Well, where do we begin? For the second time in as many seasons, the Nebraska football team is headed into the offseason with a bowl game loss. This time a 30-13 loss to South Carolina in the Capital One Bowl. The Huskers entered the game ranked No. 20 and finished the season 9-4. They may still finish in the Top 25 but it’s not a two-inch putt.
Many Husker fans would look at the 9-4 record and call the season a disappointment then and there. However, a man named Bill Soliday, whom I had the opportunity to get to know while covering the Oakland Raiders as a freelance writer, once strongly suggested to me that you cannot give too much credence simply to records. Soliday is a retired sports reporter from the Oakland Tribune having covered both the Raiders and San Francisco 49ers. Soliday understood the late Al Davis (who was the Raiders owner from 1966 to 2011) better than most people I know. Soliday added that Davis added that records are as much a matter of what a team does to achieve their record with what the team had.
Going 9-4 in 2008 felt like a success for the Huskers because it was Bo Pelini’s first season as head coach coming off the Bill Callahan years of going 27-22 and bowl-less in two seasons. The 2011 edition of 9-4, however, would qualify as a disappointment because the team had goals of winning the Big Ten Legends Division if not winning the Big Ten Conference. Losing the Capital One Bowl game that was there to be won in the early going only adds to that disappointment. The Huskers led 13-9 at halftime and were still within striking distance in trailing 16-13 after three quarters.
The game was a prime example of a team lacking discipline and it starts with Pelini. The third quarter was especially inexcusable. After a three and out, Nebraska managed a drive that featured 25 yards in penalties. Then after back to back poor calls by the officials, Pelini lit into the Big East officiating crew. For the entire second half the Huskers gained 64 yards, they lost 58 in penalties. That’s six net yards if you’re scoring at home. Well, gross is more like it.
Then there was the disgraceful behavior of Nebraska cornerback Alfonzo Dennard and South Carolina wide receiver Alshon Jeffery, two outstanding players that are potential first-round draft picks. The serious indictment against Nebraska was that the incident took place right in front of its bench and not one time did a player or coaches try to prevent the situation from escalating.
Throw in four drives in South Carolina territory with zero points and you have a Nebraska team that can’t get out of its own way.
When I think of Husker teams with poise, I hearken back to the 1995 Orange Bowl when they beat Miami 24-17. Remember head coach Tom Osborne’s halftime speech when he told the players that the Hurricanes would try to get into their heads but it was important not to retaliate. Nebraska keeping its poise and focus was as big a reason as any why it won that night and the lack of it is why it routinely comes up short in crucial games. Being fiery is all well and good but a team simply cannot lose its poise and expect to execute.
So the question begs, what is the current state of the program? I have no idea after watching this very strange season. The way the Huskers collapsed in several games this year, just makes me believe that something is missing. Not sure what it is.
The optimist in me thinks this year was a combination of being in a new league with a different style combined with a new offensive coordinator and massive losses to the NFL on the defense. The pessimist in me thinks this might be indicative of poor recruiting combined with a coach that can't teach his team to be disciplined.
The current state of the program is that the Huskers consistently are not one of the 25 best teams in the country. Some people are quite satisfied with being at that level. They will tell you how the Huskers are better than we were under Callahan. Yes, they are right about that but the program is not close to being elite and no, I’m not implying that Nebraska should always win the national championship or go 60-3 during each five-year stretch (which happened from 1993-1997). The pessimists think it impossible to ever compete for championships in Lincoln. They are wrong. If it happened before, it can happen again and don’t feed me this nonsense of “different times.”
For Nebraska, 9-10 win seasons have always been the minimum standard. Well, from 1961 forward. If you maintain that level you'll get the occasional year or years where good defense coincides with good offense. I would think if 9-10 win seasons are the minimal standard over the course of decade having those two coincide more often would be logical because success breeds success and that means more success in recruiting.
That said, being a fan of the Huskers today was very frustrating. I should have stayed in bed. Now I am tired and frustrated.
I'm not 100% convinced that Pelini is the guy that will lead us back to a national title game, because I'm no fortune teller. However, I’m not willing to suffer through one or two more Bill Callahans and sit at home in December and January wishing I could watch my Huskers play in a bowl game.
As for the lack of poise, Pelini constantly preaches how important “the process” is but routinely losing poise is a huge reason why this team routinely comes up short in key games. In that respect, the Huskers have become the Dallas Cowboys of college football, great past but not much of a recent one.
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