What's Really Going on With Rhule?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So just how is this game played? What's really going
on with Husker head football coach Matt Rule and the
opening at Penn State? Full disclosure. Anything out of anybody
other than Penn State Athletic director Pat Kraft who will
make this higher and Rule who may be offered the
job is pure speculation, no matter how much me or

(00:23):
anybody at her Dad or sports talk radio on three
Joel Klatt, Big Red Dog working the Red Sea scrolls
from Mom's basement in Ralston, makes it sound like we
know it all guess what we don't, But experience is
a useful tool in these kinds of sticky wickets. And

(00:44):
if I can't impart mine which is dwarfed by very
few current members of the Nebraska media corps, actually only two,
Gary and Omaha World Herald columnist Tom Schattel, then why
am I here? My viewpoint in all of this comes
from watching coach searches, clown shows, hires, near misses, and

(01:05):
direct hits for forty years. So how does the process
work here? Is how ad chancellor or both at school
A fires their guy if it happens midyear, buys the
ad extra time. Very helpful if the ad is really good.
He already knows who he wants and what it'll take
to get him. If the answer is no, or it'll

(01:26):
be hard, ad either goes to Plan B or C,
or he doesn't fire his current guy. If the ad
is doubly good, he's already done some of the spade
work and at some point asked his target if he'd
ever be interested. The good ads build personal relationships with
lots of great coaches over the years. In the event
they ever have an opening, it just so happens. Pat

(01:49):
Kraft has just that kind of relationship with Matt ruhle
Ads also mitigate the risk by hiring executive search firms
like Los Angeles based Corn Ferry. AD calls Corn Ferry,
tells them what he wants, firm goes searching, compiles a list,
does the background checks, and messes with the agents, all

(02:09):
the while keeping the identity of school a classified for
as long as possible. Problem search firms are not infallible.
They sometimes miss things in a guy's background, or they
give too much information to an agent who abuses it.
The ad gets corn Fairies list, often supplements it with
a name or two of his own, and then schedules

(02:30):
interviews usually in a speakeasy above a brazier store in Winnetka, Illinois.
These meetings test an AD's true value three hours to
ask the right questions and be comfortable with the answers,
or the mistake could cost him his job and tens
of millions of dollars. The interview session is also in

(02:51):
the ad loses control of the process. The agent now
has an offer that can be leveraged to one get
a better deal from the coach's currents, or two use
it to get a better offer from a third school
happens almost every time. Requires the AD to possess a
certain plus sized cahones to give the agent a deadline

(03:13):
and the power to stick to it, plus be working
second and third choices. When Trev alberts when looking from
at rule, he did that with Lance Leiphold at Kansas,
who would have been a great hire here. But Lance
didn't appreciate being used as a tool, so he asked
for an offer. Trev balked Lance, then threw him out
of his house. That's why this rule depend state things

(03:34):
much easier on everybody except us. If rule is Craft's
top target, no need for interviews are an agent, he
and Craft trust each other enough to make a deal
on a handshake, and it allows Rule to be largely
in compliance with Section twelve, Appendix A of his contract,
which requires him to notify Nebraska if he or anybody

(03:55):
on his behalf talks to somebody about another job. If
discussion with Craft have happened, maybe he's done that, or
maybe there haven't been any real discussions. So now you
know how the sausage is made in hiring a coach
makes you want to stay out of the kitchen.