Nebraska Football: Is Hope Our Greatest Flaw?

Sometimes you just run out of words to describe it.

You stayed up to watch. Dedicated. Hopeful. Invested. Three quarters in, this thing was a done deal. Over the hump. Finally. Time to move on to bigger and better things.

Flashforward to 2am CST. You’re now sitting there dumbfounded. Shock. Anger. Confusion. Even rage. How is this even possible? The odds of this continuing to happen to the same football program have to be approaching the same odds of winning the Powerball. It’s laughable. And that is what the college football world is doing. Not with us, but at us.

That’s what happens when you’ve lost 31 straight games to ranked opponents. At some point, the national ridicule turns to pity. The worst part. The pity is starting to creep into Husker Nation itself.

Every time we think we’ve hit rock bottom, this program fires up another jackhammer. We’ve never met a rock bottom that we couldn’t drill straight through. We’re all masochists at this point. We all know the other shoe is going to drop. No longer is it a matter of if, but when. And because this is Nebraska Football, losing on the final drive apparently isn’t cruel enough. We had to lose to Dylan fucking Raiola.

We had to sit there and listen to Tim Brando and Devin Gardner spin the tale of poor Dylan Raiola. The prodigal son. Cast out of Nebraska against his will. Returning to exact revenge against the program that bent over backwards for him and his family. Did everything short of naming a wing of Memorial Stadium after his family.

Give me a break.

He played here for two damn years! We know the kid! We know his tendencies. We know his limitations. Most importantly, WE KNOW HE CAN'T MOVE! So naturally, what did Nebraska dial up? Three-man pressures and soft zone coverage.

Brilliant.

Death by a thousand dump-offs. 3.28 yards per attempt, and somehow Nebraska managed to make it look like a masterclass in quarterbacking. We didn't just let him off the hook. We practically handed him the keys to the getaway car.

Let’s not kid ourselves. He knew what the schedule looked like the next two years. He wanted to beat us, and we let him off the hook. Now, Brock Thomas was so bad that he made Dylan look like a revelation. I get it. But then again, Nebraska has a long history of making below average QBs look amazing. All you have to do is look at any Iowa QB that suits up. We can make fun of them all we want, but at the end of the day they win. So again…look who gets the last laugh. Never the Huskers.

Watch this be the thing that catapults Raiola into becoming the QB that the recruiting services thought he would be. It would be pretty fitting. Everyone but Nebraska gets to have fun. Enjoy success. Winning big football games. As fans, we get to feel this way. Our blood, sweat, and tears may not go into the product on the field directly, but we are the lifeblood of this program, what makes it go. We continually pour everything we have into this state’s largest institution, and our return is nothing but continual nut punches. Thank God for volleyball. Maybe this football team should spend a little more time around those women, seeing what it takes to create a culture that expects to win. When the lights get brighter, they don’t wither away. They rise to the occasion. They know how to finish. Imagine that! A Nebraska team that doesn’t fear success!

Let’s establish this now. Nebraska is 5-2. To us fans, it may feel like the sky is falling, but this season is not over. They can cash it in and finish this season 1-4 or 2-3 like they have in the past two years. Or they can change the narrative. Harness the frustration and anger into fuel to propel the program to heights that, admittedly, I didn’t think they had a chance to reach this year. There’s talent on this roster. There has been measured improvement. But that improvement has to start showing up where it matters most. The win column.

Eight wins. That should be the bar for the season.

After what we have seen through the first seven games, anything less should be considered a disappointment. Not because we should have expected Nebraska Football to compete for a national championship this year, but because at some point, improvement has to mean more than simply competing in big games. Nebraska football has become exceptionally good at making progress look indistinguishable from failure. We have to start winning!

The bye week comes at a conflicting time. The Huskers have to sit on this latest disappointment for a whole week, unable to go out and try to atone for letting yet another game slip away.

But before Nebraska can worry about winning any more football games, it might be worth getting guys healthy. Right now, the injuries are beginning to pile up in some very important position groups.

The backfield is in a rough spot. It was tough to spot on the TV broadcast, but you could tell Isaiah Mozee messed his ankle up something bad. Jamal Rule disappeared again after his first few carries. And Vincent Genatone is out with season-ending surgery. It leaves the cupboard bare, especially if Rule is unable to come back healthy. Mekhi Nelson, Kwinten Ives and Conor Booth appear to be what’s left. Not a ton of proven production is left there, especially from a group that has struggled getting anything going on the ground as the competition has stepped up a notch.

Then there is the damage along both sides of the line of scrimmage. Anthony Jones Jr. out with a broken foot. Brendan Black is suffering with a broken hand. And Gunnar Gottula knocked out of another game with a head injury.

If Nebraska can’t find a way to start winning these close games, the questions about this program will only continue to get louder. Players will begin to field even more calls from SEC programs. So, maybe the bye week is just what this team needs. A reset. Time to regroup. Time to get healthy. Time to assess how to attack the back half of the schedule.

Fans aren’t interested in hearing about any moral victories. We live in the instant gratification era. We have seen the likes of Curt Cignetti winning a national championship in two seasons, and Bob Chesney turning UCLA around almost instantly. Nebraska may not have a player with the Mickey Mantle gene, someone who can take a game over, put a team on their back. Fine. Then all 22 guys on the field better figure out how to work as one.  So far, it hasn’t been good enough. The defense has played well enough to win every single game this year. It’s time for the other two phases of the game to start holding up their end of the deal.

We’re one game past the mid-point of this season, and I write this as a beaten-down Husker fan. Tired of losing the big ones, or at least the ones that feel like big ones. Tired of being oh so close yet somehow still miles away. Tired of hearing about progress, culture, and getting over the hump while watching the same movie play out every big game Saturday.

I am ready to crest the hill. Ready to turn the corner. Ready to WIN!

Right now, the fog of war is thick. It’s easy to feel like this season’s grave is already dug and the only thing left for us to do is climb in. But we are Nebraska Football fans. The greatest fans in all the land. We haven’t survived a decade of humiliation by being rational humans.

Hope is our greatest strength. Maybe even our greatest flaw.

Five games remain. Five opportunities to change the narrative. Five chances to prove that this program is finally becoming something more than a storied past and a collection of close calls. Five games to revive a fan base that’s been trapped in purgatory between a psych ward and cardiac arrest. Five games to prove that the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t just another train.