LINCOLN, Neb. — Do you hear it? The drumbeat is getting louder.

From the usual places early on, like former Nebraska linebacker Will Compton of Barstool’s “Bussin’ With the Boys” podcast. Compton said the Huskers could win 10 games this season.

But then Big Ten Network analyst and former Michigan player Jake Butt said Nebraska could go deep in 2024.

Joel Klatt, a leading college football voice for Fox and a former Colorado quarterback, said the Huskers could make the College Football Playoff. Adam Breneman, the former Penn State tight end and media personality, went a step further and predicted Nebraska would make the 12-team CFP.

ESPN’s Pat McAfee loves the Huskers. Urban Meyer told Fox’s Colin Cowherd that if he were playing today, he “would love to go to Nebraska.”

“I love their coach,” Meyer said on Cowherd’s radio and TV show. “Their coach knows how to win.”

Is Nebraska, which is unranked because it opens the season at home against UTEP on Saturday, ranked high among the most overlooked teams in the country? Or is the media simply a sucker for a good story and buying into coach Matt Rhule’s sales pitch?

Rhule is undoubtedly riding a wave of positive energy heading into his second season at Nebraska and ninth as a college head coach. But why? Well, he’s convincing. The access he’s been given to his program paints a picture of a coach who’s in charge and a team with direction.

When people ask me why @CoachMattRhule will work, I’ll just show them this in the future…there are some gems in there!! photo.twitter.com/eZ1loHSTmm

— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) August 13, 2024

And let’s face it, people love him.

“He’s a genuine guy,” said Nebraska special teams coordinator Ed Foley, who has coached with Rhule for 13 of the past 16 seasons. “He’s approachable. And he understands the importance of spending time with people.”

There are indications that Nebraska is coming back to life.

Rhule’s teams at Temple and Baylor added four and six wins, respectively, from his freshman year to his sophomore year. A five-game jump for Nebraska this year would give him his first 10-win season since 2012 and his first winning season at the school since 2016.

The Huskers have a five-star freshman quarterback in Dylan Raiola ready to start. They have a revamped group of wide receivers. Nebraska’s defense is producing plenty of production and experience from a group that ranked in the top 15 nationally in yards allowed per play, per rush and points per game.

And Nebraska, in a 5-7 finish last year, lost five one-score decisions. Translated: It was a close call.

Yet this is a program that hasn’t tasted success since many of its players entered high school. Those narrow defeats tell another story, too — one that cost Nebraska last November, when it went four games without a win and showed little killer instinct.

And yes, the Huskers still have to show that they’re not the team that committed 31 turnovers and finished with a -17 turnover margin, second to last in the country.

“For us, watching from the outside, there’s definitely a different energy and excitement,” said NBC Sports analyst Joshua Perry, a former Ohio State linebacker. “I think a lot of that comes from Matt Rhule. We know the history of Year 2 and how they’ve been able to make a big move in the past.

“But I also find a young quarterback like Dylan Raiola, who has the build and the charisma, exciting.”

Perry recently sat down for an interview with Nebraska defensive lineman Ty Robinson, a leader among the Blackshirts who elected to return for a fifth season in 2024. The answers Robinson gave “sound different” than what Perry has heard from the Huskers in the recent past.

“There’s positivity on the outside,” Perry said. “But I think that mindset change is really starting to happen on the inside.”

It has a lot to do with Rhule, 49, a CEO-like coach who is highly organized and an excellent communicator.

“He’s very honest with the whole team,” said Raiola, who was named the starting QB last week, eight months after signing with Nebraska. “I think that helps everybody. We know where he stands with whatever he’s thinking.

“I can’t say enough good things about him. He puts our team in a position to be successful. And that’s all you can ask for.”

Junior tight end Thomas Fidone, a former four-star signee, suffered two knee injuries in two years at Nebraska before Rhule arrived. Rhule and his staff created a return-to-play plan for Fidone. It included more rest and sometimes a slower path than Fidone preferred.

After Fidone caught 25 passes for 260 yards and scored four touchdowns in his first extended playing time last season, Rhule congratulated him. Fidone told the coach his production wasn’t good enough. He wanted more.

Rhule and his players are used to give and take from each other.

“I like to hear it,” Fidone said. “I like to be coached hard. A lot of guys don’t like that. I’m not saying guys on our team, but there are guys that don’t like to be coached, that get yelled at, because they think they’re being picked on.”

Good communication, Perry said, is essential to success as a coach. Perry played for Meyer at Ohio State from 2012 to 2015, winning 50 of 54 games and becoming a national champion.

Perry said he gives Meyer a lot of credit for his communication and organizational skills and his work as a teacher.

“For Coach Rhule, it’s clear that teaching is important,” Perry said.

“The vibe I get from him is of a super serious guy, who clearly knows what he’s doing, who’s highly respected and probably, if I were a player, someone I think I’d want to play for.”

(Photo: Michael Reaves/Getty Images)