'I'm sure Penn State's a great place': Matt Rhule's homecoming shows where his future really is

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Even in Happy Valley, homecomings don't always deliver happy endings. 

Matt Rhule returned last week to the town that shaped him, where he played high school and college football and once dreamed of leading Penn State. He reunited with friends and family, former teammates and coaches. He shook hands, posed for pictures and retold stories from the glory days. He even took Nebraska to his old stomping grounds, State College High, for a Saturday morning walkthrough, showing up 30 minutes early just to embrace familiar faces and watch his father, Dennis, reunite with players he once led as a ninth-grade coach.

"Matt just goes out of his way to make everybody feel included and really welcome," State College coach Matt Lintal said.

It was shaping up to be the perfect Saturday, until it wasn't.

A few hours later, Rhule led his Nebraska team into Beaver Stadium and the Cornhuskers suffered their worst loss of the season.

"Coming home," said Rhule, "this is about as miserable as it gets."

Penn State's 37-10 win will go down as a footnote in a lost season for the Nittany Lions, and perhaps even for Rhule, the man the school targeted to replace James Franklin in October -- only for the prodigal son to remain at Nebraska with a new, lucrative contract.

Other than an opening possession that was stuffed twice near the goal line, the Huskers were listless in Happy Valley. Freshman quarterback TJ Lateef didn't appear flustered as many expected, but Penn State's defense clamped down on the Huskers' receivers, and running back Kaytron Allen delivered big run after big run on his way to breaking the school's career rushing record with a 160-yard, two-touchdown performance. 

For Penn State, it was a reminder of what once was and could be again. Interim coach Terry Smith, donning a "409" pin honoring legendary former head coach Joe Paterno, was the star of the postgame celebration. Players held up "Hire Terry Smith" signs as athletics director Pat Kraft watched from midfield. Kraft did not respond to multiple interview requests from CBS Sports.

Rhule gave Smith his first opportunity as a college coach at Temple in 2013. Twelve years later, Smith is fighting to take over as the Nittany Lions' head coach. Smith had his formal interview for the job Monday. 

"When you're the interim head coach, people have a tendency to rally around you," Rhule said. "They certainly have rallied around him. He's a Penn Stater, he's a lifer.

"I'm proud of him. I gave him his first job. He's done a really nice job out there. I'm sure Penn State's a great place. They have fantastic talent and they played really well tonight."

That line – "I'm sure Penn State's a great place." – lingered amid the ruckus of a fast-moving, fast-talking scrum with the media. The Penn State alum, a target to take over as head coach just one month ago, seemed more like a stranger in a strange land, disconnected from the past -- an outsider just passing through town.

Did this game against his alma mater seem any different after declining Penn State's overtures?

"No," Rhule told CBS Sports as he walked to Nebraska's team bus. "I love these guys, I wanted to be their coach, I've always wanted to be their coach. To come here and be out there with them, even though the result wasn't what we wanted, I'm always proud of them and happy to be with them."

Rhule's contract extension on Oct. 30 -- a move that pushed his buyout from $5 million to $15 million -- ended Penn State's pursuit. His deal carries a 90% guaranteed buyout through 2032 and will pay him $12.5 million annually in its final three years.

"Two things are very important to retaining a coach when they're the envy of someone else's eye," Nebraska athletics director Troy Dannen told CBS Sports. "One is that you can put them in a position to be successful, because the salary is available almost anywhere, but can they win? Matt is in that position where he says, 'I can win in Nebraska. Not that I couldn't win at Penn State, but I can win at Nebraska.'

"And the other thing, frankly, is you just have to treat them well. You have to make wherever the job is, be home for them."

By all accounts, Rhule and his family have embraced Lincoln. He ended Nebraska's eight-year bowl drought a year ago and has them postseason-bound again. Turning away from his alma mater marks a subtle shift in his career arc: he's no longer the itinerant rebuilder who hopped from Temple to Baylor to the NFL in the span of four years. Penn State was smart to pursue. If there was ever a time to lure Rhule to Penn State, this cycle appeared to be the perfect window.

Season four at Nebraska is coming, and the Huskers are betting big on stability.

"Matt's message to me was: 'I grew up there, I played there, it'll always be special to me, but Nebraska's home,'" Dannen said.

Yes, people change, but the memories remain. Rhule moved to State College from New York City as a high school junior, transitioning from quarterback to center, where he excelled and became fast friends with teammates, including Naveen Parmar, with whom he was also roommates at Penn State for four years. Even then, Rhule was a fast-talking orator and a whirlwind of activity.

"Let's put it this way," said Parmar, "he didn't keep the cleanest room when we were roommates."

Once cramped into a single room, Rhule made an offer to Parmar: "I'll just live in the closet."

"He just threw his bed in there," Parmar laughed. 

"Controlled chaos," Rhule said. "My wife doesn't let me do that very much."

These days, he has a lot more room to roam.

Nebraska has poured $165 million into a new 315,000-square-foot football facility and expects to boost its revenue-sharing/NIL pool to roughly $25 million in 2026, sources told CBS Sports. The investment could make the upcoming Transfer Portal window, officially opening Jan. 2 (but active well before then), particularly intriguing.

The program may be a generation removed from its 1990s dynasty, but for the first time years, Nebraska has momentum.

"Can we go back and win three national championships in four years? That may be the expectation for a fan base, but it's unreasonable to ask anybody to do that in this day and age because it hasn't happened in this day and age," Dannen said. "But for Nebraska to get to its place among the national elite, it's a reasonable expectation, a reasonable belief.

"And if Matt didn't think it, he wouldn't have chosen to stay."

After Penn State's win Saturday, the victory bell rang for nearly 30 straight minutes. The noise cut through Rhule's postgame press conference and through the nostalgia of a walk-on who once rang that bell himself.

"I can't," Rhule said mid-answer. "There's a bell going off."

The memory of Penn State remains, but now nostalgia is only noise, an interference in Rhule's way as he continues Nebraska's long climb back into the national picture.

"We're on to the next week," Rhule said. "We've got no time -- no time, no time -- to worry about what just happened, as bad as it was."

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