Matt Rhule is asking Nebraska to treat leadership like a job, not a popularity contest.
With the Huskers’ single-digit announcements coming soon and full-season captains still undecided, Rhule made clear he wants the team’s choices to be grounded in substance. The standard, in his view, is simple: find the players who can handle the responsibility when things are uncomfortable, not just when everything is rolling.
"I never had (season-long) captains until last year. That group of kids came to me and said they wanted a captain," Rhule said. "We always had kind of game captains, and then at the end of year picked our season-long captains."
His hesitation came from what leadership actually looks like once the easy moments are gone.
"It's easy to be a great leader when things are convenient," he said. "It's hard to stand up here and answer the tough questions when things aren't going well. Whether that's the players coming in here to talk or talk in front of the team."
Rhule said the season itself is where those traits get tested, and he made it clear he isn’t limiting that responsibility to upperclassmen.
"I don't care who that is," he said. "I don't care if that's a freshman."
He pointed to a player he coached at Temple, Sean Chandler, who earned a single digit as a freshman and later made it to the NFL, as an example of what that kind of trust can look like.
"It'll be interesting whether we vote for captains now or not, or wait until the end of the season," Rhule said. "We'll certainly do the single digits.
It's one of those things I let the players decide. They have to decide their leadership and they can either make it a popularity contest or who's really about it.
So I hope they make good decisions."
Nebraska’s players have already voted on the unity and leadership councils the team used during the offseason, giving more guys a chance to step into those roles. But Rhule said the real test starts now, when fall camp turns into the kind of daily work that reveals who’s willing to carry the message.
"We're hoping we're entering a phase with this team and this program where it's not whose feelings are going to get in the way, but it's really just what's the right thing for the team."
He said most players want to lead through how they perform, and he’s seen signs that the accountability piece is already taking hold.
"But I see all kinds of positive signs of guys holding each other accountable."
Rhule described the group as fiery, with a little edge, and said Nebraska needs to keep feeding that trait instead of letting it fade.
"And we just have to continue to build that edge because that's what we need. We don't need to be told how great we are. We need to be on edge constantly and I think we have some guys who will do that, and other guys who will listen to that."
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