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Matt Rhule claps back at people pointing out how hard Nebraska schedule is: 'We literally use the schedule to recruit'

Danby: Daniel Hager04/23/26DanielHagerOn3

Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule has heard everyone by now. He is tired of hearing about how hard his team’s schedule is for this upcoming season.

The Cornhuskers, coming off a 7-6 campaign, are certainly up against the grain in the Big Ten Conference this season. They will face three programs that made an appearance in the College Football Playoff last season (Indiana, Oregon, and Ohio State), along with conference cornerstones Iowa, Washington, and Illinois.

However, Rhule and his team are excited for the challenge. In fact, he revealed that he has used their gauntlet of a schedule to recruit players to come play for Nebraska this season. The Big Ten conference has shown that it is the best in college football, and he is using that to his advantage when recruiting truly competitive guys.

Matt Rhule claims they want ‘competitive tough dudes’ to face Big Ten gauntlet

“When I talk about the things that have affected us, I’m not saying they should affect us,” Rhule said. “Does that make sense? I’m saying, this is what has affected us. We’re so tired of hearing about our schedule next year. We literally use the schedule to recruit these players to come here. We’re like, hey, you should come to Nebraska this year, man.

“We’re going to play Ohio State. We’re gonna go play Oregon. We’re gonna go play Oregon. We’re gonna play the three teams that went to the CFP.’ Oh, by the way, we’re gonna play Illinois, who’s a top-25 team. Washington, who’s top-25. Iowa, who’s top 25. Man, you’re gonna play six top-25 teams at a minimum. You should come here because we want competitive tough dudes.”

When looking at this season’s schedule and last season’s schedule, the quality of opponents is way up in 2026. Last season, Nebraska faced just two ranked opponents in Big Ten play, but went just 4-5 against conference opponents. The Cornhuskers were 0-2 against ranked opponents in Big Ten play, and fell to No. 15 Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl. Their last victory over a ranked opponent came against No. 22 Oregon on Sept. 17, 2016.

Nebraska will certainly have an opportunity to finally garner a top 25 team this season, as Rhule alluded to. All six teams that he mentioned will likely open the season within the top-25, and if not, they will likely climb into the rankings at some point. With Rhule having just signed an extension with the program, fans and boosters all around the country are hoping to see some big-time wins from the Huskers this season.