Husker Games

[huskerfan1414]

They could have not said a word about who was going to play and just given the top players a couple of series. Thy would have had 60K there for vanilla handoffs then 3 quarters of walk ons and 4th teamers.

I think rhule realized this too late. I dont thnk he understood that people in nebraska just love football. Plus a reason to get out in the spring after a nebraska winter and get the kids to watch. And then theres people who actually enjoy seeing the young guys and 3rd teamers.
Rhule is another coach who doesnt want to actually play football. Hes worried about losing starters to injury. Its as simple as not playing them or keeping them limited. Yesterday was a waste of a spring practice opportunity for most of our guys and an evaluation opportunity for our coaches. I give rhule credit for at least letting the 3rd and 4th teamers scrimmage.

 

[RedCap]

Rhule has done a lot of good things for Husker football and I applaud him for all of that. However IMO the cancellation of the Spring Game was a rare HUGE mistake on his part. I don't think he realized how big a deal it is to Husker fans and I predict it likely will back next Spring. He could have managed his portal exposure concerns and still satisfied the fans.

 

[V-Doub]

Whatever the trajectory of the club is for 2025, it was not altered by the fact that top line players did not scrimmage today.

That’s not the argument the other side is making FWIW…

 

[RBigredMax]

Did they add that for this year? I can't find anything on it for 2025. Here's the most recent full year schedule from NCAA. One in December 2024, one in April 2025...

http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/eligibility_center/Transfer/DIUG_Windows.pdf

For some reason I thought there was a chance before the season started - my bad.

 

[V-Doub]

If it was truly about the portal, that could have been easily avoided with some planning.

That was an excuse.

I tend to agree, logic really doesn’t add up. Seems you could’ve easily limited exposure and/or watered down the spring game without replacing it with… whatever that was.

But if the portal and tampering were just an excuse, what is the real reason? I’m not ruling out that the portal and tampering were the actual reason this was done, but it was an extremely misguided measure that didn’t hold up to a little reasonable scrutiny. And… much like many large institutions, they weren’t going to fully change course once it became apparent this was a terrible decision. In some ways it was too far down the line by the time more reasonable heads prevailed, but also admitting you made such a colossal miscalculation is just creating more bad press. At some point you gotta quit digging and just get past this debacle.

Like others have said, probably won’t have any effect on the team we have in the fall. But the whole thing was an unnecessary unfortunate unforced error…

 

[huskerfan66]

Yeah seems crazy to cancel free money after making a big stink about Tennessee game and forking over a million $. Seems like money's no object here until they stick us next year or the year after come season ticket time

 

[scarletred]

Yeah seems crazy to cancel free money after making a big stink about Tennessee game and forking over a million $. Seems like money's no object here until they stick us next year or the year after come season ticket time

I wonder how much they made on the equipment sale. Seen guys carrying out big boxes of stuff to the parking garage.

 

[Landomatic]

This is probably true.

They totally messed with such a simple and effective formula when all they had to do was wait until the portal closed and had the spring game then.

They did. The portal closed Friday. The game would have been Saturday. I kind of can't believe this wasn't called out already. Or is everyone such blind sheep that they're all just taking Rhule at his word that the portal and poaching was the reason when it clearly wasn't?

 

[king_kong_]

Seems like a great turnout!

 

[huskerfan66]

Vb game drew more from estimate I've heard. They're both a KNOWN #. They announced vb attendance on tv last night. Doubt athletic department will release fb # unless asked and they count cheerleaders staff etc 🙄

 

[V-Doub]

Vb game drew more from estimate I've heard. They're both a KNOWN #. They announced vb attendance on tv last night. Doubt athletic department will release fb # unless asked and they count cheerleaders staff etc 🙄

We took a best selling product and decided to drastically changed it for no clear logical reason. We’ve seen private companies try this for years, always ends the same way…

 

[inWV]

They did. The portal closed Friday. The game would have been Saturday. I kind of can't believe this wasn't called out already. Or is everyone such blind sheep that they're all just taking Rhule at his word that the portal and poaching was the reason when it clearly wasn't?

I’m not looking for a reason to be upset about something I have no control over, and don’t have any reason to think his reasoning was anything other than what he stated publicly. I think tampering and poaching were rampant in winter, but the spring is more about kids getting to a place where they can compete to play. So Rhule’s fear was possibly misplaced. But his job isn’t to make spring game obsessives happy. They got their work in and have a better idea of what the team will look like in the fall. That’s what I care about.

 

[king_kong_]

We took a best selling product and decided to drastically changed it for no clear logical reason. We’ve seen private companies try this for years, always ends the same way…

Are you saying Matt Rhule is our Dylan Mulvaney?

 

[V-Doub]

Are you saying Matt Rhule is our Dylan Mulvaney?

That’s harsh. I would’ve gone with “New Coke” or “Crystal Pepsi”, but yeah…

 

[huskerfan66]

We took a best selling product and decided to drastically changed it for no clear logical reason. We’ve seen private companies try this for years, always ends the same way…

Know your audience/customer

 

[TruHusker]

They could have not said a word about who was going to play and just given the top players a couple of series. They would have had 60K there for vanilla handoffs then 3 quarters of walk ons and 4th teamers.

And everyone would be begging for more playing time for those walk ons for the rest of the year. After all, they made a play in “the” spring game.

 

[BTF69]

They did. The portal closed Friday. The game would have been Saturday. I kind of can't believe this wasn't called out already. Or is everyone such blind sheep that they're all just taking Rhule at his word that the portal and poaching was the reason when it clearly wasn't?

Good lord, this makes it even worse!

 

[BTF69]

Even the biggest Matt fans have to be shaking their heads about this.

I saw the local establishments were advertising that they would be "open early for whatever this is" because no one had a clue.

It is so weird to mess up something that did not need to be messed up..

Good lord...10 years ago NU was the "innovator" by having the spring game on TV...now they are roping cows and eating chicken wings.

 

[dinglefritz]

And everyone would be begging for more playing time for those walk ons for the rest of the year. After all, they made a play in “the” spring game.

They’ll be gone by this summer. You realize that they still scrimmage right?

 

[dinglefritz]

Does that prevent crooked schools from secretly continuing to recruit transfers for the next portal opening? I think not.

Any team that offers to pay our players based on a spring scrimmage performance is really reaching. The more I think about us not having a traditional spring scrimmage, the crazier and more paranoid it seems. Limit your two deep if you want but damn, why give the fans the nails for your coffin. How much of this was Dannen and how much was Rhule?

 

[inWV]

Any team that offers to pay our players based on a spring scrimmage performance is really reaching. The more I think about us not having a traditional spring scrimmage, the crazier and more paranoid it seems. Limit your two deep if you want but damn, why give the fans the nails for your coffin. How much of this was Dannen and how much was Rhule?

Nails for his coffin? My own personal opinion is that Rhule’s fears about the kids scampering late was overblown, but I don’t think yesterday’s event was some sort of mortal sin.

 

[dinglefritz]

Nails for his coffin? My own personal opinion is that Rhule’s fears about the kids scampering late was overblown, but I don’t think yesterday’s event was some sort of mortal sin.

Things like that add up. Callahan was an expert at providing ammunition for his detractors.

 

[bigboxes]

Things like that add up. Callahan was an expert at providing ammunition for his detractors.

Just stop. You are not Kong. Rhule has been doing everything right that you'd want a coach to do. Now, he needs to win. Judge him on that. Don't let hate or personal bias distract you from that.

 

[Walleye79]

Things like that add up. Callahan was an expert at providing ammunition for his detractors.

Oh Jesus. I bet your bil’s would laugh at this

 

[RedCap]

Any team that offers to pay our players based on a spring scrimmage performance is really reaching. The more I think about us not having a traditional spring scrimmage, the crazier and more paranoid it seems. Limit your two deep if you want but damn, why give the fans the nails for your coffin. How much of this was Dannen and how much was Rhule?

It was all Rhule. Dannen had no incentive whatsoever to ruin the Spring Game experience. He just went along with whatever Rhule wanted to do,

 

[RedCap]

View embedded media

Has Rhule made any public comment yet about that pathetic fan attendance (compared to previous years).

 

[bigboxes]

Has Rhule made any public comment yet about that pathetic fan attendance (compared to previous years).

I'll admit, I was about to take offense with the "pathetic" attendance comment while quoting me. I support Coach Rhule 100% here. Even if he might have been overreacting to the portal threat, I believe he wants what is best for the program. Do you not think so?

 

[dinglefritz]

Just stop. You are not Kong. Rhule has been doing everything right that you'd want a coach to do. Now, he needs to win. Judge him on that. Don't let hate or personal bias distract you from that.

I’ve been very supportive of Rhule. I just think this was a poorly thought out decision. I would bet they reconsider this decision next spring.

 

[RedCap]

I'll admit, I was about to take offense with the "pathetic" attendance comment while quoting me. I support Coach Rhule 100% here. Even if he might have been overreacting to the portal threat, I believe he wants what is best for the program. Do you not think so?

As I said earlier in this thread, Rhule has done a lot of good things for Husker football and I support his efforts. But yes, once in a while everyone makes a mistake and cancelling the Spring Game (an event much cherished by fans) was his. I'll bet he learned a lesson and the game will be back next year.

 

[V-Doub]

I'll admit, I was about to take offense with the "pathetic" attendance comment while quoting me. I support Coach Rhule 100% here. Even if he might have been overreacting to the portal threat, I believe he wants what is best for the program. Do you not think so?

This whole spring game debacle was a mistake, but that doesn’t mean it will have any lasting tangible effect on the program. Time to move on and hope they learned from this and find a way to have some sort of traditional spring game next year.

 

[bigboxes]

I’ve been very supportive of Rhule. I just think this was a poorly thought out decision. I would bet they reconsider this decision next spring.

Maybe. I just think this is a not that big of a deal. All the schools are dealing with this. I expect that we're going to need something legal to make this safe to be open once again. There's got to be some rules to this whole thing. Aren't we all in agreement on this?

 

[bigboxes]

I’ve been very supportive of Rhule. I just think this was a poorly thought out decision. I would bet they reconsider this decision next spring.

I hope they do. We also need some bylaws or contracts with these student/athletes at the least. I'm not against the athletes getting what they can get. I'm against the chaos of constantly moving around. It's not good for the game and not good for the student-athlete.

 

[Landomatic]

Rhule has been doing everything right that you'd want a coach to do. Now, he needs to win. Judge him on that. Don't let hate or personal bias distract you from that.

No, he has not been doing everything right and there's plenty to judge him on there. But, that's for different threads.

I support Coach Rhule 100% here. Even if he might have been overreacting to the portal threat, I believe he wants what is best for the program. Do you not think so?

Overreacting to the portal threat? How is there a threat at all when the portal closed Friday and the game would have been played Saturday? It wasn't him "overreacting." The threat simply didn't exist.

 

[BTF69]

When did attending a spring football game at Nebraska become a big deal. I don't remember it being a huge deal as a kid, but we left omaha when I was 12. I just don't remember every going to one in the 80s.


I think Callahan year 1 was the first time I remember the spring game being a big dea, outside of the state anyway.

About 20 years ago or so. It just started to grow and grow. Then it became an "event" and then NU had the foresight to televise the spring game, to show off the loyal fan base.

Being in Lincoln for the spring game was not exactly like a regular home game but it was still a great atmosphere.

 

[huskerfan66]

This whole spring game debacle was a mistake, but that doesn’t mean it will have any lasting tangible effect on the program. Time to move on and hope they learned from this and find a way to have some sort of traditional spring game next year.

Win 10 games and have spring game next year. Nice weather and there'll be 60k+

 

[Walleye79]

About 20 years ago or so. It just started to grow and grow. Then it became an "event" and then NU had the foresight to televise the spring game, to show off the loyal fan base.

Being in Lincoln for the spring game was not exactly like a regular home game but it was still a great atmosphere.

Great. So the spring game became relevant in the time frame the actual team did not. I would prefer relevancy in the fall. Not some scripted half scrimmage in the spring.

 

[WHCSC]

Great. So the spring game became relevant in the time frame the actual team did not. I would prefer relevancy in the fall. Not some scripted half scrimmage in the spring.

I think it coincided with having a new coach every few years and the excitement that brought

 

[inWV]

I think a lot of coaches freaked out when the Wisconsin kid bagged out for Miami outside of the portal window. I'm sure coaches started looking at some of their rotational players as kids that might not just be there on some Monday during summer workouts. Rhule referred to it as unlimited free agency. My thought is that a player that can be poached after neglecting to portal in winter plus going through winter and spring work is perhaps a player that I don't want on my roster. There is a problem with that kid.
Also, some of the same folks bitching about not having a spring game would be bitching if a spring game was played and a player who is a lock to start (say RVP) blew his knee out. Why did we waste that player for a meaningless scrimmage? might echo the halls of this message board. So Rhule is somewhat damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.

 

[BTF69]

Great. So the spring game became relevant in the time frame the actual team did not. I would prefer relevancy in the fall. Not some scripted half scrimmage in the spring.

I would rather have both. So would about 65,000 other fans.

 

[BTF69]

I think a lot of coaches freaked out when the Wisconsin kid bagged out for Miami outside of the portal window. I'm sure coaches started looking at some of their rotational players as kids that might not just be there on some Monday during summer workouts. Rhule referred to it as unlimited free agency. My thought is that a player that can be poached after neglecting to portal in winter plus going through winter and spring work is perhaps a player that I don't want on my roster. There is a problem with that kid.
Also, some of the same folks bitching about not having a spring game would be bitching if a spring game was played and a player who is a lock to start (say RVP) blew his knee out. Why did we waste that player for a meaningless scrimmage? might echo the halls of this message board. So Rhule is somewhat damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.

It would give us something else to bitch about it! We do love that! Ha