Bill Belichick has been making the rounds of college football, being seen wearing Washington Huskies gear while visiting his son and appearing as a guest speaker at a recent clinic for head coach Matt Rhule and the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
Following that event, Rhule praised Belichick. In particular, he explained how the legendary coach’s knowledge of the game can both humble and embarrass you in conversation.
“He is so smart, has seen so much, that he can make the complex so simple that it humbles you and embarrasses you,” Matt Rhule said. “I was embarrassed yesterday listening to him, how smart he is, how simple it was.”
Bill Belichick has had a long line of success, including six Super Bowl wins as the head coach of the New England Patriots and 333 wins, including the playoffs. How he found that success is no surprise to Rhule listening to him speak, even when Rhule is no slouch himself as a former NFL head coach who has found success building up multiple college programs.
“He went four and a half hours with just the coaches. Forget the clinic. He came in and met with our coaching staff, and three and a half hours in I was like, ‘Coach, would you like a water? Cup of coffee?’ It’s like, ‘Do you need to use the restroom?’ Because I desperately needed to use the restroom. And he’s like, ‘I’m fine, Matt,’ and I’m like, ‘Yes, sir,'” Rhule said.
“Just sitting there and just talking, right? Just his recall from things 15 years ago. The only reason we don’t get through more information is he’s having to slow down to make sure you understand what he’s saying. So, you have this man who is a savant. He’s been a defensive coordinator, he’s been a special teams coordinator, he could be an offensive coordinator, he’s been the head coach twice, he’s been a GM. And he’s talking about football in a way that illuminates things and makes things so simple that you’re like, ‘Oh my goodness.’ So, it was an unbelievable experience to spend that amount of time with him.”
Matt Rhule and Bill Belichick have a good relationship and when Rhule coached the Carolina Panthers and Belichick coached the New England Patriots, the two teams would have joint practices. It’s that good relationship that led to Belichick appearing at the clinic.
“And I had the chance to coach against him at practice. So, that affected a lot of what I did when I was at Carolina and he was in New England. But having that time yesterday, and maybe if he was coaching right now he wouldn’t have been so open with us, you know? Maybe he’s like I don’t want to get this out there, but he did it,” Rhule said.
“And he’s a great friend and really loyal man. I got fired, he and Andy Reid were two of the first people that called me. I was thinking about taking this job, he called me and was like, ‘I really think Nebraska is a great place.’ I got the job, he sent me a bottle of Dom Perignon and said, ‘Hey, congratulations.’ I asked him to come speak at the clinic. He says yes. His son takes a defensive coordinator job for Washington in our conference and Jedd Fisch who has worked for him – great friends, he still comes. So, just an unbelievably loyal guy.”
Ultimately, Matt Rhule was looking to make sure his coaches learned from Bill Belichick. That experience and knowledge that he has can’t be undersold. So, he wants to make sure the goal is to listen.
“But the amount of football we learned just as a staff, for anybody that was listening. Sometimes you can get around somebody like that and you try to impress them, like tell them what you do. Any time one of our guys on our staff started, I looked at them like, ‘He doesn’t care.’ He doesn’t care what you do, what we do. He’s teaching us. Let’s just be really honest and open and listen,” Rhule said.
“It’s the same approach I try to take with Coach [Frank] Solich, Coach [Tom] Osborne, Coach [George] Darlington. Just listen. Learn. Take what you can. Build off of it.”
Matt Rhule is going into his second season at Nebraska. In his first year, the Cornhuskers went 5-7. Now, they’re looking to make their first bowl game since the 2016 season.
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