Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen says Matt Rhule will get more time to finish the rebuild in Lincoln, even as the Cornhuskers’ slow climb has tested patience across the fan base. Rhule has coached Nebraska for three seasons and is 19-19 without a playoff appearance or a landmark win over a high-profile opponent.
Dannen told’s Heather Dinich that the program is still moving up the ladder, but not as fast as anyone wanted. He said Nebraska has hurt itself before by reacting too quickly when results did not arrive soon enough, and argued that Rhule deserves the chance to keep building because that is what he was hired to do.
The numbers explain why the conversation has become sharper. Nebraska had gone 10 years without a bowl game before Rhule arrived, and Dannen said the coach walked into one of the lower-end Power 4 jobs in the country. In his view, Rhule has already moved the program from A to B, but the harder step is still ahead: getting from B to C and into real contention.
That slower pace has not been easy for fans to accept. The article says Nebraska supporters began turning on Rhule last season, a reaction that has followed a tenure that has looked more like a construction project than a quick fix. It also says Rhule may get the chance for a seven-year project, a sign the school is willing to measure him over a longer arc than a single hot or cold season.
Dannen’s comments also sharpen the contrast between expectation and reality. Rhule arrived in Lincoln with a reputation as a program builder, but his Nebraska run has been defined less by breakthrough moments than by gradual progress and a record that sits exactly at.500 after three seasons. The question now is not whether the rebuild has been harder than hoped. It is whether Nebraska can keep its patience long enough to see whether Rhule can finish what he started.
