By james art LINCOLN — A few months on UCLA’s campus at the start of the 2001 calendar year was where the paths of the current Nebraska head coach and defensive coordinator first crossed.
Matt Rhule was just hired by the Bruins as defensive line coach in a key career jump from the coaching position in Buffalo. Tony White had finished his senior season as the Bruins’ starting quarterback and was finishing up his spring semester preparing for pro football.
“We didn’t spend a lot of time together there, that’s the unique thing,” Ruhl said Monday. “He’s just a really good dude, so when I met him, we kind of hung out a little bit.”
Rhule hired White from Syracuse two years ago, and the coordinator turned the Nebraska Blackshirts into one of the best units in the nation. Rhule said the way White led them to rebound against Ohio State after a 56-7 loss to Indiana was “head coach-like.”
UCLA’s current head coach, DeShaun Foster, was also part of that turn-of-the-century Bruins team. Then a star running back, Foster was preparing for a senior campaign in which he would lead the Pac-10 in rushing en route to a second-round NFL draft pick.
The three will reunite Saturday afternoon when UCLA takes on the Huskers in the schools’ first matchup as conference foes.
Foster spoke to reporters in Los Angeles on Monday and joked that he didn’t know Rule or White “at all.” Foster and White were teammates from 1998-2000 when the Bruins went 20-15 overall with an appearance in the 1998 Rose Bowl.
“We had some battles on both sides of the ball,” Foster said.
Foster, whose team is coming off a bye week, said the challenge for White’s defense is less in the 3-3-5 scheme and more in the intensity its players possess.
“These guys are true blue collar guys and they’re going to get the job done,” Foster said. “So you have to go out there and not fight and stay in front of the sticks. We hope we can do that.
Foster also praised NU freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola and how the big-armed teenager has settled in during his first season in college. Foster, who was the running backs coach at Texas Tech in 2016 when current NFL star quarterback Patrick Mahomes was there as a junior, said the Raiola-Mahomes comparisons are worthy.
“He plays good ball,” Foster said of Raiola. “…It’s crazy when you see him because he really emulates Pat.”