{"id":152657,"date":"2025-06-23T16:52:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T16:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/152657\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T16:52:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T16:52:11","slug":"matt-rhule-stresses-the-importance-of-nebraska-winning-last-years-bowl-game-to-boost-2025-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/152657\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Rhule stresses the importance of Nebraska winning last year’s bowl game to boost 2025 team"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the advent of some landmark changes in college football, like the expanded College Football Playoff<\/a>, the transfer portal<\/a> and NIL<\/a>, bowl games as a whole have felt a little less special. There\u2019s a myriad of reasons, like players deciding to sit-out instead of compete, but Matt Rhule<\/a> and Nebraska<\/a> still yearn for the chance to play in one. <\/p>\n

Last season, the Cornhuskers made it to the Pinstripe Bowl, where they defeated Boston College<\/a> inside Yankee Stadium. While it\u2019s not the most glamorous bowl, it ended up being the perfect way to cap the 2024 season, and provide Rhule\u2019s team with some momentum for the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why bowls are important to the Nebraska head coach. He took some time to explain on the latest episode of Always College Football with Greg McElroy<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think, going back to Temple<\/a> and then going back to Baylor<\/a>, the one thing that I knew, I said it to our guys \u2014 I always felt like it was the first game of the next year. Now, with transfer portal and some of those things, it even more so is,\u201d Rhule stated<\/a>. \u201cFootball is a game of competition. We spend a lot of time \u2014 we even have a committee determining who goes to the Playoff. It\u2019s the only sport that\u2019s really kind of like that, in terms of our national champions. So, we try to say, \u2018Well, this team is better than that team, that team is better than this team,\u2019 but it\u2019s a game of competition. It\u2019s a game of achievement. The two teams go out there \u2014 it\u2019s not the better team, it\u2019s the team that plays the best. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I think being a part of that bowl game, going out and competing \u2014 Yankee Stadium was amazing. New York City, for a lot of kids that have never been to New York City, was amazing. I think bowls are awesome. I mean, I watch every single one that I can. I love watching people compete and play the game that I love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Call him a traditionalist, but Rhule knows bowl victories can help accelerate the growth of a program. It worked for him at Temple, then again at Baylor. Now, he\u2019s on the right track with Nebraska, as he enters Year 3. <\/p>\n

Time will tell if Matt Rhule\u2019s team can take the next step in 2025. If they do, it\u2019ll be tough to say their bowl victory in the Bronx didn\u2019t have an effect. Perhaps more teams need to take notice of what the season-capping win could mean, even if they feel they\u2019re above the bowl they get selected for. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the advent of some landmark changes in college football, like the expanded College Football Playoff, the transfer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,34233,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-152657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-matt-rhule-94-state-college-area","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114733720860245049","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}