Nebraska fired Scott Frost on Sept. 11, and the Carolina Panthers did the same to Matt Rhule on Oct. 10. The two sides figured out pretty early on that they'd make a good match, but with a target hire date of Nov. 27, that left seven weeks for the two sides to court each other. Plenty of coaching searches last seven days and feel long. In this world, seven weeks is an eternity.
Plenty of time for things to go right.
And plenty of time for things to go wrong.
As he details in his excellent story for The Athletic, Max Olson reported that talks at one point broke down between Nebraska and the Rhule camp, owing to the complicated nature of Rhule's contract and buyout with the Panthers.
But the two sides had so much time to get to know each other that Matt and Julie Rhule actually made a clandestine visit to Lincoln on Oct. 29, the day of the Illinois game.
The Rhules did not attend the game. The visit was more about getting a feel for the lay of the land, soaking up the vibes of a Nebraska game day, and getting some face time with the Huskers administration at AD Trev Alberts's home.
When the Rhules sneaked into Lincoln in late October, Angela Alberts, the AD’s wife, drove the 60 miles to collect them at the Omaha airport. They arrived amid the relative peace of a game day afternoon.
Matt Rhule looked at his wife and could see in her eyes on that warm weekend, he said, that she wanted their family to make this move.
It made sense, Matt Rhule said. And it made sense to Alberts.
“It’s just like recruiting,” Alberts said. “It was no different for them. If we get people here, they’re blown away.”
....
“We drove around,” Rhule said, “and we said this is a place that is committed to greatness.”
Rhule, 47, wore a hat and sunglasses to avoid notice. “I can’t believe no one found out,” he said.
Talks actually broke down after that, which meant that Rhule had gone to a place emotionally where he was bummed out when it appeared Nebraska would not happen. "‘Matt, I know you,'" Julie Rhule told her husband, at a later point in the piece. "'This is the kind of program that you’re supposed to be coaching.’”
As we know now, the story has a happy ending.
Nebraska announced Rhule's hiring at 9 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 27.
“This is Nebraska, this is a team that I grew up not just watching, this is a team that I grew up revering,” he said at his introductory press conference the following day. “I could see right away that the leadership is right, there’s tremendous alignment, it’s got the greatest fanbase in football and a storied history.”