‘Go totally underground with this’: Unraveling Nebraska’s 76-day coaching search

LINCOLN, Neb. — Damn.

That’s all Matt Rhule could think.

During a clandestine trip to see the University of Nebraska on the last weekend in October as the Huskers played Illinois, he and his wife, Julie, thought they had found a fit. Now, weeks later, the deal appeared dead, struck down by complications involving the length of the contract and Rhule’s giant buyout with the Carolina Panthers, the NFL organization that fired him four games into his third season as coach.

Nebraska athletic director Trev Alberts, the Panthers and Rhule’s agent, Trace Armstrong, were at an impasse.

“Pardon my language,” Rhule said, “but damn, like that was the right place for me, and it just kinda didn’t work out.”

Alberts, though, didn’t give up. He remembered a conversation from the first hours of the coaching search, when chancellor Ronnie Green offered his advice.

“Go underground,” Green told Alberts. “Go totally underground with this.”

So Alberts did.

He kept a tight lid on the 76-day search featuring the likes of Kansas’ Lance Leipold and a dozen other coaches, including a late-hour addition in Luke Fickell.

But Alberts most wanted Rhule. Alberts knew it would be difficult. He heard from colleagues, the media, anyone in the football community with a voice that Rhule likely wouldn’t coach in 2023. The 52-year-old AD, hired at Nebraska in July 2021, saw Rhule as a challenge. Alberts worked hard in October and early November to convince Rhule that Nebraska was the right place for him at the right time.

And just as the Huskers’ season under interim coach Mickey Joseph turned sharply in the wrong direction, Matt and Julie Rhule flew in for a secret visit in the light of day to gauge the fit.

It was Oct. 29, Day 48 since Alberts fired Scott Frost.

“We drove around,” Rhule said, “and we said this is a place that is committed to greatness.”

Rhule, 47, wore a hat and sunglasses to avoid notice. “I can’t believe no one found out,” he said.

The Rhules left Lincoln on the Sunday after the Huskers’ 26-9 loss at Memorial Stadium. They vacationed in Ireland and felt optimistic about negotiations with Nebraska upon their return home to North Carolina. Talks soon fell apart, though, the contractual hurdles too great.

“It just wasn’t going to be able to happen,” Rhule said.

Damn.

Until Alberts dug even deeper.

Five years ago, Nebraska had made a perfect hire on paper – Frost, the former golden boy quarterback who understood the job, understood the state and loved the school. He won a national championship for Tom Osborne. He won big at UCF.

“I truly believe that we have hired the premier young coach in the country and that exciting times lie ahead,” former AD Bill Moos said in introducing Frost.

And he bombed in spectacular fashion with the Huskers, finishing 16-31 as Nebraska posted its sixth consecutive losing season in 2022, adding to its worst stretch of football in six decades.

Alberts’ task this time around? Hire the right coach or fall farther back, perhaps hopelessly behind, as the Big Ten accelerates toward a future flush with opportunity.

Before Rhule’s time with the Panthers, he built college programs at Temple and Baylor into contenders and impressed Alberts with his grinding spirit, attention to detail, passion to win and emphasis on integrity and culture.

One problem: Rhule wasn’t available when Alberts started his search.

And when Kansas beat Iowa State on Oct. 1 to improve to 5-0, Leipold’s stock skyrocketed. The same day, Illinois throttled Wisconsin 34-10, leading to the surprising firing of Paul Chryst a day later.

The race was officially underway. Reports surfaced that Nebraska and Wisconsin might engage in a bidding war over Leipold, who had ties to both Big Ten schools.

But seven weeks remained until the end of the regular season, and early interest from Nebraska in Leipold was tepid.

“Just because a coach started 4-0,” Alberts said, “doesn’t mean that coach is going to go undefeated.” To his point, Kansas finished 6-6.

The Huskers, meanwhile, rebounded from a blowout loss against Oklahoma to beat Indiana 35-21 in Joseph’s second game and six days later rallied to win at Rutgers.

Alberts had spent much of the first month of his search in information-gathering mode. He talked with Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, to whom Alberts had a connection because his daughter, Ashtynne, played volleyball at the ACC school.

An arranged conversation with Alabama coach Nick Saban did not happen, Alberts said. He also did not seek guidance from Urban Meyer, as many speculated, or pursue him as a candidate. He said he did not talk to the former Ohio State coach about the Nebraska job when Meyer visited Lincoln with Fox Sports in September, days after Frost’s firing.

“We never talked,” Alberts said.

He didn’t talk with Deion Sanders, whose six hours as a rumored candidate on Nov. 11 led the Jackson State coach to squash the reports in a speech to his team and caught the interest of Desmond Howard on ESPN’s “College GameDay.”

Dave Aranda at Baylor and former TCU coach Gary Patterson, now at Texas as the special assistant to the head coach, expressed interest. So did Army coach Jeff Monken. Kansas State coach Chris Klieman was long believed to be on Alberts’ list.

The second-year AD “interacted” with 13 candidates, he said at the news conference Monday to introduce Rhule.

“His detail was impeccable,” said Doug Ewald, Nebraska’s chief financial officer and executive associate AD. “If there was a nugget to take, Trev was going to be there to get it.”

His focus sharpened as warmth of late summer gave way to cold nights.

After a 1-4 start this year with the Panthers, Rhule was fired on Oct. 10. He went 11-27 in two-plus seasons, joining the long list of coaches unable to duplicate college success in the NFL. He came home to see tears in the eyes of his 9-year-old daughter, Vivienne. It hit Rhule hard.

A search firm contacted Rhule that same day. The coach who loves to preach a “what’s next” mentality had a lot to consider.

He knew he’d miss his whistle, his people, his purpose. But Rhule didn’t have to jump right into another job. Not with four years and $40 million left on his Panthers contract. He could take a year off in 2023 and still make $8.5 million.

At this time last year, Rhule was getting calls from LSU, Florida and Oklahoma. He could afford to be selective and wait for big-time Power 5 jobs to open.

Nebraska administrators didn’t want to wait. Alberts inquired about Rhule in the days after he hit the job market.

“Early on in the process,” said Green, the chancellor, “the name (Alberts) was mentioning to me most routinely, amongst the list of the people out there, was Matt Rhule.”

During his first Zoom meeting with Rhule, a former Penn State linebacker, Alberts, who won the Butkus Award at Nebraska in 1993, was blown away.

“I was interested in him because I respected what he did at Temple,” Alberts said. “He beat Penn State at Temple. And he just started saying all this stuff. And I’m like, ‘Did he watch my (news conference) or is he that good?’”

They spoke the same language on the topic of rebuilding a program and a winning culture. The Rhule blueprint at Temple and Baylor aligned with all that Alberts envisions for Nebraska. This was the kind of authentic, detailed and process-oriented leader he desired.

When the Rhules sneaked into Lincoln in late October, Angela Alberts, the AD’s wife, drove the 60 miles to collect them at the Omaha airport. They arrived amid the relative peace of a game day afternoon. 

Matt Rhule looked at his wife and could see in her eyes on that warm weekend, he said, that she wanted their family to make this move.

It made sense, Matt Rhule said. And it made sense to Alberts.

“It’s just like recruiting,” Alberts said. “It was no different for them. If we get people here, they’re blown away.”

The Rhules toured Lincoln and drove past Memorial Stadium. They did not dare go inside. At Alberts’ home, University of Nebraska system president Ted Carter visited.

“It was really more of a reunion,” Carter said.

Carter and Rhule reminisced about the 2016 American Athletic Conference championship game, when Rhule’s Temple team beat Navy. Carter, at the time, served as superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy.

He first met Rhule, Carter said, at an AAC retreat.

“At the end of the day,” Carter said, “relationships matter.”

On the visit, Matt and Julie pictured raising their three children in Lincoln. They recognized that perhaps they’d found the right match.

Carter agreed, a sentiment shared by New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick. Belichick is an old friend of the vice admiral and held two joint practice sessions with Rhule’s Panthers in August.

Carter and Belichick talked this week about Rhule.

“He’s been out here to Nebraska,” Carter said of the six-time Super Bowl champion. “He considers Nebraska to be the mecca of football. And he’s a big fan of Matt Rhule.”

Still, as the calendar flipped to November, doubts remained about the Rhule-Nebraska match.

Chatter around the search reached a fever pitch on Nov. 3. The morning and early afternoon brought several hours of speculation about a meeting with Alberts and a group of Nebraska regents over a possible impending contract offer to a candidate.

Local hysteria followed. Talk radio caught fire. Several media reports addressed the bizarre nature of that Thursday.

There was nothing to it, Carter said this week.

“I’m not surprised,” Alberts said of the rumors. “It’s hard. People can say stuff on social media, and it sounds really legit.”

Ewald, the Nebraska CFO, responded two nights earlier to a rumor with little traction that Aranda was in line at Nebraska.

“Completely wrong!” Ewald tweeted.

Then Nebraska’s third consecutive loss — on Nov. 5 against Minnesota — unofficially sunk Joseph’s candidacy.

On Nov. 18, the Friday before Wisconsin played in Lincoln, Joseph, 54, presented to Alberts his plan to fix the Huskers. It had evolved over Joseph’s 11 weeks in charge.

But Nebraska was deep into its pursuit of more experienced coaches.

Joseph’s contract stipulated a return to his previous position as an assistant coach at the conclusion of Alberts’ search, allowing for the new head coach to decide Joseph’s status. His future at the school is in question after his arrest Wednesday on suspicion of felony strangulation and third-degree domestic assault after a disturbance at his home. He was booked into jail and placed on administrative leave by Nebraska.

Negotiations with Rhule and the Panthers had grown “long and arduous,” Alberts said. Talks broke down and restarted. Complications arose as Nebraska engaged with Armstrong, Rhule’s agent, and with the Panthers organization. All salary Nebraska paid to Rhule through 2026 would offset what Carolina still owed, so the terms of the deal had to satisfy all three parties.

Rhule was impressed by his talks with Alberts and Carter, but he still had a few reasons to be reluctant. He’d never coached in the Midwest. He didn’t know anyone in Lincoln. Was he really the right fit for the job? Could he get talented players to Nebraska? Was the school willing to make a long-term commitment to him?

Most of all, he wondered whether a deal that was acceptable for all sides was too complicated. But by mid-November, he was starting to hope it would work out.

As the back-and-forth talks continued, Rhule stayed busy. He lined up appearances on NFL Network and ESPN to see how he might fare if he went the TV route. The family planned a trip to their vacation home in Cape May, N.J.

But he kept doing his homework on Nebraska. He studied games and recruiting film, called coaching peers and even searched for videos with his 18-year-old son, Bryant, to learn all they could about the Huskers.

“I’m telling you, if you check my son’s YouTube history, we’ve watched everything,” Rhule said. “I could see my son getting excited.”

Talks with Leipold intensified when the Rhule deal appeared to be off. Leipold had a unique relationship to the job. He’d worked as a recruiting staffer for the Frank Solich-coached Huskers from 2001 to 2003. He invested a decade of his career in building the Nebraska-Omaha football program, which Alberts shuttered as AD at the school in 2011.

If Leipold received an offer, it would be a difficult decision. But by two days before Thanksgiving, he no longer heard from Nebraska.

Kansas AD Travis Goff had offered Leipold a contract extension in early October as “College GameDay” readied to appear in Lawrence before the Jayhawks hosted TCU. When the lines of communication remained open, Leipold was willing to wait on the Huskers.

No longer. Kansas upped the offer, doubling his salary to $5 million. Leipold agreed to stay.

A bold investment. A bold vision.

Building together for sustained success.

We’re just getting started with @CoachLeipold, who agreed to terms with @KUAthletics pic.twitter.com/iCXId6DXDh

— Kansas Football (@KU_Football) November 23, 2022

Despite the snagged negotiations, again, all roads led Alberts back to Rhule.

The moment that he believed the deal was dead revealed Rhule’s true feelings about the opportunity.

“These job things happen so fast,” he said. “You talk to them, they offer you the job, you move on. I had a moment where I didn’t think it was gonna work out. And I sat there and I was really disappointed. So when they called back and said, ‘Hey, what if let’s try something else,’ I knew then that this was where I was supposed to be.”

(Justin Casterline / Getty Images)

If Oct. 29 played out as the day in the Nebraska coaching search when the table was set, dinner was served on Nov. 22.

Alberts presented a new offer to Rhule’s agent. But this time, Rhule wasn’t the only heavy hitter in the ballpark.

Hello, Luke Fickell.

In his sixth season at Cincinnati, Fickell was ready to talk about an exit. One year after leading the Bearcats to the College Football Playoff and seven months before their planned jump to the Big 12, his interest illustrated the power shift in college football that continues to favor the SEC and the Big Ten.

“There’s no doubt about it, let’s be honest,” Alberts said, “there’s a Power 2 right now.”

With an ace up his sleeve and the clock ticking, Alberts returned to negotiations with Armstrong over Rhule.

“He and I kept going through it,” Alberts said. “I’d give here, he’d give there. And gosh, how long were we doing this? Every day.”

Did Alberts present a deadline for Rhule to accept or lose the offer?

“I hadn’t done that yet,” he said, “but I was close.”

The call from Armstrong to Alberts came on Thanksgiving, around 11 a.m. Alberts was home in Lincoln. He delayed his travel to Iowa City for the season finale until Friday to spend time with his family on the holiday. And possibly, to strike a deal on Rhule.

After more haggling with Armstrong, Alberts said, Rhule’s agent “got to where I was comfortable.”

“We’re good,” Alberts said.

“What did you say?” responded Armstrong.

“I think we got a deal.”

The contract will pay Rhule $74 million over eight years.

“I just believed in my heart that we had the right person,” Alberts said. “There are great coaches out there. And of those coaches that I talked to, all of them could have done a great job. But sometimes, you’re looking for the right fit.

“Who is the best person given our current realities?”

Alberts said he believes that Nebraska sits in a vulnerable state as a football program and an athletic department.

Rhule’s salary jumps from $5.5 million over the next 13 months to $12.5 million in 2030. It includes a $7 million pool for 10 assistant coaches and a buyout for Rhule, if fired without cause, that would pay him 90 percent of his remaining salary. The structure suggests that the Panthers owe 30 percent ($12 million) of what’s left on his NFL contract.

Until the final hours, Rhule remained unsure it would work. As the three parties finalized contract details, rumors flew ahead of the Huskers’ 3 p.m. kickoff Friday in Iowa City that Rhule had turned it down.

Even after Alberts and Armstrong privately agreed, the names of Fickell, Klieman, Iowa State’s Matt Campbell, NC State’s Dave Doeren and former BYU and Virginia coach Bronco Mendenhall generated speculation among industry insiders.

Nebraska made its announcement on Saturday morning.

The future is bright in Lincoln.

Introducing Matt Rhule: Head Coach, Nebraska Football#GBR pic.twitter.com/yvGE9mWYnh

— Nebraska Football (@HuskerFBNation) November 26, 2022

“This was hard. It was really hard. It was a hard process,” Alberts said. “But I think Matt was determined to find a way and I was determined to find a way.”

A day later, Wisconsin hired Fickell, announced at seven years for more than $50 million.

𝐀 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐄𝐑𝐀 𝚰𝐍 𝐌𝐀𝐃𝚰𝐒𝐎𝐍

Welcome @CoachFick ! pic.twitter.com/ybE9U3b3nu

— Wisconsin Football (@BadgerFootball) November 27, 2022

When the call came that Alberts and Armstrong struck a deal, Julie Rhule teared up.

“My wife, all along, just kept saying this is the right fit,” Rhule said. “She said, ‘Matt, I know you. This is the kind of program that you’re supposed to be coaching.’”

(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic; Mike Ehrmann / Getty; Elsa / AP; Rebecca S. Gratz / Getty Images)