Nebraska Cornhuskers fans know the numbers, they’ve seen the struggles and endured the droughts. That’s why many who watched Saturday’s embarrassing defeat at Indiana likely said at some point, “Here we go again.”
Huskers head football coach Matt Rhule may not have been part of most of the program’s recent down years but he inherited a fanbase and team that is still scarred from them.
“My battle since I’ve been here has been the ‘Here we go again,’ which predates us,” Rhule said during his weekly press conference on Monday.
While it’s clearly still a work in progress, the coach is trying to show his players that it’s not some bad luck or curse and can be fixed if guys just do their jobs.
Rhule said Monday that he and the entire team watched the film of the Indiana game together. “Really, I just want them to see how it all fits together,” he said.
He talked about how failing to block a safety doomed a screen, put the Huskers behind the sticks and negatively impacted field position, and how that affected the next drive.
“I just want them to see how interrelated they all are because when we’re out there, sometimes we’re like, ‘What’s happening?’ Just make the block, just do your assignment,” Rhule said. “It’s easy to talk about that when you’re 5-1 and only trailed for six minutes in the whole season, but when you’re getting your tail kicked like we got our tail kicked, it’s easy to go back and show them, ‘I know it was bad but let’s look at this, if we did this, if we did this. …’ It’s all interrelated.” Right after the game, junior defensive lineman Jimari Butler suggested the team’s confidence plays a role in the meltdowns.
“At times a big play will happen and everybody’s head is kinda down,” Butler said. Rhule disagreed on Monday and challenged his team to be better.
“This is a great opportunity for our guys,” the coach said. “It’s like a gut check to say, ‘Hey, if every time we’re down we’re gonna talk about our confidence, then, man, we better start handing out participation trophies.'”
With a trip to “The Horseshoe” to face the Ohio State Buckeyes on tap for this weekend, Nebraska better do more than simply participate or things will again get ugly in a hurry.
“If we spend the whole game playing Ohio State looking at the scoreboard hoping to win, we’ll get our face beat in,” said Rhule, adding, “I want our guys to go out there and compete and see what happens.” If the Huskers got overconfident from a 5-1 start, Saturday’s loss should “snap you back to reality,” Rhule said, or perhaps it was simply an awful game. But if their confidence was truly shaken after the Hoosiers landed a few haymakers, how will they handle blow after blow from the Buckeyes?
Rhule said after the game and reiterated on Monday that he believes his team will respond and isn’t worried about effort. “I’m more worried about success leading to complacency than guys coming back hard,” Rhule told reporters.
“I don’t worry about guys not competing, I really, honestly don’t. That’s the least of my worries.” But if competing isn’t a concern, overcoming adversity has to be. Blame the old scars, confidence or missed assignments, but until Nebraska manages to take a punch and keep fighting, the “constant narratives of tough losses” will only continue.
“I think it always comes down to just football. If you’re supposed to be in the B gap then be in the B gap, don’t go to the A gap,” Rhule said.
“The touchdown hits because you’re in the wrong gap, so whether that’s confidence or whatever …
“I’m not complaining,” the coach added of narratives, “it’s just, you wanna come play at Nebraska? Deal with it.” The Huskers have to prove they can deal with it. They haven’t so far, so here we go again.
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