we're back inside Lucas Oil Stadium Dave revson Yogi Roth Jake Buton now joined by Matt Rule and Coach I know every job is different and so I was talking about the success you had at Baylor and the success you had at Temple that being said Nebraska's different than those places so what did you learn not about yourself as a coach but about Nebraska in particular that you think can help you achieve another one of those improvements in year two well I I think the thing that I learned was the roster was already full of a lot of really great guys and a lot of talent and um I mean we had a we had a tough year but if you if you lose five games by a field goal or uh overtime like some teams would quit I mean our guys came back week after week after week so the good thing about year one was we all got to see each other in tough times and I we could found out we're all pretty resilient we're all pretty tough so make a couple steps this year I already know that we have the right stuff inside of us which I think can help us flip it you talk about making steps this year and offense was really the area where you needed to get better where have you seen the biggest strides obviously cognizant of the fact you haven't had preseason camp yet but just in terms of the spring and the off season I thought the biggest jump we made uh this spring was was in the passing game and was really at the receiver positions you know last year it was unfortunate we had some injuries uh some of the guys we were counting on at receiver to play were hurt we had to put some freshman in there and uh those guys are those those they grew up they're sophomores now they know what it's like to be in the two-minute drill against Michigan State to win the game and and while we didn't get it done um they had to make those plays so those guys grew up brought in a couple players to help them and uh I think we have a dynamic dynamic route coach you recently said on Joel clatts podcast that when you're rebuilding you got to dig down and you learn a lot when you dig deeper and deeper and deeper under the surface but it's also a different generation than when you were at Temple when you were at Balor what have you learned that might be unique about this generation of players when you challenge them to dig down to find success I think um a lot of it's talking to their parents too talking to the people around them you know parents are more involved now than ever and uh it's probably a good thing you know it's a it's a it's a great thing so talking to the people that that matter and I just think being transparent you know like I'm happy to share with our guys like hey you know you guys put up there I was coach of the year I was also a meme for a year on ESPN after getting fired you know on on Twitter so you know like there there's highs there's lows like just keep showing up and being consistent and um I think when you're honest enough with the guys to share your own highs and lows they'll they they'll maybe listen listen to you a little bit more I was also listening to Joel class's podcast justan on this show shout out to Joel CL he asked some great questions and I wanted to ask him uh ask a question that he asked you uh we talked about the success of your turnarounds at Baylor and Temple but I thought you gave a great answer to what you learned from the challenges from your time in the NFL specifically with the Panthers and I just wanted to ask you that same question what did you learn from your time with the Panthers yeah I I learned that like um leader leadership it's easy to lead when things are going well mean you have to lead like I I felt like I I did a lot probably a lot of things right a lot of things wrong but I felt like those last weeks up until the time I got fired man I I still was a great dad and I tried to be a great husband and I tried to be a great uh leader to the guys I tried to if bullets were going to get fired they're going to get fired at me they didn't go at anybody else and um that's why some of those guys they stay in touch with me to this day and so coming into Nebraska wanting to be that same type of leader from the very beginning wanting to build those relation ships and connections you know you go to the NFL you think it's you think it's one thing but it's it's people and so I I I'm at Nebraska I want to enjoy this year and I want to watch these guys grow in their lives on and off the field and so I think that personal connection um probably didn't do it well enough early enough in the NFL but I did do it at the end and I've tried to just triple it at Nebraska when it comes to quarterback play so often now in the recruiting game it's this label is on you this expectation is on you clearly that's happened with Dylan rayola one of the recruits in the history of Nebraska football how are you frontloading like the mental skills necessary to be able to operate in a world where so many people are telling you how good you are how bad you are where you need to improve yeah I I think expectation is the thing that holds people back you know like you're drafted in the first round you better play this way you're drafted in the fourth round you're a top recruit or you're a walk- on like so often we we play to our expectations um I want our guys to play the game because they love playing the game I I want them to find joy in going out there and competing and practicing there's going to be highs there's going to be lows but you know what you you can't have highs if you don't have lows and you have to embrace the lows you have to learn from them and so whether it's Dylan whether it's Carter Nelson whether it's Danny kin any of these guys we signed that are big- time recruits when they get started that that's over it now now the Journey Begins and I want them to embrace the adversity every bit as much as they embrace the the good times uh just to continue with Dylan Rola just how young he is and watching the spring game just how how poised he looked he didn't look at as young as he really was and I'm just curious now that you've had a few months to get to know him watch how he operates within the program what has impressed you the most about his character um he he was born to play quarterback I mean it just you know he has the arm talent but uh the game makes sense to him it's it's a lot of a lot of players they can operate systems uh Dylan's playing football you know he understands the game um you know his dad obviously 14 years in the NFL you know he understands the the o line side I love the fact that he this big recruit he came in and man he just worked he just did the mat drills he didn't he didn't he didn't think he wasn't supposed to do he didn't have a lot of opinions he just worked and earned the players respect he he's got a lot of work to do college football's hard but I know this he's going to be there at six o'clock in the morning he's going to be there at 5:00 at night I think players respect that what's your process in terms of deciding when a starter has earned the right to be named the starter by you I I think it's always when we know we know um for me right now I've got you know I've got Hinrich harberg who who won five games as a starting quarterback in Nebraska last year like that not many guys have done that recently and I've got Danny Kalin who's one of the top recruits in the country Elite 11 I've got Dylan who's one of the top recruits in the country and they've all had these Great Moments I feel like after this summer they they've earned the right to come in and show us this this Camp what what they've done and what they can do and you know we dream about the day that we play January 20th and it's going to take a lot of players to get through a 16 Game season so we'll compete it out it'll be fun uh they'll have high moments and low moments but when we know we know this may not be the sexiest question but I want to talk to you about special teams thank you I love that I love that because I mean that was an issue going back even before you got here and then when you talk about you know all the close games like the margin for errors is razor razor thin so special teams always plays a factor certainly is a big factor for your team what strides has your special team unit taken this off season well you know I thought we did some really great things on special teams last year at times so we beat Northwestern and how do we beat him we block a field goal run it back for a touchdown even in the Iowa game we stay in the game by we you know we block two field goals so there's a lot of things to build off of and we had a rookie kicker and he had some big moments he had some times to work so I just feel like now we have a a kicker coming into a second year we have a senior punter we have a senior Snapper the guys all understand the emphasis we put on special teams and that is that is our advantage in these games I hope this is a sexy question coach I want to talk about the defense okay you came from the NFL you spent a lot of time there teams when they see an opponent have success doing something like you did in the 335 defense a year ago they spent an entire offseason finding out how to beat this defense what are you anticipating from offenses that you'll see the second time or the first time in this revamp League I think the key is to go back and watch the teams that who had success against you you know take take Michigan out of it because they're just so elitely talented right but like go back and watch the Wisconsin game and how you know coach Longo put speed at number three and tried to take take advantage of that find the people that found a wrinkle and as a defense prepare for it I I can't say enough how brilliant Tony white is it's not just some scheme that he I only do this he will change what he's doing even in game sometimes based upon his player sometimes I'm on the headset saying oh Tony what are we doing but he's he's just a savant and so he'll he'll continue to evolve we'll be good on defense I believe I feel like you know all the close games once again there's like a fork in the road I remember my freshman year at Michigan we were seven and six and lost like five of those games by a total of 11 points so it's like you're close it didn't actually benefit us the next year uh for your team you'd like for those close games to benefit you and I'm just curious what you can share with us about the messaging to your roster and how you can learn from those adverse times to you know hopefully get to that 8 n 10 win mark this year yeah if there's one thing I could teach our guys for life it's that everything that happens to you happens for a reason as long as you choose to learn from it so going back and dissecting dissecting all those moments and saying why did we lose well you know we we lost by three but we also had five turnovers you know we were we were the worst team in in turnover margin in the Big 10 last year so if we if we don't turn the ball over 31 times if we take the ball away more than 14 times it's not a curse close losses aren't a c curse it's that we turned the ball over we didn't make these plays and so um to me it's learning from those it's it's fixing those problems and it's getting our guys confident man I I hope you can feel for me I have I have a sense of confidence about this team and I want I want our players to have a confidence hit about this team you referenced being a ga when deshun Foster was playing what what do you remember about Coach Foster uh oh man he he was the man first of all he was a great guy and he was a great person you know I'm a defensive GA I'm over there with the dline like but he was cool to everybody but I remember being up in the boxes I think he ran for I don't know the number I think he ran for like 300 yards it was either against Washington or Ohio State I think it was Ohio state like he was just a great great player it's someone I've always followed and respected when he got that job I was really really really happy for him hey coach I want to ask you just a little bit about big picture and I know as a coach you don't sit up here and say we want X number of wins or this that or the other thing because you you just set yourself up to be in an uncomfortable situation that being said it is amazing I think to those of us who grew up following the program that Nebraska has the longest drought of being in a bowl game of any power conference school so is it fair to say like that anything short of making a Bowl this year would would be it'd be a failure yeah ABS there there are so many people that I've met who cheerleaders who come back for another year students to stick around for another year all because they want to experience going to a bowl game and we got so close last year and and we kind of fumbled away and so to me that's the minimum like we're going to go to a bowl game we have to go to a bowl game at the University of Nebraska every single season we we should expect to go to a bowl game win a bowl game and be in the hunt for the conference title be relevant we're not going to win it every year maybe but we want to be relevant and uh we want to come down the stretch and have people talking about us uh not as the game that who they're playing but they want to talk about us and so that's why we came here that's what we're building to but but a bowl game is non-negotiable in my mind Matt rule head coach of the Huskers really appreciate it thanks a lot coach thank you guys yep we'll see you soon