ChirpBlog

LINCOLN, Neb. — Nebraska coach Matt Rhule got on the phone last week with Joey McGuire, the Texas Tech coach who has remained among Rhule’s closest confidantes in the business since he hired McGuire nearly seven years ago at Baylor.

Both of their teams sat at 2-3 and were entering critical games before midseason bye weeks. As they talked, Rhule said, he and McGuire began to repeat lessons and wise words they’d spoken to each other in years past during shared experiences.

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Rhule values the opportunities to talk in-depth with other head coaches, he said, but the moments don’t come often. So, he relies on the teachings he learned early in life from his mother, Gloria.

She told him he could learn from wisdom or he could learn from experience.

“If you learn from wisdom, that means you listen to the experience of others,” Rhule said. “If you don’t listen to others, then you have to make your own mistakes and learn from your experience. It’s way quicker to learn from the wisdom of others.”

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Her advice guides Rhule. It’s why, after the past two Nebraska games — a disheartening home loss against No. 2 Michigan and a win last Friday at Illinois — Rhule dug into his bag of coaching influences to cite Bill Walsh and Pat Riley in his postgame remarks.

Rhule, 3-3 in his first season at Nebraska after he earned his 50th college coaching win last week, said he considers it “vital” to keep a deep library of material produced by coaches and former coaches whom he admires.

He reads a lot. Rhule views Pete Carroll’s “Win Forever, Live, Work and Play Like a Champion” as his coaching bible.

“The way we practice, it all comes from Pete Carroll,” Rhule said.

He first read Carroll’s book as a first-year head coach at Temple in 2013 while his wife, Julie, spent time in the hospital for the birth of their eldest daughter, Vivienne.

The 48-year-old coach regularly digests “The Daily Coach,” a newsletter written by former NFL executive Mike Lombardi and basketball figure George Raveling. Rhule read all the work of John Wooden and Vince Lombardi. He has also read Chuck Knox’s “Hard Knox: The Life of an NFL Coach.”

Rhule listens to Hubie Brown’s interviews. Walsh’s “The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership” is Rhule’s favorite.

“I think it’s the ultimate guide to building an organization,” he said.

In building at Temple and Baylor, he read Barry Alvarez’s autobiography, “Don’t Flinch,” not knowing, of course, “that someday I’d have this connection to coach Alvarez, being here.”

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Last summer, in the weeks before his first training camp opened at Nebraska, Rhule reread Riley’s “The Winner Within: A Life Plan for Team Players.”

Rhule took great interest in the first chapter, “The Innocent Climb.” He referenced it in the moments after Nebraska beat Illinois 20-7 despite committing three fourth-quarter turnovers.

He sees Nebraska in the early stage of such a climb.

Rhule talked of Emmett Johnson — and how the freshman running back looked at Rhule, upset with himself, after losing a fourth-quarter fumble in the red zone. Rhule encouraged him to keep playing hard.

“This is like this innocent climb when these kids are just out there giving their all for this,” Rhule said after the victory. “Yes, sometimes we line up wrong. Sometimes we have 12 guys (on the field). Sometimes it’s not perfect. It can be a little bit frustrating, but it’s a beautiful phase, watching young men do something, learn how to win and fight for each other.”

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Riley won the first four of his five NBA championships as a head coach with the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s. He was on the bench as an L.A. assistant coach in 1980 for the Showtime Lakers’ first title. That team served as a driving force behind Riley’s observations on the “innocent climb.”

Innocence, according to Riley in the book, is the foundational skill to find the winner within. Innocent players put aside differences for the betterment of the team. Riley writes that “the climb begins when a team comes together unselfishly, its members often not having had the past experience of great success.”

As a rookie in 1980, Magic Johnson infused his attitude of innocence into older teammates who were previously focused on personal accomplishments.

During the innocent climb, a team experiences “growth that unexpectedly changes the whole face of an organization,” Riley writes.

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It happens fast when the elements align, according to Riley. He writes that such a convergence makes for a “beautiful process.”

The teachings shine through in Rhule’s words.

Rhule does not know these coaches from whom he’s taken guidance. He’s lucky to have played for Joe Paterno at Penn State, Rhule said, and that legendary former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne “will come talk to me.” Osborne spent time at practice Tuesday during this bye week with Rhule.

As important as the communication with contemporaries like McGuire and the lessons received through reading, Rhule said, is the need to refresh his mind on the subject matter.

Annually before the football season, Evan Cooper, Rhule’s secondary coach at Nebraska, reminds him to “find the winners and get them on the field.”

“You start the year off,” Rhule said, “and you get seduced by someone’s talent. And then by game three, four, you’re like, ‘You know what, these are the winners.’”

The winners exist, ready to emerge from the fabric of any team set to embark on a climb. It sounds like the basis for a good book.

(Top photo: Dylan Widger / USA Today)

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