A cold front settled through Nebraska last night.
No, I’m not talking about the weather on the first day of fall, that happens tomorrow (the Autumnal Equinox) when the high in Lincoln is expected to be in the low 60’s and the low in the upper 40’s.
No, I’m talking about the cold hard wave of reality that washed through Memorial Stadium around 10PM Friday night.
The 2024 Huskers are not a great football team, they do have the potential to be a good one by many measures. They’ve got talent, they’ve got some depth, but they may not have the mindset yet to win the tough games. And last night’s game was a tough one from the get-go to the final sack of Raiola in overtime.
As one participant in the chatroom noted, this team doesn’t have the ability to make a 2 yard gain up the middle on demand, something that defined the Osborne era.
Maybe that’s not how college football is played anymore, though.
So, what happens the rest of the year? I think Nebraska has the potential to be in every game left on the schedule. Yes, including Ohio State. But I think they also have the potential to be outplayed and outcoached in every game left on the schedule. Yes, including Purdue.
I think they will bounce back and beat Purdue, maybe not as handily as Husker fans would like, though. Then they have two more tough games, Rutgers and Indiana. I think they beat Rutgers at home but lose in Bloomington. That puts them at 5-2 heading to Columbus Ohio. Not the 7-0 juggernaut in the making that some folks thought they’d be.
What happens there will define the 2024 Huskers and perhaps the Rhule era. A respectable showing in Columbus, maybe even a few breaks of the kind that they didn’t always get last night, and they’ve got the potential for a showcase road win.
But even a loss in Columbus isn’t the end of the season. At 5-3 they would only need one more win to go to a bowl game. They should get that when UCLA comes calling, though the Bruins are another team in search of a better future than their recent past. USC will be a tough road game, probably another loss, hopefully a close one. If they split the Wisconsin-Iowa games, two teams that have vexed Nebraska over the last decade, that’s 7-5, a respectable 2nd year effort for this team, and one pretty much in line with the non-Koolaid-laced preseason predictions for them.
The key is to stay healthy, stay focused, and stop making unforced errors. Yeah, I think in the long run Illinois was a slightly better team last night, and almost certainly a better coached and prepared one. But change a few plays last night and there was a double-digit win available, but the Huskers aren’t that kind of team–yet.
Mike Nolan