Nebraska football fans watching the season finale of HBO’s “Lanterns” might have done a double take on Sunday night.
Head coach Matt Rhule can now add actor to his résumé, as he made a surprise cameo in a football sequence involving Noah Macon, a main character in the drama series based on DC comic “Green Lantern” played by Shea Pritchard.
In the clip, Rhule gives Macon a Nebraska hat, revealing that the character will play college football for the Cornhuskers after being highly recruited. A minor storyline in the show is Macon’s decision on where to play in college.
The appearance came just hours after Nebraska defeated Maryland 48-23 to move to 5-0 on the season.
They join Indiana and UCLA as the two Big 10 teams with no losses. It’s the Cornhuskers’ first 5-0 start since 2016.
Several college football fans recognized Rhule’s appearance and pointed out the randomness of the cameo.
“Just when I thought I’d seen it all,” one fan joked, tweeting the clip.
Before joining the Cornhuskers in 2023, Rhule was the head coach of the Carolina Panthers from 2020-22. The 51-year-old was in the third year of a seven-year contract when he was fired in the middle of the 2022 season after a 1-4 start.
He posted an 11-27 record as an NFL head coach.
Rhule signed an eight-year, $74 million contract to join Nebraska in November 2022, and signed a two-year extension in 2025 that keeps him with the university until 2032.
He has yet to win more than seven games in a season as Nebraska’s head coach.
Nebraska hosts Indiana on Saturday.
