. Like, we can't just, it can't be five and seven. We can't be just an average team in the country. This is the University of Nebraska. Like, we're supposed to be here and we're here. And so it's not my fault. We're here. It's not anybody's fault. We're here. We're just here. But we got to get to, if it's, if we're here in three or four years, that is my fault.

So having Troy involved makes me feel really good about that. Looking for an assist with your credit card but can't get a hold of anyone? Luckily, with 24-7 U.S.-based live customer service from Discover, everyone has the option to talk to a real person any time, day or night. Yes, you heard that right. You can talk to a real human and customer service anytime. Sounds like a real game change if you ask the boys. Make the right call and get the service you deserve with Discover.

Limitations apply. see terms at Discover.com slash credit card. With Troy getting involved too and the stuff that you got to build with Trev, what areas do you feel like?

Because you got these beautiful facilities. What areas would you say could have been lacking to where it's now you guys are growing and getting a lot better in those set areas? Yeah, I think

what Treve allowed me to do was go out and hire a big-time strength staff with the right amount of people, hire a big time nutrition staff with, you know, with the right amount of people. And that's nothing about anybody that was here before. They were great coach. I'm just hiring my people.

And, you know, when I first started, like, you know, we had one strength coach and one assistant at Temple. And then it was like one strength coach and four assistants. And now we live in a world where like, you better have sport science people and you better have interns. And you better have, you know, you better have a PT and a director of rehab and a director of return to play. And I mean, this is a whole different world now.

And so how do you keep players from going into the portal and leaving? They know that they're getting developed. They know they're getting better. I know everyone's going to say NIL. Yeah, that's part of it, obviously. But if you're at a place where you're like, man, I'm getting bigger. I'm getting stronger. My mind's getting better.

I'm learning the game of football. If you know you're getting developed, then you're probably going to stick around. And so putting money and infrastructure into that. We have the best, I'm telling you, we have the best nutritionist in the country. She's here. Her and her team, they're here. they have two full-time chefs just for football who are also dietitians like they know every person's food allergy every person's want we have five guys doing Ramadan like they're here at they're here at

430 445 making food for those guys so they can eat before first prayer they're giving them food at night like they are the they are the best nutrition staff in the country that's not cheap that's not easy way to go hire them from the SEC and bring them here so trev allowed us to do all that stuff the key to me is putting the right people in this building and if you have the right people in this building that that will attract and retain really good place players. Yeah. Go ahead. No, I was just kind of like, hell yeah. Yeah, no, that's real. Like, you got to surround your,

you got to surround your athletes with the right people. That's the only way you can make the program better. And I feel that. I wish I'll play for Nebraska. And they get you juiced up, right? Yeah, they get you juiced up, man. Real talk. So, like, did you bring, so you talked about the NIL deal, being from going to temple temple not having that and now having that how does that change your coaching your recruit like how is it because you old school now to this new school where it's crazy and it's

not really police so right it it's it's i think it's one of the good things for me that i was in the NFL and i dealt with the whole free agent process right like my whole thing in that time was like hey when it gets to the end of the season like you handle your money like you handle you you once you agree to your contract or you're with us, then you're with us. And like, that was always my thing. So when a player was like, hey, you know, I'm going to do this for my contract, I understood it. Because I was like, you know, I've had probably seven or eight different contracts. I've been head coached four different times with, you know, renegotiations.

I probably had seven rate contracts. Like when it comes time for that, it's time for that. So coming into the world of NIL, when a player is seeking to get what's theirs, I have no fundamental issue with that. if it starts to bleed over into, well, if I don't get this, I'm not doing that. That's not how you do things in the NFL other than, you know, if you're holding out, which is different. But I'm saying like, you know, you have to have the business side and you have to have

your other side. And so we're preparing our guys for life and we're preparing them for the National Football League. And so everything they do from how they recover to taking notes and meetings to their mindset to now how you handle the business part of it is something that I want to be the best at. So yeah, I mean, it's definitely different. What I did see when I was in the NFL, when we drafted some young players, I saw some guys with a lot of talent

who at a couple schools, I was like, man, they really didn't coach you very hard, did they? Because they were so afraid that maybe that person was going to end up in the portal. And you know what? Like, I'm sorry. If you want to be great, you've got to get coached hard.

If you want to be great, you need to be coached hard. And what I mean by that is when it's right, it's right, it's right. When you do it right, man, we're going to celebrate. When you do it wrong, we're not going to celebrate. When you do it right, wrong again, we're going to really, we're going to talk about it. And when I'm wrong, and I think that's one of the things I do best as a head coach. When I'm wrong,

then I'm going to talk about it too. I'm standing in front of the team. Like, I messed this up, guys. And so being in a program that doesn't push guys like that, they become fifth round draft picks instead of first round draft picks. And we're trying to produce first round draft picks. And, you know, when I talked to Dion Dawkins, when I talk to some of those guys that I coached in college, they're still telling them funny stories. I don't even remember. Like, remember the time you did this. Remember the time you did that? I probably did do that. Like you're doing to coach Polini while watching you.

Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches, there's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pasto survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode eight before you're done slicing the cucumbers?

Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto-pay. credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. On the new podcast Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinero and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone

else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meeting people and they were like, you smiled at us. Not a lot of people smile around here. It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is and not the lies you're sold about it. It can be a time where you push your limits, change your mind, or wake up to a new version of yourself. So whether you're a solo travel veteran or too nervous to book your first trip. I hope you listen to Solita on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Hoda Kotbby, host of the podcast Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby. If you know me, you know, I'm always searching for inspiration and useful tools to

maximize joy. So this podcast lets us uncover those things together through meaningful conversations with fascinating people. Like when my friend Henry Winkler, offered advice to aspiring actors and really anybody hoping to stand out. You're not hired just to fill time and space. You're hired to fill the space with you. You have something in your guts. You go with it. And Sean Johnson recalled the moment she realized her now husband, Andrew, was the one.

He was just so unapologetically himself and knew nothing of Hollywood. He hadn't been on a plane before without his family. It was so pure. Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Our town is small taters by most standards, right? But to the people who grew up here, it's everything. What happens when a quiet Tennessee town becomes the front line in a battle over the future of America? Developers with right-wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land in the area.

The first thing you see when it pops up is pioneers in Appalachia. But they weren't just. planning houses. We need cities on a shining hill that exemplify and embody the Christian way of life. Stop right there. Is that normal? A podcast about what happens when a small town becomes the site of a social experiment. God need men to rule. Great. And decides to fight back. Do not use my hard work to sell your bull. They're not just opposing what's being planned for here. Our hometown is not a test tube. They feel like they're standing in opposition to an entire administration. Guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now, did you?

Listen to Our Town on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You know, but they need to be pushed. They need to be developed. And so think about everything I've talked about. You give them the best facilities. You put the best people around them that are helping them and protecting them. But then you have a high standard form. They got to want those things.

And then at the same time, when you have an opportunity, you know, if NIO can help take care of them, and we take care of them. And, you know, that's why I believe, that's why I believe that we're always going to be successful. And what we've seen in two years is not many guys want to leave. You know, they want to be here. There's a difference between someone who's like, hey, coach, I'm not playing. I'd love to go play at this. We've helped more guys do that. We love those guys. But no one's saying, hey, I want to go leave because, you know, I'm upset about this or that. Do you feel like Nebraska and everybody around the state understands the importance of NIL? So I know last year there were a couple clips going around. Not of you pushing that.

Not of you pushing saying people don't, but people having the expectation of quarterback play, hey, a starting quarterback, it costs this, it costs that. Or you need the level of support out there to match the level of expectation. Do you feel like that's happening here? Yeah, I got, I had some coaches. I had some coaches across the country hit me up. Like, hey, man, how are you going to put that out there? I was like, it's the reality, right? Like, that's the problem, in my mind, that's the problem with NIL is it's not transparent.

Like, in the NFL, as you guys know, if an agent would have called us and been like, hey, you know what, for Will Compton, I know I've got, I've already got three years, you know, eight million a year, you know, can you guys do 8.5? And then we're like, now we can't pull the trigger on that. And all of a sudden, we see he signs three years for four million a year. And we know that agent lied to us. And we're never doing business with him again. You know, so, so the NFL is so transparent because you see the contracts afterwards.

In the NIL world, it's all kind of. So I forget what you just asked me, bro. The support, yeah, he said the Nebraska. Yeah, the support of the level of support matching the expectations. So my point has always been like, hey, let's keep it all out there. Let's make it, let's put it all out there and say, you know, like, there's teams that we, that we're going to face that spend $20 million on the football team,

$20 to $25 million in the football team. So, you know, a lot of people will tell me like, I don't believe in NIL. And I'm like, well, it's not something to believe in it or not. It's real. It's here. Like, it's what it is. So I'm always like, hey, if you want us to finish first, then let's put first, like first, first, first, first, then everything. First coaching staff, for salary pool, first facilities, first MIL. There's a reason why in the NFL, they have parity, they have a salary cap. And there is really no salary cap in college right now.

So I think we're heading in the right direction. I think it's hard for some people to sometimes understand, like, you know, what are we doing here? To me, investing in young people is never wrong. Like, everyone has this thing of like, oh, kids are going to, wait, you know what, I'm only where I'm at in my life because people have invested in me and given me opportunities. So if we can help young people on our team have opportunities for name image and lightness, then I'm 100% for it. And if we want to win, we better do it at a really high level. Do you got anything else? No, go ahead. No, I'm solid. I wanted to talk about this.

I know in Temple, you was, what, the first coach to have two consecutive 10 game wins since It's 1979. And you talked about some of them players, like, and you're trying to bring that mentality here to Nebraska, correct? Like, that's what you're looking for. Yeah, you know, the way we played football at Temple, I mean, you know, I love Temple. I love Temple University. Temple in North Philadelphia.

That's a real neighborhood with great people. You go to Temple, you're a tough person. You grow up in a tough place. You put your feet on concrete every day, you know. so we had to play football that way. So like we were going to hit you. We were going to strike you. We kept track of like the amount of times a team we played lost the next week.

Like we always kept track of that score. We're trying to beat you on Saturday and then have you lose again next Saturday. And so we played football that way. And what that allows to do because we practiced that way and lifted that way, you know what? We had a lot of guys come in with one-star recruits, no-star recruits who went on to play pro football. Played in Canada, played in the NFL because they got, they got, trained. And when you have a team like Temple and you beat Vanderbilt at Vanderbilt, you know, coming off a seven-win season, when you beat Penn State for the first time of 74 years,

it's only because your players have put the work in. And we went to Baylor. Baylor was a little different. We were a little more spread. We still played good defense. When we came here, we were like, where can we go that we can, but people love defense. People will love special teams. People will love practice. People won't think that working hard is, you know, is a punishment. And like, there's people that pay money. to go crossfit they call it crossfit right like this isn't punishment we're investing in you where can we go

and Nebraska seem like that you know they believe in the running game they believe in being physical they believe in defense so I believe that this is like the way we were at temple but but just with way more resources and way way way more opportunities and so that's what made this job so that's why my wife kept saying like you need to go there like like where else you're going to go that

that's going to play football the way you really want to play it deep down inside because deep down inside I want to play football that way I want the game to be nine on seven you know so um you know I love having great quarterbacks you know you've met a couple of them I want to throw the ball around and be fun but at the end of the day I want to win the physical battle and that's why I love my time at temple and that's what I believe Nebraska will let us play one more question you can you been from New York how is Nebraska being from New York like the difference like yeah no doubt no doubt you know um before I took this job, I wanted to come out and see it.

And I think it's the number one thing that happens in recruiting. Like you first hear, like, we'll recruit a kid from Miami, recruit a kid from anywhere. And you're here in Nebraska, and you think, honestly, they did like cornfield and a campus, right? And I remember when I was in the, I was in the Big 12, you know, you go to Oklahoma State and it was like a little downtown and then a big stadium. So I thought it was going to be that.

And my wife and I were like, I don't know about that. We came here and we went down. We drove around the Haymarket. We drove down O Street. And I was like, this was like a, city. I mean, it's not a big city, but this is like a big town or a small city. I'm like, if I can't recruit here, you know, where can I recruit? You know, we started driving around looking at, you know, the town overall. I mean, it's, man, it's like eight or nine public

high schools right here in Lincoln. And then, you know, you drive 40 minutes, 45 minutes to Omaha. And Omaha is one of the coolest cities that people don't know about one of the coolest cities in the Midwest. Like, you come back here. I don't know if you ever went to the College World Series. I thought I was in like, it's like a mixture of like the NCAA Final four and Marty Gras all in one. I'm like, this is unbelievable and great concerts. So, yeah, it's not in New York City, but the people here love football. It's safe.

You know, there's not a place in town where I'm like, well, there's not a place here in Lincoln where I'm like, hey, guys, don't go there. Don't go here. It's the people here care about the team. They care about people. It's safe. It's close to everything. We're in the Big Ten now that goes from East Coast to West Coast, but we only have a two and a half hour flight here or two a half hour. Other guys are going to be swinging.

five, six hours, west coast to east coast, east coast to west coast. Like, we're in the center part of the country, a quick flight to Chicago, two-hour drive to Kansas City. I came here and I was like, you know, Lincoln, Lincoln's what I was kind of looking for. A big city, not just a college town, it's a state capital, and Omaha's fire. I don't care what people say. It's got a great restaurant scene. So I've really, really, really enjoyed it.

I still like going back to New York City every once in a while and getting on the subway. And, you know, I need a little fixing, but I've loved, I've loved being able to be here and be out on a farm and then be downtown in a nice restaurant, you know, 20-minute difference. Dylan was talking about the mat drills and talking how serious those were. Some coaches do away with the mad drills, especially in this day and age. Why? You got them alive and well. You know what's really cool for me is there was like a Twitter thread, and it was players,

you know, Jared works for me over here that played for us at Western Carolina. I don't know, 20 years ago and players from Temple and players from Baylor and the players from here and they were all they were all making, basically making fun of me because I run the mat drill. Like it ain't like I'm like, I show up,

I sit in the mat drill, I'm the first row. Like I run the mat drill and sat who's my OC who's been with me at Western and Temple. He's the next guy. And then a coupe who did the mat drills as a player, he's one of the guys. So like if you're coaching the mat drill, if you're on the mat, like you either went through it or you're, you know, you're kind of O-O-O-U from way back when.

So, yeah. But to me, it's a right of passage. And we have a player, M.J. Sherman here. He, you know, he came from the University of Georgia, one national championships, you know, and at first was, like, kind of like, why are we doing this coach in a very respectful way, but struggled with it. And he had an interview the other day, and he was like, you know what? I would never want to go through the Matt drills again, but a Matt drill makes men will make a man out of you.

And, yeah, you can go out there and you can do your three. football drills only and you can run around bags and all that. But like all the research, I don't care if you listen to David Goggins, Jock O'Willink, you read, all the research says that our brains get better, they get stronger when we do things we don't want to do. We have to. We have to. We can't get saturated with dopamine where everything's at our fingertips.

And you have to earn and do hard things every single day, not as punishment, but it actually as a reward for yourself. So the mat drills, man, they're just eight times. The standard's unbelievably high. If you don't do it, we're doing it again the next. morning. And when they graduate and come through that, the goal is someday. Someday we take the field and our guys look at the other team and they're like, you know what, there's no way you pay the same place we played. There's no way you're out there for three hours in the spring ball

like we are. There's no way you have six a.m. meetings. There's no way you do mat drills and then do position work afterwards. There's just no way. And if you do, then let's have a good game. And so that's, we're not there yet, but we're pushing it towards that. Look at Dylan. Five-star recruit, you know, quarterback. You know, should he lay out and dive in the mat drills? he gets out there he's doing it you know he's doing it and they will eventually have a brotherhood where they all like hey we all did it I love that

I wonder how Nash how Nash how Nash is gotta dominate huh yeah Nash is you don't want to go with the med ball against Nash you know and in fairness this year you know we didn't have Nash do anything but Nat you know there basically went through his own he's breast

and you know it's funny with that he he um he uh he uh he uh And the one chasing three, we did that, we did this little episodes, a little documentary. And he talked about wrestling. He was like, his dad said, yeah, like, he was excited to finally get back to that type of training where you really push yourself. And I was like, oh, so he was trying to say wrestling is harder than football. He was like, no, no, no, no. But he told me, he's like, coach, it's just, and our defensive staff went over and watched wrestling.

And they came back and they were like, you know, all right, we got it. Like, whatever he's doing is enough. And God bless him. Like, he showed up every day to Matt Jones with his cleats on, his shirt on. And I'd be like, stand on the side. and he'd watch but he was there for his brothers you know like but what he was going through was tough man like oh yeah he what he was going through was tough you know he was losing weight and still lifting and training with us and then going out and fighting for the wrestling team i mean you know

we have three guys running track we have one guy running one guy did wrestling i mean we we we kind of got some multi-sport half-time uh dunk contest fire yeah that was i got dunk like emmett went up to dunk and he hit me in the back of the head but i was i was i was um it went up to dunk and he hit me in the back of the head but I was out there for them, you know, so. But you know what? I think that's so cool for our guys, right? Like, it's one thing to get a bunch of publicity, like, for, like, you know, for your name. It's another thing to get publicity for, like, what you do.

And those guys, whether they're giving back to the community or they're dunking a basketball halftime, like, it's way different dunking a basketball at the intramural center than in front of, like, 15,000 people. Your heart rate's jumping out, you know, but, you know, they look good. It was, they were throwing it down. Yes. Fadoni was, you know, Fadoni coming off two ACLs. I mean, that went from the foul line. You know what I mean? It was really fun to see those guys go out there and get that done.

Well, Coach, we appreciate your time. I feel like I had one other thing. Oh, Heinrich. We had a pet peeve. We asked him what he loves about Coach Rule and a pet peeve about Coach Rule. His pet peeve is, what was this pet peeve? Basically, you get started on something. You're like, hey, it's going to be guys, just a quick little message,

a quick little two-minute message. It turns into like 15 minutes, and then you get the rambling about some story. Because you say he got to go to class. He's like, I'm trying to get the class, and he ends up running. Hey, Texas Heinrich tell him to see him in the office real quick. No, it's funny because, like, they, I can see the guys imitate me.

And it's, like, I don't realize I do some of the things I do. But like, the guys that bailer would imitate me. They'd be like, we're going to go here. And then I see these guys doing the same invitation. I'm like, I must really do that. I guess I really do that. Well, Coach, we appreciate your time. Nah, appreciate you guys being here, though.

that means a lot that you guys are here. Thanks for having us. Sorry for letting you down in Memphis. You know what though? The fact that you're here and the fact that we got the live show tonight, like, that's going to be... You're wearing the jersey? If I can fit into it.

You can fit into it. I mean, I know they had to stretch it back in the day, you know? That would have been a different story. But appreciate you. On the new podcast Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude. is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinero, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission

to reclaim the word Solita, trading the pity for possibility. Listen to Solita on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Hoda Kotby, host of the podcast, Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby. You know, I'm always searching for inspiration, and useful tools to maximize joy. Like when my friend Henry Winkler offered advice to aspiring actors and really anybody hoping to stand out. You're not hired just to fill time and space. You're hired to fill the space with you.

Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Our hometown is not a test tube. 90 miles northeast of Nashville, a battle for the future of America. plays out in one small town. Developers with right-wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land. We need cities on a shining hill.

This is Our Town, a podcast about what happens when a small town becomes the site of a social experiment and fights back. Guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now, did you? Listen to Our Town on the IHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get

your podcasts. I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt season three podcast. This is a story about a horrendous situation that destroyed two families. It's a scorched earth war that shows just how far someone will go to get what they want. Cindy said, I had to choose between the truth and my family, and I had to choose the truth. Listen to season three of Burden of Guilt on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.