LINCOLN, Neb. — One question sits at the crux of every conversation around Nebraska football as it tries to rebound from an almost unimaginable loss at Indiana to face fourth-ranked Ohio State on Saturday away from home.
Was it an anomaly?
Nebraska players and coaches said yes, it was, and that the 56-7 defeat against the Hoosiers will not shape the remainder of the season. They’re moving on. They already have, they said.
“We got punched in the mouth,” quarterback Dylan Raiola said. “It’s as simple as that. Address the issues. Fix them and move on.”
Really, though, it’s never that simple. The residual effects from last Saturday can be felt all around. Noise on the outside is booming. Anxiety is high after the Huskers’ third-most lopsided loss of this century.
It’s difficult, in fact, to overstate the level of agitation that exists among the Nebraska faithful. Fans offered no sympathy for a tardy take by offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield on his need to commit to the run game. Nebraska has failed to reach 100 yards on the ground in three of its past four games.
And the play caller’s lack of awareness about a successful yards-per-play figure got him criticized in the public space.
4.0 yards per play is literally second to last in the country. 6.0 yards per play would rank 56th. Not great. pic.twitter.com/EEsarkI3OP
— Josh Peterson (@joshtweeterson) October 22, 2024
With the unrest comes the potential for distractions that could shake the Huskers’ emotional state.
This week serves as a test — like no other time in two seasons under coach Matt Rhule — of the Huskers’ ability to insulate and find comfort among themselves.
“Honestly, I feel like we run a pretty tight ship around here,” cornerback Marques Buford said. “To us, nothing outside of this building matters. We do everything for each other. We do everything for our coaches. And those are the only opinions that anybody on this team should ever be worried about.
“Nobody that’s outside criticizing us is with us every day. So it’s not really blocking it out, more than it doesn’t even get to us.”
The Huskers held a full-team film session on Sunday, attempting to use the atypical gathering as a cathartic event to flush the Indiana experience. They worked this week, as Raiola said, to address the problems that plagued them against the Hoosiers.
A loss like the Huskers endured against Indiana tends to linger. Ohio State, of course, demands Nebraska’s full focus.
Indiana rushed for five touchdowns against a defense that allowed zero on the ground through six games, so Nebraska can expect Ohio State to smell blood. The Buckeyes average a Big Ten-best 5.9 yards per rushing attempt and have scored 18 rushing touchdowns.
Defensively, they rank second nationally in yards allowed per game at 251.3.
So does Ohio State have Nebraska’s full attention?
“I’ve flushed (the loss),” Buford said. “It happened. Stuff like that happens. The only thing I can do, personally as a leader on this team, is to make sure everybody on the roster is ready for this upcoming game.”
Unfortunately for some of the Huskers, this task is not new.
“It’s not my first ass-whippin’,” safety Isaac Gifford said. “You only get one option, and that’s to keep going. Keep fighting.”
The Huskers are angry that they got knocked out by Indiana, Gifford said, and that the Hoosiers seemingly wanted it more.
“Our focus is going to be on us,” he said. “It’s always going to be us. I think we got away from that a little bit last week.”
Rhule and defensive coordinator Tony White said they’re not concerned about the Huskers’ confidence. Not even in the wake of a statement made by defensive end Jimari Butler after the game that Nebraska defenders doubted themselves after some of the Hoosiers’ big gains.
Indiana averaged 7.9 yards per play against the Huskers.
“I’m more worried about success leading to complacency than I am about coming back from something hard,” Rhule said. “I trust our players.”
Still, the second-year coach acknowledged on Monday that he’s still working to correct a negative mentality on this team that remains from before his time in Lincoln.
For White, too, belief comes from what he knows about the Huskers — and from their intensity during the hardest days of practice this week.
“If you went out there,” White said, “you would have been like, ‘Holy cow.’”
White emphasizes a level-headed approach. When his defense plays well, he refuses to ride high. When it plays poorly, White won’t sink too far down.
“You need to instill that confidence and have the guys running around with their hair on fire,” White said. “And I didn’t do a good enough job of that last week.”
He said the mark of a good team is reflected in its ability to bounce back. “How well you’re able to turn the page, whether from a good or or a bad performance.”
The Huskers earned a slight reprieve at the start of the week. Fall break on campus fell Monday and Tuesday. No classes met. Players spent more time at the Osborne Legacy Complex.
Buford said he encouraged teammates to “be honest” in their communications and take the experience against Indiana to “focus on trying to make sure it never happens again.”
They say they’re confident. It’s all they can say.
Is it real? Was Indiana an anomaly? The answers will come on Saturday and in November, when the Huskers face UCLA, USC, Wisconsin and Iowa.
“There’s good players on each side of the ball,” Gifford said. “I know we’ve got them over here.”
Rhule has watched this team practice for almost three months. If the Huskers “fall flat,” as he saw against Indiana, Rhule said, it’s his job to fix it. Such performances don’t appear in practice. So he can’t say for certain when the best version of these Huskers will step forward.
“No one’s going to want to hear this,” Rhule said. “Maybe it’ll show up this week, maybe it’ll show up next week.”
Sooner would work better in Lincoln.
(Photo of Dylan Raiola: Dylan Widger / Imagn Images)
