Matt Rhule’s Texas recruiting formula and how he’ll implement it at Nebraska
Isabella Ramos
Published Apr 07, 2026
ARLINGTON, Texas — They walked into the gym on a Tuesday night in January. Matt Rhule, Bob Wager and Evan Cooper planned to check out warmups, shake a few hands and leave.
Gage Wager had other ideas. Gage’s father Bob accepted a job on Rhule’s new Nebraska staff as the tight ends coach weeks before. Gage drove the coaches to the high school, Arlington Martin, where he is a senior and his father coached football for the past 17 years. Bob Wager guided the Warriors to playoff berths every season. He won 143 games and coached Myles Garrett, the No. 1 pick in the 2017 NFL Draft.
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Rhule received the first ovation, a sign of the transformation already at work to restore Nebraska’s rich recruiting heritage in the state of Texas. The students and staff in the gym knew and respected Rhule from his time at Baylor.
In Waco, Rhule led the Bears from a one-win season in 2017 to 11 wins in 2019 and a spot in the Big 12 championship game. More than that, he won over high school football coaches and administrators in Texas with his humility, transparency and willingness to embrace their culture. Now, he’s out to cash in on his connections.
“It’s not a marketing strategy for him,” said Susan Elza, Rhule’s first chief of staff at Nebraska. “It’s legitimately who he is.”
Before coming to work for Rhule, Elza served as the athletic director for the University Interscholastic League, the governing body of Texas high school sports. She saw him up close and put her trust in Rhule because of the decisions he made at Baylor and the quick actions he took to invest in Texas.
Rhule never wore a headset on the sideline at one of the state’s many prep palaces. But coming from Pennsylvania, he fast shed his outsider status, said Brady Cagle, an assistant coach at Martin who worked for the past 11 years under Wager.
“He’s a Texas high school football coach,” Cagle said of Rhule. “He just is. Look at the people he’s hired.”
Bob Wager entered the Texas high school gym after Rhule. The noise level stayed high. Ahead of the Martin basketball game against rival Arlington High, Wager and Rhule took a seat with Cooper and Bob’s son.
They all planned to watch Ismael Smith Flores, the 6-foot-5, 210-pound tight end offered by the Huskers one week earlier who was set to visit Lincoln. But Gage Wager turned in his seat toward Cooper, the Nebraska secondary coach and chief evaluator, and told him to keep an eye on Jeremiah Charles.
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“Why?” Cooper asked.
“Just watch,” the younger Wager said.
Lanky and fluid at 6-2, Charles displayed his athleticism in warmups. He intrigued Cooper, who found Charles’ football film and studied it in the bleachers as he displayed an array of dunks.
The Nebraska coaches stayed until the end of Martin’s 19-point victory. Charles unexpectedly got a scholarship offer. He committed after visiting Nebraska with Smith Flores.
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Nebraska recruiting: Huskers keep adding players with Texas, Georgia ties
They’re set to enroll this summer. Smith Flores will play for Bob Wager, his former high school coach.
“He knows what he’s getting,” Smith Flores said.
Charles will learn under Garret McGuire, the Nebraska receivers coach who played for Rhule at Baylor and grew up around the game. His father, Joey McGuire, coached at Cedar Hill High School south of Dallas for two decades before Rhule hired him as an assistant at Baylor, fueling his ascension to head coach at Texas Tech.
The family feeling is real, from the practice fields of Texas to Memorial Stadium.
“Family isn’t blood. It’s the decisions we make every day to protect each other, to push each other & to advocate for each other.”
— Nebraska Football (@HuskerFBNation) March 14, 2023
Gage Wager, the chauffeur and talent scout on that January night, will join them all at Nebraska as a walk-on special teams devotee and running back. This is part of the next step in the Huskers’ quest under Rhule to re-prioritize Texas talent.
And it’s overdue, according to many in the Lone Star State.
“I was used to Nebraska coming by,” said Claude Mathis, head coach at DeSoto High School, the reigning Texas 6A Division II champion. “They used to hit Texas very hard. And for some reason, they quit doing that.
“I’m not saying that caused Nebraska to fall off. But I’m saying that we have great players in this state.”
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What happened to Nebraska’s recruiting footprint in Texas?
For more than two decades under former coach Tom Osborne — long before the Big Eight expanded to include four Texas programs in 1996 — Nebraska mined the state to find icons Turner Gill, Junior Miller, Broderick Thomas and Aaron Taylor.
The Huskers stayed active in Texas after Osborne’s 1997 retirement. But when Nebraska joined the Big Ten in 2011, its recruiting focus shifted. Five classes gathered by former coach Scott Frost included a total of six players signed out of Texas high schools. It has roughly coincided with six consecutive losing seasons, the worst stretch by the Huskers in more than 60 years.
Rhule signed six Texans in his first class, four of whom were offered by the new coaching staff after his Nov. 26 hire.
In the Class of 2024, Nebraska’s lone commitment ahead of the opening Monday of spring practice and an important period of recruiting came from four-star athlete Roger Gradney of Garwood, Texas.
According to 247Sports, the Huskers have offered 54 Texans in the next recruiting cycle, nearly twice the number of prospects as from any other state. They’re in contention for the likes of four-star wide receiver Zion Kearney of Missouri City, four-star athlete Aeryn Hampton of Daingerfield, four-star defensive lineman Nigel Smith of Melissa, four-star defensive back Mario Buford of DeSoto and three-star tight end Ian Flynt of Katy.
Buford, the brother of Nebraska safety Marques Buford, was first targeted by Nebraska more than two years ago during his freshman season. Mario plans to visit Nebraska next weekend, part of a notable contingent that includes five-star QB Dylan Raiola of Phoenix.
All-time Texas Huskers
| Position | Player | High School |
|---|---|---|
QB | Turner Gill | Fort Worth Arlington Heights |
RB | Rick Berns | Wichita Falls |
RB | Rex Burkhead | Plano |
WR | Corey Dixon | Dallas Hillcrest |
WR | Terrence Nunn | Houston Cypress Falls |
TE | Junior Miller | Midland |
OL | Jake Young | Midland Lee |
OL | Greg Austin | Cypress-Fairbanks |
OL | Aaron Taylor | Wichita Falls Rider |
OL | Doug Glaser | Mesquite |
OL | Aaron Graham | Denton |
DT | Damion Daniels | Dallas Bishop Dunne |
DT | Kenny Walker | Crane |
DE | Travis Hill | Pearland |
DE | Broderick Thomas | Houston Madison |
LB | Demorrio Williams | Beckville |
LB | T.J. Hollowell | Copperas Cove |
LB | Julius Jackson | Gainesville |
DB | Joe Walker | Arlington Lamar |
DB | Joshua Kalu | Houston Alief Taylor |
DB | Keyuo Craver | Harleton |
DB | John Reece | Houston Jersey Village |
K | Kris Brown | Southlake Carroll |
P | Byron Bennett | Garland Lakeview Centennial |
Rhule and multiple assistant coaches stopped by DeSoto this winter to check on the progress of Buford and others.
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“This staff,” Buford said, “it seems like they really want it.”
Recruiting in Texas is set to grow more fierce as Houston joins the Big 12 in 2024, while Texas and Oklahoma provide new SEC opportunities for Texas high school athletes.
The Huskers, in an ultra-competitive environment, plan to continue to do what comes naturally to Rhule.
“He’s going to shake every person’s hand, no matter who you are,” said Cagle, the Martin assistant coach. “He invests the time.”
When Baylor hired Rhule in December 2016, many vested parties in Texas weren’t thrilled. Some wanted Chad Morris, the coach at SMU, to get the job. Others wanted Sonny Dykes, the Texas-raised coach at Cal who was soon to be fired from his Pac-12 job.
“I had been very vocal about my disappointment in them hiring him,” said Joe Martin, executive director of the Texas High School Coaches Association. “I thought they needed to hire a Texas guy.”
Martin, in fact, wrote to Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades to voice his displeasure. Rhoades did not respond. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Martin, Rhule reached out to former Texas coach Mack Brown, a master at building and maintaining relationships in Rhule’s new state of residence.
Brown advised him to connect with Texas high school coaches. So Rhule, in his first days at Baylor, invited Martin and a group of THSCA officials from San Marcos to visit Waco for a meeting.
They sat down for two hours to meet Rhule. The coach then introduced his new staff to Martin’s group and sent the visitors on a tour of the Baylor facilities. A meal followed in the president’s suite at McLane Stadium. It included every member of the football organization. After lunch, Martin returned to Rhule’s office for more conversation, extending the visit past six hours.
“As the day went on,” Martin said, “I couldn’t believe he was spending this kind of time with us. And I couldn’t believe he was this genuine. When we left, he didn’t just get up and walk us out of the office. It was a cold, windy day, and he walked us out of the complex to our car.”
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Rhule opened and shut the car door. Martin turned to D.W. Rutledge, the legendary former coach who accompanied him, and commented that he’d never been treated so well by a Division I coach.
“There’s just something different about this guy,” Martin said.
What makes Texas recruits essential to Rhule’s formula?
Coaches recount similar stories throughout Texas.
Scott Stewart, the longtime coach at Temple High School, said when Rhule visited to recruit Ashton Logan, a defensive back in his first recruiting class at Baylor, the high school coach screamed at a player to stand up straight and look forward during a drill.
Rhule, positioned behind the player, thought Stewart was yelling at him. So he straightened up. Others in the room looked on with concern.
Rhule handled the moment well.
“The humility,” Stewart said, “to be able to do that, I mean, I can see why the kids absolutely adore that man. I’ve never sat in their locker room. I’ve never sat in their meetings. But I want to go play for him.”
In Temple for another visit several years ago, with almost no one watching, Rhule collected a piece of trash in the parking lot outside the indoor facility and disposed of it.
It’s how he would act at home, Stewart said. So why not while out recruiting? “That’s exactly who he is, and none of it is a facade.”
The good vibes on the trail in Texas extend to Rhule’s coaches. McGuire, 24, in his first month as a recruiter in January, visited Temple, 35 miles south of Waco on Interstate 35.
The young coach, well-known in Texas because of his father’s work, immediately impressed.
“There’s an enthusiasm when he talks,” Stewart said. “This guy believes in what he’s saying. He’s as natural as anybody I’ve ever met.”
Not coincidentally, McGuire was the first coach whose evaluation led to an offer for Jamarion Cartlon, a 6-foot-5, 215-pound defensive lineman at Temple who flashed eye-opening potential as a freshman last fall.
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At Baylor, Rhule hired Joey McGuire in addition to former Baylor players David Wetzel and Shawn Bell from their jobs as Texas high school head coaches.
It resonated deeply in Texas. Elza grew up in the business with McGuire. She said she wondered if McGuire knew Rhule before they came together in Waco. He did not.
“But coach Rhule did his homework,” Elza said. “He’s one of the most intelligent and intuitive coaches I’ve ever been around. His perception skills are off the charts.”
Rhule pursued Wager, too, as a special teams coordinator at Baylor. But with two children yet to begin high school, Wager declined.
The second time around, he took the job. Terrance Knighton, the Huskers’ first-year defensive line coach who played seven years in the NFL, has focused early on recruiting in the Houston area. With McGuire, Elza and Josh Martin, the son of Joe Martin, on staff as a special teams analyst, this Nebraska group appears as equipped to succeed in Texas as Rhule’s staff at Baylor six years ago.
It begs the question: What are they seeking in Texas that’s so essential?
Aside from the football-focused mindset and sheer volume of talent in a state with nearly 30 million residents and four metro areas of more than 2 million people, prospects in Texas get coaching attention that’s nearly unmatched.
Texas remains one of the few states with a dedicated athletic period in the school day. It equates to more time for athletes with coaches — and better preparedness for their transition to college.
“The kids coming out of Texas,” Elza said, “you’re not having to train them how to train.”
The formula has worked for Nebraska. It’s worked, too, for Rhule. All that’s left is to recreate the impact.
(Top photo of Gage Wager, Jeremiah Charles, Ismael Smith Flores (left to right): Mitch Sherman / The Athletic)
