IS USC GOING AFTER MIKE ECKELER?

Scoop123

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Jan 9, 2026
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I’ve been there in my career (not as a football coach of course) but when management keeps non-productive employees around it destroys the morale of those that are productive. Some bust their a$$ while others are leeches and the managers pets. If that is what is causing Eckler to leave well I support him. Heck I’d even help him pack up. Not everyone can stay in a workplace culture like that if that is what is going on.
Exactly.

I spent time with a lady who trains CEO’s around the globe. She said the number one reason you need to fire poor employees…? If you don’t, you will piss off your star employees. Your best employees see the weakness, see that it’s not being addressed and it drives them away.
 

Wasker73

Senior
Sep 2, 2025
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I don't think Eck likes Matt, and I don't think the Hat likes having a coach on his staff that the fans like. I think Matt the Hat is so insecure that he is happy to see coaches like Tony White and Mike Eckler go. This shallow human being is threatened by other coaches' popularity. Like I wrote before, ever since his Temple days I have thought he looks and acts like a poodle.
 

konaki

All-Conference
Oct 18, 2002
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There may be some problems below the surface that of course we as fans of Nebraska football don't see. It almost looks like there are differences between some coaches and until those problems are resolved it with become a cancer on the football program. I like Ekeler but it seems he may not be liked by some of the coaches, of course I may be way off on this but until proven it is a possibility. If Ekeler were loved by Matt Rhule and his staff there would be a huge fight to keep him in Lincoln and I'm not seeing that, somethings amiss.
 
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Scoop123

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There may be some problems below the surface that of course we as fans of Nebraska football don't see. It almost looks like there are differences between some coaches and until those problems are resolved it with become a cancer on the football program. I like Ekeler but it seems he may not be liked by some of the coaches, of course I may be way off on this but until proven it is a possibility. If Ekeler were loved by Matt Rhule and his staff there would be a huge fight to keep him in Lincoln and I'm not seeing that, somethings amiss.
Matt said he offered him to be a top 2 paid special teams coach in the United States. Isn’t that a “huge fight‘ to keep him? I don’t disagree that they didn’t get along well or that Eckler might not be well liked. Whatever the reason for his departure, it’s just frustrating that we lose good coaches and keep mediocre coaches.
 
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Baxter48

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Nov 2, 2015
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Cigs buddies are cignificantly (lol) more successful than Rhule’s and Frost’s buddies were/are.
Things are overlooked when success is afoot.
TO hired his friend and was pretty successful, callihan hired friends can you say cosgrove don’t forget about pelini and his band of juveniles
 

Man Woman & Child

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Dec 31, 2003
3,770
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TO hired his friend and was pretty successful, callihan hired friends can you say cosgrove don’t forget about pelini and his band of juveniles

Hiring your friends, or people you trust and have faith in who are great at their jobs is fine. People do it all the time. It often leads to very successful organizations, regardless of the enterprise. It's hiring and/or retaining people who suck at their jobs just because you have a comfort level with them that's the problem. And maybe even worse, surrounding yourself with inferior people because he's so insecure that he can't handle someone great around him. That's a big problem, and appears to be the trend here.

Can't tell if you really don't understand this very simple concept or if you're just being ornery? (or more ornery than usual) 😂
 

Baxter48

All-Conference
Nov 2, 2015
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Hiring your friends, or people you trust and have faith in who are great at their jobs is fine. People do it all the time. It often leads to very successful organizations, regardless of the enterprise. It's hiring and/or retaining people who suck at their jobs just because you have a comfort level with them that's the problem. And maybe even worse, surrounding yourself with inferior people because he's so insecure that he can't handle someone great around him. That's a big problem, and appears to be the trend here.

Can't tell if you really don't understand this very simple concept or if you're just being ornery? (or more ornery than usual) 😂
I understand I was giving examples of other coaches who hired their friends, TO was one of the few who was successful, Cally hire his buddy cosgrove and that didn’t last but only 4 years. Bo hire his buddies and towards the end it hurt him Jmo I don’t think Bo wanted anyone who had more experience and knowledge, Bo was very insecure, and we all know about frost and his golf buddies
 

Bigred2467

All-Conference
Jul 4, 2025
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Hiring your friends, or people you trust and have faith in who are great at their jobs is fine. People do it all the time. It often leads to very successful organizations, regardless of the enterprise. It's hiring and/or retaining people who suck at their jobs just because you have a comfort level with them that's the problem. And maybe even worse, surrounding yourself with inferior people because he's so insecure that he can't handle someone great around him. That's a big problem, and appears to be the trend here.

Can't tell if you really don't understand this very simple concept or if you're just being ornery? (or more ornery than usual) 😂
Exactly. Does anyone know what Ed Foley does? Same with Phil Snow. And has Glen Thomas actually improved any of our quarterbacks?
 

HuskerInCarolina

All-American
Dec 2, 2024
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Exactly. Does anyone know what Ed Foley does? Same with Phil Snow. And has Glen Thomas actually improved any of our quarterbacks?
Coulda sworn Ed Foley was supposed to be some liaison guru guy for in-state recruiting. I don’t know if he knows Nebraska is the state that is “in-state” considering the 2026 results.
 

HuskerO58

All-Conference
Sep 11, 2006
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My God. Just had the chance to listen to that. That is seriously one of the most cringeworthy things I've ever heard. "You know me, I'm never gonna BS anybody"??? Are you f*cking kidding me? 🤢🤢🤮
For as much as you guys want everyone to boycott everything Husker football, you guys sure do listen to a lot of what Rhule says.
 
Aug 18, 2016
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Retaining great assistants for years is not even close to the same thing as recycling your under-qualified loser buddies. Come on, man 🙄
They have ended up being great assistants. Again the litmus test for me is had Nebraska hired Bryant Haines or Indiana's Mike Shanahan in January 2023 would this board had melted down or been praising Rhule for finding these great coaches? I can be honest I didn't even know who they were then, and I had to look up the DC earlier in the year because I didn't even know his name
 

Man Woman & Child

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Dec 31, 2003
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They have ended up being great assistants. Again the litmus test for me is had Nebraska hired Bryant Haines or Indiana's Mike Shanahan in January 2023 would this board had melted down or been praising Rhule for finding these great coaches? I can be honest I didn't even know who they were then, and I had to look up the DC earlier in the year because I didn't even know his name

If they produced even close to the kind of results for Rhule that they've done for Cignetti, you're damn right this board would be praising everyone involved. What the hell kind of question is that?

Of course, that would assume Rhule was capable of getting similar results out of them, which he has not shown to be capable of. I mean, considering he's had about 2 total hires who've produced at that level and he has, at best let them walk and, at worst ran them off himself...after one year.
 
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Aug 18, 2016
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If they produced even close to the kind of results for Rhule that they've done for Cignetti, you're damn right this board would be praising everyone involved. What the hell kind of question is that?

Of course, that would assume Rhule was capable of getting similar results out of them, which he has not shown to be capable of. I mean, considering he's had about 2 total hires who've produced at that level and he has, at best let them walk and, at worst ran them off himself...after one year.
In January of 2023, not now. What would the reaction have been in January 2023? That these were great hires?
You are using what you know now to judge the hires, not what you would have known then. It is easy to say Nebraska should have hired Cignetti instead of Rhule. But at the time, Cignetti wasn't looked at as a hot commodity. There were 9 other Power 4/5 jobs the year Rhule was hired.

Wisconsin
Nebraska
Stanford
Colorado
Auburn
Louisville
Georgia Tech
Arizona St
Purdue
Mississippi St.

None of those teams selected Cignetti. Why, clearly he was a fabulous coach at Elon and James Madison. Everyone knew it but they just ignored and decided to go in different directions? C'mon
 

HuskerO58

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Sep 11, 2006
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If that is what is causing Eckler to leave well I support him. Heck I’d even help him pack up. Not everyone can stay in a workplace culture like that if that is what is going on.
Why do our fans believe the reason for Ekler leaving is due to Rhule being a mediocre boss to work for? Its been established that Ekler doesn't stay at one place very long at all.
 

Man Woman & Child

All-Conference
Dec 31, 2003
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In January of 2023, not now. What would the reaction have been in January 2023? That these were great hires?
You are using what you know now to judge the hires, not what you would have known then. It is easy to say Nebraska should have hired Cignetti instead of Rhule. But at the time, Cignetti wasn't looked at as a hot commodity. There were 9 other Power 4/5 jobs the year Rhule was hired.

Wisconsin
Nebraska
Stanford
Colorado
Auburn
Louisville
Georgia Tech
Arizona St
Purdue
Mississippi St.

None of those teams selected Cignetti. Why, clearly he was a fabulous coach at Elon and James Madison. Everyone knew it but they just ignored and decided to go in different directions? C'mon

I have never said any of the things you're claiming in this post. As usual, you're moving the goal posts. I generally give all our hires the benefit of the doubt until they prove they don't deserve it. And I'll do the same with this latest round. I was about as big a Rhule fan as there was when he was hired. Much more than a lot of posters on here.

And no, I don't think we should have hired Cignetti. That was a one in a million lightning in a bottle perfect storm lottery hit for Indiana. Of course I wish we would have hired him, but nobody saw that coming.
 

HuskerO58

All-Conference
Sep 11, 2006
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I don't think Eck likes Matt, and I don't think the Hat likes having a coach on his staff that the fans like. I think Matt the Hat is so insecure that he is happy to see coaches like Tony White and Mike Eckler go. This shallow human being is threatened by other coaches' popularity. Like I wrote before, ever since his Temple days I have thought he looks and acts like a poodle.
Eckler must not like any of the coaches he's ever worked with in the past. Rarely stays beyond 2 years.
 

HuskerO58

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Sep 11, 2006
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Matt said he offered him to be a top 2 paid special teams coach in the United States. Isn’t that a “huge fight‘ to keep him? I don’t disagree that they didn’t get along well or that Eckler might not be well liked. Whatever the reason for his departure, it’s just frustrating that we lose good coaches and keep mediocre coaches.
I remember reading a post here that another frustrating thing about Rhule is that no other big program wants our assistant coaches. Meaning, we dont have very good assistant coaches because if we did, other big programs would try and take them.

Well now that that's happening, we get our panties in a bunch.
 

HuskerO58

All-Conference
Sep 11, 2006
14,259
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Retaining great assistants for years is not even close to the same thing as recycling your under-qualified loser buddies. Come on, man 🙄
But they're still his buddies.

When Rhule and his buddies are brought up, it's implied that no other successful coach has his buddies working for him on the sideline. Only Rhule does that.

That's obviously not true.
 

Man Woman & Child

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Dec 31, 2003
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But they're still his buddies.

When Rhule and his buddies are brought up, it's implied that no other successful coach has his buddies working for him on the sideline. Only Rhule does that.

That's obviously not true.

No, that's not what has been implied. The implied part is the fact that most of Rhule's buddies suck at their jobs!

I assume you're just being obtuse. If not, then you are really too dense to continue discussing with.
 

Zeke Husker

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Aug 23, 2025
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Why do our fans believe the reason for Ekler leaving is due to Rhule being a mediocre boss to work for? Its been established that Ekler doesn't stay at one place very long at all.
I don’t totally believe that. I did say “if” that was the case then yes I think he should leave it’s not good to stay around that sort of crap.
 
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Neb79

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Dec 1, 2024
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In January of 2023, not now. What would the reaction have been in January 2023? That these were great hires?
You are using what you know now to judge the hires, not what you would have known then. It is easy to say Nebraska should have hired Cignetti instead of Rhule. But at the time, Cignetti wasn't looked at as a hot commodity. There were 9 other Power 4/5 jobs the year Rhule was hired.

Wisconsin
Nebraska
Stanford
Colorado
Auburn
Louisville
Georgia Tech
Arizona St
Purdue
Mississippi St.

None of those teams selected Cignetti. Why, clearly he was a fabulous coach at Elon and James Madison. Everyone knew it but they just ignored and decided to go in different directions? C'mon
Don’t try to talk sense to man, woman child him/her they. She grew up watching Nebraska beat up on opponents and now feels entitled. The rest of the world somehow owes her another Nebraska championship all because she had the fortitude to watch Nebraska football when it was easy, when they were winning. Now that they aren’t winning, she has to cry constantly because of the constant feelings. I think there’s a word for that. Soft.
 

HuskerO58

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Sep 11, 2006
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I don’t totally believe that. I did say “if” that was the case then yes I think he should leave it’s not good to stay around that sort of crap.
You did, yes. We've seen a handful of posts on this board saying or at least implying "Ekler must hate working for Rhule".
 
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Man Woman & Child

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Dec 31, 2003
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I remember reading a post here that another frustrating thing about Rhule is that no other big program wants our assistant coaches. Meaning, we dont have very good assistant coaches because if we did, other big programs would try and take them.

Well now that that's happening, we get our panties in a bunch.

Again, wrong. Not what has been said at all. The VAST majority of Rhule's hires are not coveted by other big programs. Now 2 have been. Two out of...how many has he recycled through now? I've honestly lost count. And of those 2, he either at best couldn't keep them after one year, or at worst ran them off in the first place after one year.
 
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Man Woman & Child

All-Conference
Dec 31, 2003
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Oh yay, our resident Rhule knob slobbering blind dumb homer brigade is back. Did the village idiot circle jerk meeting just let out or something?
 
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