Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule has signed a two-year contract extension with the university, pushing his deal through 2032.
The new deal includes escalators for College Football Playoff appearances but does not feature an increase in base salary. According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the deal raises Rhule’s buyout to $15 million amid speculation with the opening at Rhule’s alma mater, Penn State.
“Coach Rhule has shown he is the right leader at the right time for Nebraska Football. We look forward to him and his family being in Lincoln for a long time,” Nebraska Director of Athletics Troy Dannen said in a release. “Our program has seen significant progress under Matt’s leadership, and at this stage in the evolution of the program continuity and stability are critical. I welcome the opportunity to continue to partner with Matt and his staff to build a program that will make everyone associated with Nebraska Football proud. Go Big Red!”
Rhule is in his third season at Nebraska, with his contract originally extending through 2030 before the new deal.
“The University of Nebraska, the city of Lincoln and the state of Nebraska are special,” Rhule said in the release. “It is a place our family is proud to call home. We have outstanding leadership from Dr. [Jeffrey] Gold and Troy Dannen, and I appreciate the support and confidence they have shown in our staff. Our focus remains on building Nebraska Football into a perennial championship contender.”
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— Nebraska Football (@HuskerFootball) October 30, 2025
Rhule took over a Nebraska program that finished 4-8 in 2022 and led the Huskers to a one-game improvement in his first season. In year, he guided the Huskers to a 7-6 record and the program’s first bowl game appearance since 2016 and first bowl win since 2015. This season, Nebraska is off to a 6-2 start after defeating Northwestern last Saturday, the best record through eight games in nine years.
Rhule began his head coaching career at Temple in 2013, spending four seasons at the helm before moving on to Baylor. He spent three seasons leading to Bears before departing for an NFL opportunity with the Carolina Panthers, which lasted less than three full seasons.
Rhule met with the media after the announcement to discuss the extension, expressing his gratitude to Dannen, Gold, the board of trustees, his family, the fans, the city, the state and his players.
“I was at a point three years ago when they hired me here where I was going through something hard. And I know people sometimes think, ‘Well, you’re well compensated for it,’ but I can just tell you, those things can break people. I’ve rediscovered my love of this game and coaching and all that with these guys that are here. As this process went on, I think I was really honest with you guys the first day: we wanted to be here, and we expect to be here for a long time, and we have much, much, much more to do. We’re not pleased with where we are, but we are pleased with what the direction we’re headed, and I think that’s hopefully a message that we can send to all the recruits, all the players, that this is the place to be, and and we want to be here.”
Rhule praised the alignment between university and athletic department leadership with the direction of the football program and said the extension talks began earlier in the season. He let his representative handle conversations but said he wanted to sign the extension as soon as it was done, which happened on Thursday morning.
“I want to send a message to the recruits,” Rhule said. “I want to send a message to our players. Sometimes when people go other places, and then they — I can’t tell you coaches that have left and have called me and said, ‘Gosh, I wish I wouldn’t left.’ It’s just, I wanted to get it over with and done with, but this didn’t start two weeks ago. They started talking about this weeks and weeks earlier, and the whole time, it’s always been ‘we want to be there.’ That’s it. I want to, I want to, want to, want to give this team everything I have and not be distracted with anything else.”
Rhule’s full press conference is below.
