Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule does not care what his college football players do on their own time. However, he will not allow them to film TikTok videos at/in the team facility and that apparently continues to be a reoccurring issue.
The 50-year-old (through the strength and conditioning staff) recently ran his freshman through a brutal workout to teach them a lesson about how he runs his program!
Rhule, who returned to college football in 2023 after a two-year stint with the Carolina Panthers, did not download TikTok until very recently. It all came together because of Cornhuskers volleyball star Harper Murray, who has more than 500,000 followers on social media.
She was recently chilling with Rhule’s nine-year-old daughter, Leona, in the athletic training room when the head football coach walked into the room. He was informed of their plans to film a video together. Rhule is anti-TikTok and won’t let his kids have the app on their phones but he wasn’t going to say no to Murray. Here is the result:
What happened next resulted in an impromptu workout for the Nebraska football program. Matt Rhule told the story during an interview with Pat McAfee at the NFL Combine.
So I’ve had to download TikTok and I found my daughter all over (it), she finds people in the facility, I thought I saw 35 of my football payers doing TikToks. (And), one of them did it in the facility, which is a hard no.
— Matt Rhule
It is unclear what specific post triggered the head coach. However, this happened not long after his quarterback went viral for dancing alongside running back Emmett Johnson. The video has since been deleted because of the backlash.
Are we being deadass pic.twitter.com/tPeKdLoL5I
— nebraska cubbie (@NebraskaCubbie) February 25, 2025
Rhule said that the post in question was filmed at the team facility so Dylan Raiola is in the clear. Same with Johnson.
It just goes to show that college athletes these days love to get down on TikTok. This “problem” is not specific to the freshman class. They just happened to take the brunt of the blame in this instance. One of them filmed a video filmed inside the facility.
So our strength coach did a TikTok workout this morning with the freshmen, and they were pushing plates with their bios and all their cool stuff they love to post on there. But they were doing wall sits at the end, and every freshman had to get out and do a 10-second TikTok dance while the rest of the guys did the wall sit. Welcome to old school.
— Matt RhuleNebraska finished the 2024 college football season at 7-6 with a win over Boston College in the Pinstripe Bowl. Matt Rhule hopes to improve on that record in 2025. TikTok dances won’t get that done!