Today was Matt Rhule’s first spring news conference as head coach of the Nebraska football team, and BOY HOWDY, does he know how to connect with a fan base.

One could argue that the main narrative of the week will revolve around Nebraska’s two basketball teams, as they prepare to play Texas A&M in the NCAA tournament’s first round.

Considering that athletic director Trev Alberts departed for Aggieville earlier this month, this isn’t a coincidence.

Many others have expressed on social media that Rhule will soon follow Alberts out the door, presumably from cranks or chain-yanking Iowa fans.

No, Matt Rhule responds. He states precisely what you’re hoping to hear:

You can laugh (or cry) and say, “That’s what he’s supposed to say”, but BY GOD one thing you cannot argue with is that Rhule is both an adult, and an example of how to handle a sticky situation professionally.

Rhule chose the high road when dealing with the Alberts situation by saying this:

About the men’s and women’s basketball team playing Texas A&M?

He pegs that bullseye too:

Then there’s some actual football talk as outlined by this fine Twitter account.

Note that you might not see Rahmir Johnson or Gabe Irvin Jr in the spring game.

I wrote up the first twelve minutes of his news conference. Almost every coach and key player on every other team was mentioned by him. He brought up administrators. Because that’s what Matt Rhule does, he spoke well about them.

The personification of the belief that “if you go through life looking for shit, what do you think you’re going to find?” is Matt Rhule.

He wants Nebraska to be a place other coaches or staff come to for advice:

I called Kirby Smart last week and asked him if I could come down and visit Georgia. We sent our performance nutrition people down to see Florida and Alabama. I want people coming here.

When Julie was the head dietician at Temple and she was putting together a training table, she studied Nebraska. And so, that to me is the place that we’re at. And I usually don’t read a lot, but I’ve been reading because I hear what people are saying, and we don’t have major problems. We have an unbelievable athletic department. We have an unbelievable opportunity, but we must have vision for the future for 20 years from now.

About leaving Nebraska, he specifically said this:

National people have called me and, hey, what’s your contract situation like when I’m here and I’m all in, and Julie’s all in. And I love Ted Carter, I love Trev, and I came because of them. And I came to be at the University of Nebraska. And I’ve loved the people that I’ve met. And we’re not going anywhere unless you guys kick us out.

I thought this was interesting because I’m an old, crusty man, and I believe this is true about “today’s generation”.

And the thing that separates the good from the great, and I believe in today’s generation, is their ability to handle frustration. Think about when we were young, and there was nothing to do, and parents would let us watch TV, we’d go do something, right? Our kids, they’re on an iPad nowadays, they’re on their phone, they’re doing something. And there’s just not a lot of frustration in their everyday lives.

And so can we handle frustration? Can we handle it when our coach is really getting on our nerves? Can we handle it when the stakes are high? Can we handle it when we have to do something we really don’t wanna do? The team keeps answering, yes, yes, yes. So we’re gonna push them like crazy in a spring ball, and see where we end up.

The man can speak. Again, cynics will read into it what they want.

What do you think?