College Football is BACK! The biggest matchup of the weekend was Northwestern and Nebraska clashing in Dublin, Ireland. The only way this game would’ve been more enjoyable was if the same result happened in Lincoln, Nebraska. The Cornhuskers were defeated by the Northwestern Wildcats by a final score of 31-28. Since joining the Big Ten in 2011, the Nebraska football team has a combined record of 71-65. Their lone trip to the Big Ten Championship Game appearance was a 39-point loss to the Wisconsin Badgers who hung 70 on their heads. Just over a decade into their move to the Big Ten and the school is caught in no man’s land.
The Game
In an obscure Week 0 matchup, the Big Ten went international. The Big Ten’s first international conference matchup since 1993, when Wisconsin met Michigan State in Tokyo. For most of the game, Nebraska seemed to be in control. Turnovers and poor coaching eventually caught up to them in the end. With that loss, Nebraska becomes the first team in the AP poll era to lose seven straight games by one score.
The Program
Nebraska has enjoyed a lot of past success with their football program, but history is just that. The current state of affairs in Lincoln are laughable to the 13 (soon to be 15) other member institutions of the Big Ten. Nebraska administration gave Scott Frost another chance in 2022 to prove that he can get the program back on track. With the loss to Northwestern, the plan seems to have immediately backfired and will likely lead to starting over again in 2023. You may be asking, who are the coaching options for 2023? Well, here you go:
- Jamey Chadwell (Coastal Carolina)
- Bill O’Brien (Alabama)
- Jeff Lebby (Oklahoma)
None of the above options will be able to return the Huskers to their 1990s glory led by Tom Osborne. That is the best part of all of this. Every day is Groundhog Day in Lincoln, Nebraska. You wake up thinking you can beat anybody on any given day, then go to bed thinking you need to fire your coach. Teams like Rutgers can laugh at Nebraska because Rutgers never had the pedigree like Nebraska, yet they both yield similar results. Indiana at least has basketball to look forward to, but Nebraska would trade their basketball program for a football national championship in a heartbeat if they ever got the opportunity.
What’s Next?
The 2022 season is still in its infancy but if the Huskers couldn’t beat Northwestern, the rest of their schedule seems to be much more challenging than it did a week ago. Bowl eligibility may even be in question again with games against the likes of Oklahoma, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota remaining on the schedule.
Parlay engineer with Twitter fingers.