Remember when Nebraska stomped Colorado into the ground and it finally felt like the corner was being turned? I do.
Since then, both teams have gone in completely opposite directions, yet they both have the same 5-2 record. The Huskers have beaten Northern Iowa, Purdue, and Rutgers, but looked very ugly/uncomfortable while doing it. They lost to Illinois in overtime in a game that felt like it got away. Colorado has beaten Colorado State, Baylor, UCF, and Arizona, and have looked quite impressive in the process. Their loss in that span was to Kansas State in a close one.
I bring this up because Nebraska has a second loss as well, and the same issues showed up again. The same issues of the past 15 years showed up. Again. Let’s look at the checklist:
- Nationally televised prime game slot. The “Big Noon Saturday” slot, which has seen past matchups the likes of Ohio State-Oregon, Ohio State-Michigan, Alabama-Texas, Penn State-Ohio State, etc. Are you seeing a theme? It’s a big game slot. CHECK.
- Ranked opponent. We all know. 26 straight losses vs ranked opponents. CHECK.
- A big game. We all love these! CHECK.
Nebraska got behind early in a big game against their opponent and folded. Again. The Indiana Hoosiers took them out behind the barn and pulled the trigger. This was an embarrassment. Jimari Butler after the game said “once things don’t go our way, we kind of get down on ourselves.”
This is just. Unacceptable. In every way. The defense is full of seniors, and they still lay down and die at the first sight of adversity. They had shown progress this year by facing a ton of adversity vs Illinois, Rutgers, and Purdue but they didn’t quit. We saw quitting today. Again. I’m sure the players and Rhule will just keep preaching about how “physical” they want to be though, no matter how much they get out-physicaled and out-muscled every time in these kind of games. Today became an effort thing about halfway through the first half. When all you know as a player is losing, that thought in the back of your mind is always going to be there, and I don’t know what it will take to eliminate that block these guys seem to have.
Nebraska football has a mental toxicity of losing within the program, and it’s DEEEEEEEEP. This really almost makes you wonder if it’s even fixable at this point. This team loses these games in the locker room before they come out to even play. 26 straight losses to ranked teams, likely to be 27 vs Ohio State next week, and that’s not a Matt Rhule thing. This program cannot get out of its own way and it’s time to question what will fix it, if anything. Is it as simple as getting a 6th win finally? One can hope, but what happens when you may be breaking in an entire new defense (and coordinator) next year?
It’s easy to say that with the transfer portal and NIL that it’s easy to fix your program overnight, and that’s the thing – it SHOULD be that easy. Hey, Curt Cignetti did it….with 13 players from his 11-win team last year. I’m sure that has something to do with it. My question is why can Nebraska never push those buttons? Why does every specialist transfer seem to forget how to kick here? Why does every WR transfer forget how to get open, or OL transfer just forget how to block. Why does every coach (HC or assistant) seem to just forget how to coach? There seems to be some sort of a curse hanging over this program that everything they touch goes negative. I wish I had an answer why other programs can turn things around in 10 games and Nebraska is now 70+ games into a “rebuild.”
Today was shameful. No other way around it. Until this mental weakness leaves the program, it feels like nothing is going to change, regardless of who the coach is. The Husker Football program has an issue deeper than coaching, and it’s the players’ heads. “In Matt Rhule we trust” obviously, and winning six games this year would forgive A LOT, but the issue is Nebraska was 5-1 and now it is a genuine question if they will win again. Rhule has some soul searching to do, as do the players, because even though I think the issue goes deeper than coaching, Rhule was heavily outcoached today. Go get back after it in two weeks vs UCLA (yes let’s just block next week from our memories already.) The good news is Nebraska is still 5-2, which is a reality that a lot of teams would love to have, but now that the mental weakness has shown up again, is the hole too deep to climb back out of, because this kind of thing bleeds into younger players, too.