Matt Rhule Has Eye-Opening Take on Deion Sanders

One of the best aspects of college football is the long-standing rivalries that seemingly never die.

Teams like Texas and Texas A&M or Pitt and West Virginia can go a decade without playing each other, yet the hate for the opposing program never fizzles. That's something that many college football fans learned this past season when Colorado and Nebraska faced off for just the third time since 2010 despite being one of the more historic college football rivalries.

With the arrival of Matt Rhule (Nebraska) and Deion Sanders (Colorado), this past season really put the rivalry on the map for many fans. Rhule made comments about Sanders' portal usage, which led to Sanders saying it was "personal." Prior to the game, there was a kerfuffle on the Buffaloes' logo at midfield.

Colorado ended up blowing out the Cornhuskers because of Nebraska's tremendous struggles on offense, which they are hoping will be fixed with five-star freshman Dylan Raiola at the helm in 2024. The Cornhuskers will also be at home this time around, playing in front of what has to be considered one of the best home-field advantages in all of college football.

Despite the presumed bad blood between the two coaches, Rhule spoke positively about Sanders recently.

When making an appearance on "The Joel Klatt Show," Rhule used the time to speak highly of the Colorado head coach and his son, quarterback Shedeur Sanders. He praised Shedeur's toughness and swagger, but what caught the attention of fans was his praise for "Coach Prime."

"You take Shedeur, Travis Hunter, all the players they have, and you take Coach Sanders, they're going to come into our place as a really good football team with dynamic players that you have to compete with. How good is it for that part of the country to have this game and to have it be on national TV at night?

"How good is it for the game of football? I just don't want football to become this area of the country and this area of the country. I want it to be from coast to coast. I want all 50 states. What Deion has done, in my opinion, is he's made football relevant to maybe people who weren't watching it."

This past season saw the two teams average 8 million viewers on Fox, and this season's matchup, which will air on NBC at 7:30 ET Sept. 7, could draw even more.