When the 9/11 tragedy unfolded, Matt Rhule was serving as the defensive line coach at UCLA, far from his New York roots but deeply connected to the city’s pain. At the time, he could not have imagined how closely those events—and the years surrounding them—would touch his own family. While leading Baylor, Matt Rhule reflected publicly on that day: “My thoughts always go to people who lost their family members, and today, people who lost friends, and always to the first responders and all those brave people who lived in the city that I grew up in.”

His words carried a quiet weight then, and now, in 2025, as Nebraska approaches its nonconference finale, we understand more fully the personal loss that has shaped that sadness. “I just remember the helpless feeling of being in L.A., watchi

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