Matt Rhule Explains Why Alabama-Vanderbilt Type Upsets Will Become More Common

In a weekend full of shocking upsets, none was bigger than the Vanderbilt Commodores‘ win over the No. 1-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide. And Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach Matt Rhule believes those types of monumental David vs. Goliath-type wins are going to become more common in college football moving forward.

Rhule spoke at a press conference on Monday, where he went into how a team like Alabama can lose to Vanderbilt, or USC can lose to Minnesota, Tennessee to Arkansas, and so on. And he made some astute, and likely correct, observations in the process.

“It goes back to what I said all training camp of…Looking at the schedule before the season and saying what game is reasonable and games are hard, is not true, and it’s not the way of college football anymore,” Rhule explained. “Everyone’s got to get that, like, how many teams lost to teams that…you never would have thought Alabama would ever lose to Vandy. You never would have thought maybe USC would lose to Minnesota. The portal, transfers, NIL, it’s changed all of it.

“That’s why there’s no undefeated NFL teams, right? So you know, it used to be that a player would say, ‘Man, I got offered from,’ you know, whomever, Ohio State, ‘I’m going there.’ But now, he might get offered from…the top school in the country and they’re offering, hey, you know, we’ll give you X amount of money. And another school that’s two pegs lower on the pecking order of recruiting will say, ‘Hey, we’ll give you three times that.’ Because for this guy, he’s their 15th best recruit, but for them, they’re like, ‘We can’t get those guys, so we’ll get him.’ So now that kid’s like, ‘Do I go there for $50 grand or do I go there for $250,000?’”

Rhule said the great teams of the 90’s, 200’s and 2010’s were so dominant because they “stacked up all the talent.” So when injuries happened, they had elite talent ready to step in. Now the All-American-type high school players are spread out across college football. 

MADISON, Wisc. – Matt Rhule head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers looks on during the game against the Wisconsin Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium on November 18, 2023. (Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images)

Matt Rhule Makes Solid Point About College Football Recruiting In 2024

Rhule’s right. Lower-tier programs like Vanderbilt used to have to compete with Alabama and LSU and Georgia for recruits at a severe disadvantage. Big, successful teams with a track record of top level success and sending athletes to the NFL were always going to grab more than their fair share of elite high school talent.

These days though, Vanderbilt or Minnesota or whomever can turn to their NIL collective and outspend the bigger programs for, as Rhule describes, what would be Alabama’s 15th best recruit.

Yes, Bama and Ohio State and Georgia are always going to pull the very best of the best. But if there are possible financial incentives for the 15th best player in Bama’s class to go to say, Indiana or Illinois instead, it makes the decision a lot more complicated.

It’s felt like through the early part of the college football season that there are few dominant teams in 2024. Outside of maybe Ohio State and Texas, almost every team in the top 10-15 has either struggled or lost already. Notre Dame was upset by Northern Illinois, at home, and still sits at No. 11 in the latest AP Poll. 

This might be the reason why. The gap in on-field talent between the haves and the have nots could be smaller than it’s ever been.