By Fahim ‘Coach Fah’ Nassar

April 2023, the transfer portal is heating up. Coach Deion Sanders was reported to be happy about the portal, while newly minted Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule voiced his displeasure.

“I hear other schools (say) they can’t wait for today, the transfer portal, they can’t wait to go out … I can’t wait to coach my guys, let me tell you that. I’m not here … I’m not thinking about anybody else but this team out here,” Rhule told the media over the weekend, according to 247Sports.

Whether this was a direct or indirect shot at Coach “Prime” or not, it seemed to be the spark that ignited a new fire to this already heated Colorado v Nebraska rivalry. Son, Shedeur Sanders shared his feelings on that in an interview on Fox College Football show stating:

“It was extremely personal… The coach said a lot of things about my Pops, about the program- but now he wanna act nice. I don’t respect that.”

Then on gameday, Coach Rhule apparently line-stepped once again when he and his team stood on the Buffaloes logo before the game.

“It was extremely personal,” Sanders said about the matchup in his postgame press conference. “We go out there to warm up, and you got the head coach for the other team trying to stand in the middle of the Buff. It’s okay if a couple of players do it, it’s fine. Just enjoy the scenery, but when you’ve got a whole team trying to disrespect it, I’m not going for that at all so I went in there and disrupted it.”

Coach Rhule must have thought his Jedi Mind tricks would work. Apparently not. The Colorado quarterback went 31-of-42 passing for 393 yards and two touchdowns through the air and added one score on the ground.

The Buffaloes limited the Cornhuskers to 119 passing yards and 222 rushing yards. This is Nebraska’s 22nd consecutive loss to AP-ranked opponents, the second-longest active drought among Power 5 teams.

Nebraska committed four turnovers in the game and Cornhuskers quarterback Jeff Sims committed three turnovers in the first half (two fumbles lost, one interception).
Perhaps Coach Rhule should spend more time getting his team prepared to face the opponent, than to splash witty barbs in press conferences. If not, this heated rivalry may very well become one-sided.

*Photo courtesy of Andscape