Kenny Larabee, NRG Media
Rohr’s Four: Four reactions, impressions, reflections, concerns and questions after Nebraska’s 17-14 loss to Oregon, and a week to chew on the season and college football.
1-One no-good, terrible, very bad week
Nebraska football’s stock had steadily edged up since the disastrous three-blowouts finish to last season. After a spring overshadowed by men’s basketball’s deep run and a summer absent the usual doses of optimism, rational and otherwise, Husker fans were skeptical, even as the Cornhuskers clobbered three overmatched non-conference opponents, then cruised to two Big Ten wins, one against a team with its third head coach in four years, the other against a team that’s already fired its coach. Nebraska fans were saying, and had said, wait until the Indiana game before truly assessing where the Huskers were.
For three quarters, Nebraska went toe to toe with the defending national champions, and led heading into the fourth quarter. With 12 minutes to go, Anthony Colandrea knifed to his right. finding open territory for a touchdown that put the Huskers ahead 17-6 and got Nebraska fans dreaming, maybe even daring to hope they could take down the Hoosiers and vault into the College Football Playoff picture. Those dreams lasted all of about five minutes. Josh Hoover hit Nick Marsh on two long touchdown passes and Indiana came back to beat the Huskers, 20-17.
Nebraska fans thought then would be the time to buy in. After all, the Huskers were going to Oregon, where the Ducks were leaking oil after a loss to UCLA, and their hopes as a national championship favorite were flickering, at best. Further, with Heisman Trophy candidate Dante Moore out with a concussion and Dylan Raiola coming off the worst game of his college career, leading to walk-on Brock Thomas getting his first meaningful playing time, surely, the Ducks were ripe for the picking, right? And they weren’t even ranked in the AP poll! So whatever mental block may exist in this program about facing ranked opponents, even that wouldn’t burden the Huskers as they went west in search of a signature win.
We know now what happened next. The Blackshirts locked down Oregon for three quarters, with Thomas making Joe Bauserman look like Vince Young. Unfortunately, the Husker offense was similarly stuck in the mud, and couldn’t land the knockout blow on the Ducks. Then in the fourth quarter, as the Huskers danced to “Shout” by the Isley Brothers, Dylan Raiola warmed up, trying to break his former teammates’ hearts. He dinked, dunked and ducked Oregon down the field, 37 total snaps in the fourth quarter resulting in the needed scores and a 17-14 Ducks win.
Then came Monday’s news conference. During it, Matt Rhule professed to take responsibility, while at the same time putting plenty of blame on the ledgers of the players and coaches. He dug at departed special teams coordinator Mike Ekeler, alleging insubordination over when kickoffs should or should not be returned. He listed off a slew of injuries. None of this is to say that Rhule was particularly wrong in saying that players should make the plays, and the extra insight into the team’s operations were appreciated. But, in sum, the media gathering didn’t make me feel any better about the direction of the program or where it would be going in the final five games.
Things went from bad to worse with the results of Saturday. In Ann Arbor, Michigan’s defense locked down Indiana’s offense even more effectively than the Huskers did, though at least both the Wolverines and Nebraska can commiserate in defeat. Oregon’s offense sputtered again, this time at a struggling Illinois, and went down in defeat bad enough to compel Dan Lanning to dismiss his offense coordinator, which he well might have done had they lost to the Huskers the week before. And, by the way, the win gives a foundering Fighting Illini team life with Nebraska looming ahead in two weeks. Then, to add maximum insult to injury, UCF, led by failed former Nebraska coach Scott Frost, pulled off the signature win Huskers fans are starved for, upsetting No. 2 BYU in double overtime.
It seems like the last week or so has been dreamed up in a lab for maximum Husker torture. The good performance against Indiana was devalued. Oregon was bad on offense, again, but Illinois had the good sense to take advantage, and bolstered themselves for their matchup with NU in two weeks. And, of course, Scott Frost got a win at UCF he got tantalizingly close to at Nebraska but could never complete.
The vibes are pretty much where they were at the beginning of the season: Obviously aware, if not entirely appreciative, that Matt Rhule has this program on better footing than it’s been in a decade, while not feeling like it will take that next step to national relevance any time soon. The next three games will be critical in keeping this dip in enthusiasm from becoming a tailspin.
2-They are who we thought they were
Coming into the season, there were two big, persistent questions about Nebraska: Did they have enough at running back? And would the special teams hold up with Mike Ekeler’s departure? For two games, it seemed like the Huskers would be fine at running back, and good enough in special teams. But the last couple games have exposed massive weaknesses in both areas.
Jamal Rule starred during non-conference play, but even before he left the Michigan State game with an injury, it was clear he wasn’t at 100 percent. He hasn’t been full strength since, and his effectiveness has suffered accordingly. Mehki Nelson hasn’t been able to take up the mantle, Isaiah Mozee was ineffective, and now injured, and even short-yardage specialist Vincent Genatone will miss the rest of the season. Much was made of Nebraska’s reluctance to grab a transfer running back. That decision is looking poorer by the day, as the Husker offense has ground to a halt without a substantial running back-driven run game.
But it’s the second one that really bothers me. After a decade of horror in football’s third phase, Ekeler rode in on a white horse and in a blink turned a bad unit into a pretty good one. It certainly was better than it had been any time recently. But, because of apparent differences between Ekeler and Rhule, Ekeler left his home-state school for USC (and an even shakier situation under Lincoln Riley), and the Huskers elevated Brett Maher and Nick Humphrey to co-special teams coordinator roles. It hasn’t worked.
The nightmares continued against Oregon. Jack Wills skipped a snap back to Archie Wilson, and Wilson genuflected to field the grounder. Fine when you’re playing second base, down right at the spot on the gridiron for the only shot of life the Ducks’ offense had in the first half. Kyle Cunanan missed another field goal. And the Husker return game gained a grand total of two yards, on a Jacory Barney punt return.
The season-long picture is worse. Nyziah Hunter is fourth-to-last among 46 qualifiers in the nation in average kick return yardage, at just 17.6 yards per return. Nebraska ranks 61st in net starting field position in the country, right in the middle of FBS (and, notably, better than Washington, Illinois and Rutgers), but considerably worse than Ohio State and Iowa. According to the SP+ rankings for special teams by Bill Connelly on ESPN.com, the Huskers rank 101st in the nation. And the special teams units will be the most penalized in the Matt Rhule era, even if they’re clean the rest of the season, with 11 penalties for 95 yards. Even the one seeming bright spot, net punting, where Nebraska ranks 23rd in the nation, has drawn grumbling as Archie Wilson has not shown much distance on his punts, even if he usually doesn’t allow much yardage on the return.
Football coaches deal with a lot and allow for a lot of friction in personalities. Rhule has nudged the curtain back at least a couple of times to show a glance of disfunction in his working relationship with Ekeler. But Ekeler was absolutely a valuable member of the team. Whatever personal differences existed should have been worked out. His work with special teams was too valuable for a program that needs every edge it can find to win close games to let walk out the door without a fight, let alone a slight nudge out the door. And again, as we move into November and Big Ten offenses too often grind to a halt, the big plays in late season games in this area of the country usually come from special teams. The odds are very slim, if not none, that they’ll be there this year.
3-Why not us?
Look around college football the last two weeks. The following programs have upset ranked foes as an unranked team: Auburn, Florida, UCF, Cincinnati, South Carolina, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Usually, they’re playing at a talent differential. Almost always, their program is on shakier footing than the team they’re playing. And yet, these teams have found a way to beat a ranked team. How in the world has Nebraska dropped 31 straight to ranked opponents? It defies logic.
They’ve had their chances, to be sure. How many close losses still turn our stomach? But you have to get lucky at least one time. The law of averages have been inordinately cruel to Husker football over the decade of futility. And don’t give me that they always smiled on Nebraska from 1962 to 2001. Sure, there was the Davison catch against Mizzou in 1997. And a wide open receiver slipped late in the 1995 Orange Bowl, leading what was likely a touchdown pass to fall incomplete and keeping the door open for Cory Schlesinger to stumble into the end zone two times to win the national championship. The vast majority of Nebraska wins in the era of dominance were blowouts. They rarely needed, and even more rarely got, the critical break or two needed to win a game.
So how come, the last decade, every time they’ve needed a bounce, they haven’t gotten it? How come all these other schools find a way and Nebraska can’t? It should be the Manhattan Project of the Huskers athletic department this summer to figure out fourth quarter performance.
4-Rays of sunshine
Obviously, I’m in my feelings this week both after the sleep-depriving disaster at Oregon and all the things that have gone wrong since. And yet, there’s still a hell of a lot out there for this football team. Nebraska’s last five games will all be against teams dealing with active quarterback injury issues. Try running the math on those odds. The Huskers will be favored in at least three and as many as four of the final five matchups. The defense has matured into a fierce, dominant unit. Anthony Colandrea is still upright, and considering the landscape of Big Ten quarterbacks, any day that status continues should be seen as a blessing. Most importantly, things are topsy-turvy enough this year in college football where 4-1 down the stretch might get the Huskers into the College Football Playoff.
If the running back room is rejuvenated after the off week, and perhaps more importantly, if the offensive line has gotten a boost after struggling the last couple weeks, there’s enough on offense for this team to be successful. Rob Aurich’s defense has rounded into form as one of the toughest in the Big Ten. Even the most daunting matchup, against Ohio State, features a backup quarterback calling signals for the Buckeyes. Ohio State’s (and college football’s) best player Jeremiah Smith will likely spend most of the game matched up against Nebraska’s best player, cornerback Andrew Marshall.
There’s still plenty of runway for this team if they can start running the ball and if they can avoid special teams disasters. And, for God’s sakes, if they can finish off fourth quarters. We can’t take another blown late lead around here.