Matt Rhule says elimination of walk-ons would be ‘awful’ for college football

Things are changing in college football and there is one potential change that Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule isn’t a fan of and that’s the elimination of walk-on players.

It’s something that we have talked about before. Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports reported that it’s a possibility in the near future. Rosters are around 120 now for college football teams. But with the talk of revenue sharing, the idea would be to have roster sizes cut down to 85-95 players and everyone would be on scholarship.

That would eliminate walk-ons. Every Nebraska football fan knows how important the walk-on program has been to the Huskers. Heck, there are a few former walk-ons projected to start next season, including Isaac Gifford, who seems to have a potential future in the NFL too.

Nebraska football HC hates the idea of eliminating walk-ons

The end of walk-ons could hurt Nebraska football and other programs. It would also hurt players like Gifford who bet on himself and eventually earned a spot. Under his new proposal, he wouldn’t have that opportunity and Rhule isn’t a fan at all.

In fact, he called the idea “awful.”

“I think it’d be awful,” Rhule said on Sirius XM College Sports Radio. “I think a lot of things are being kind of said right now, I think there’s the kind of wait and see how it ends up because you know that might not happen. But if it does, I think it would be just an awful thing. For every player that ends up with a high-end commercial, there’s 100 players that are, you know, becoming better people by having played college football and being part of a team and those are the people that usually end up running our country, running our corporations, running our businesses.

“I mean, you know, we spent all this time talking about what great things college football does, and now if we take it away from a bunch of people, I would really, really, really be sad.”

Rhule, a former walk-on, knows exactly what the opportunity meant to him and it would be a shame if major college football eliminates the walk-on. It would also hurt the Huskers, who have probably had more success with walk-ons than any program in college football history.