Rhoades has seen his share of distractions this football season. Briles showed an apologetic side in an ESPN interview at the start of the season. The former head coach also attended the first half of the Bears’ Sept. 16 game against Rice in Houston .

“There’s some things you can anticipate and some things you can’t,” Rhoades said. “So the ones you can anticipate, we have to make sure we do a great job of handling them. The ones you can’t, and happen unexpectedly, you’ve got to deal with them genuinely and head-on and understand that’s just part of the process. For me, personally, I’m not going to jump on this roller-coaster ride of going up and down, up and down. We’re going to deal with each one as they happen.”