Five of the first six games Nebraska plays in 2024 will come in Lincoln. Husker faithful will get a good look at their team throughout August and September before playing four games on the road in the second half of the season.
While most head coaches might want a balance, Matt Rhule is excited to be in front of the home crowd more often than not early. He mentioned Nebraska not starting a year 1-0 since 2019, having four consecutive opening-game losses. None have been at Memorial Stadium either.
UTEP will be this year’s first game and Rhule is hopeful getting a win will begin a wave of positive momentum toward the program.
“My hope now is that playing at home, playing in front of our fans, not having to deal with the crowd noise and the hostility — maybe that will help us,” Rhule said. “Maybe it will help one of the young, freshman quarterbacks. Not dealing with crowd noise.”
Rhule made his Nebraska debut at Minnesota last season on national television. Thursday night with the Golden Gopher fan base bringing a lot of energy and leading to a three-point loss. The following week was a huge rivalry game against Colorado in Boulder with the hype of Deion Sanders backing the Buffaloes.
Starting 0-2 before playing a game at home meant there was a steep hill to climb. Nebraska got out of it for a bit, winning five of their next six. All but one of those games were played in Lincoln.
“Last year, we went on the road to Minnesota,” Rhule said. “It was a sellout. They did Gold Out. Next week we go to Colorado, Big Noon Fox. It’s a sellout. Then we finally come home, regroup, and we finally go on a little bit of a run.”
There is a flip side to playing early games, though. Two road games fall in October with another two in November. None of them are easy, on paper, heading into the season. A mixture of Indiana, Iowa, Ohio State, and USC is as difficult of a road schedule as you will see in the new-look Big Ten.
Rhule is banking on good results in their own stadium to build confidence before facing those opponents.
“It’s coming,” Rhule said. “You’re going to Ohio State, you’re going to USC. You go to Iowa. We’re going to have to learn to deal with it as the season goes on.”
The post Matt Rhule opens up on importance of building momentum with early home games appeared first on On3.