The new approach to college football will make it more and more like pro football. Which, in theory, provides an advantage for college football coaches with pro football experience.
Nebraska coach Matt Rhule, who spent two-plus seasons as head coach of the Carolina Panthers, believes his time in the NFL will help him when it comes to shaping a college roster in an era of players getting paid.
Via Shayni Matra of SI.com, Rhule made his case in a recent visit to Greg McElroy’s podcast, Always College Football.
“I think the biggest thing you learn when you’re in the NFL is really evaluation,” Rhule said. “Before, in college football, it was like, ‘Yeah, he’s a good player, let’s offer him, let’s take him.’ You get to the NFL, they’re all good players. It’s just, ‘Hey, what’s the financial value we put on this person and put on this position?’ Every year in the NFL, you go through free agency, and you see teams walking away from it with really good players because of their contract situations.”
One key difference comes from the inability, under the current college system, to manipulate the available spending by carrying dollars over from one year to the next.
“The smart teams in the NFL carry money over and position themselves through the years,” Rhule said. “But that discipline, I think, is something that’s really, really unique. It’s hard because you get to know the players. You want to take care of everybody.”
One goal of the House settlement is to balance out the dollars. Rhule hopes that will lead to parity.
We’ll believe it when we see it. With the money now flowing freely, the programs that have the most will always find a way to get it to the players, directly or indirectly.
Then there’s the thing that you were probably thinking earlier and that probably goes without saying. But I’ll say it anyway. Given that Rhule was 11-27 in 38 NFL games, does it make sense to put much stock in his NFL experience making a positive difference at Nebraska?
