"They're the new walk-on": Matt Rhule breaks down his recruiting process in Nebraska

Head coach Matt Rhule was hired before the 2023 season and helped the Cornhuskers grow his two seasons with them. He led them to a 5-7 record in his first season and a 7-6 record in his second.

On Wednesday, Rhule appeared on "The Triple Option" to discuss his role at Nebraska and his plans for the future. He explained his recruiting process and plans to return the Cornhuskers to their former glory.

"I would still like to bring in 15 high school guys a year," he said. (24:45) "I would still like to be 65-70% high school. It's just got to be the right guys. With the new 105 limit and the ability to scholarship more guys, while we're trying to find the five-star starter walk-in, I'm also looking for the Temple guys. You know the guys that came in for me there that were big, fast, and could run, that just needed time to develop.

They're the new walk-on. They're the guys who show up and if they're willing to stay for three years they might develop into a really good player. So, we're thinking about recruiting like high-end recruiting and not necessarily walk-on, but trait players we think we can develop and then go get the guys we need out of the portal."

Matt Rhule talks about why he has had success in year three as a college head coach

Nebraska is the third college team he has been the head coach of at the college level. He coached Temple from 2013 to 2016 and Baylor from 2017 to 2019. With Temple and Baylor, his teams took a huge jump forward in his third year of coaching.

With Temple, they went from 6-6 in year two to 10-4 in year three. With Baylor, he went from 7-6 in year two to 11-3 in year three. Rhule discussed this phenomenon in "The Triple Option" (25:50):

"Well I think it's always just been about the players. I've never really walked into a place where the roster was ready to win. We walked into Temple and we went from the Mac to the Big East/American. We walked into Baylor and there was this huge scandal. Came here and they hadn't really won."

It will be interesting to see if the Cornhuskers make a similar jump next season. Their last season with double-digit wins came in 2012.