Nebraska's Matt Rhule responds to Shedeur Sanders: ‘I’ve never disrespected an opponent'

Omaha World-Herald
Before each game — regardless where he’s at — Nebraska coach Matt Rhule said he heads to middle of the field to ask for a pregame blessing. He asks that every guy who plays on the field comes off it without injury.
In the hour before NU’s game at Colorado, Rhule went to CU Buffalo at midfield for the same prayer. When Buff quarterback Shedeur Sanders went in to break up the pregame prayer, Rhule invited Sanders to be a part of it.
That’s how Rhule addressed Sanders’ postgame comments that “all respect was gone” for the Huskers based on their conduct at the midfield Buff.
“We do that at every stadium,” Rhule said. Nebraska lost 36-14. “We go there and pray for blessing. They came in, I asked them — I asked Shedeur if they wanted to pray with us. I pray over — I’m a public official, but I can have my own faith. I say ‘pray’ — we take a moment as a team. It’s non-denominational ... I want that field to be safe for everybody. No one’s going to tell me who I am.”
Rhule said that, at game’s end, he was told by officials to leave the field as CU students rushed it. He refused to leave without shaking the hand of Colorado coach Deion Sanders and congratulating him on the win.
“I don’t care if I get beaten up by a mob — I’m walking across that field and shaking Coach Sanders’ hand,” Rhule said, hitting his finger against the podium. “When you’re losing, people are going to say all kinds of things about you. I know exactly who I am. I know exactly who I am. I’m coaching this team with class. And I’m not changing. And I went over and shook that man’s hand, I whispered in his ear.
“I’ve never disrespected an opponent a day in my life — and never will.”
Sanders, the son of Deion, believed the pregame gesture constituted “extreme disrespect.”
‘When you’ve got the whole team trying to disrespect it, I’m not going for that at all,” Sanders said. “So I went in there and disrupted it so they knew. The Buffaloes mean a lot to me, and personally, that’s what I’m seeing in pregame.”