"I always want us to win a bowl game" — Matt Rhule has massive expectations for Nebraska Cornhuskers entering 2024 season

After his debut season with the Nebraska Cornhuskers in 2023, head coach Matt Rhule is now gearing up for his second stint with the program. Before taking up this job, Rhule spent three seasons as the head coach of the Carolina Panthers in the NFL.

During the 2023 season, Rhule helped the Nebraska Cornhuskers secure a 5-7 overall campaign. Unfortunately, they failed to qualify for the bowl games, which resulted in an early end to their season. However, while speaking on "The Joel Klatt Show" earlier this week, Rhule opened up about his ambitions and goals with the program in 2024.

Rhule talked about how he expects his team to showcase developments going from each year under his guidance. He then stated that he wishes for his team to compete in a bowl game and also possibly contend for the national title while competing for a playoff berth.

"I just expect us to make a massive jump from Year 1 to Year 2. And I expect our best jump to be from Year 2 to Year 3. I think you go from playing losing football to winning football, winning football to championship football," Rhule said.

"I expect us to have a really good team this year. I expect us to make some runs. I expect us to be a team that people don't want to play. Now, as we look at college football now, I always want us to win a bowl game, I want us to be in the conference title race, and I want us to fight to go play in the College Football Playoff and then win it.

"I certainly expect us to be a bowl-eligible team.... Let's fix the turnover issue, let's get really good on offense to match our defense, and then we'll go play. We'll see what happens," he added.

Coach Rhule has a lot to prove with the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Before his NFL run with the Carolina Panthers, Rhule spent a considerable amount of time as the head coach of the Temple Owls (2013-16) and the Baylor Bears (2017-19). He went on to win the AAC conference title with Temple back in 2016 as well.

---

Matt Rhule heaps praise on Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders

Last season, Matt Rhule and his team lost to Deion Sanders' Colorado. And during a July 1 interview with Joel Klatt, Rhule heaped praise on Shedeur Sanders' performance in that showdown. He also praised the quarterback's resilience on the field and stated that the Buffs are a "good" football team with a lot of competitive spirit.

"He is one of the best football players I've ever coached against. And, you know, we blitzed him. I think we sacked him like 10 times, we hit him a ton, and he stood there. I know everyone sees Shedeur on commercials. They see him, you know, they see the swagger he plays with."

"But he's an unbelievable player and he's tough. And so to me, you take you know Shedeur, Travis Hunter. You take all the players they have, take obviously Coach Sanders, you know, they're going to come into our place. They're a really good football team with dynamic players that you have to compete with."

Rhule and the Nebraska Cornhuskers will have a rematch of last season's showdown against Colorado in September. It will be interesting to see if the outcome of the rematch will be the same, or if Rhule will be able to avenge last season's defeat.