To fans and followers of the football team at the University of Nebraska:
You are a resilient, stubborn, downtrodden yet hopeful bunch. You have seen this program win championships, clinically torturing opponents with devastating effect, game-by-game and season-by-season.
These days, the torture is reserved for you.
Whether it’s from the stands, at a local establishment, or from the perceived comfort of your own home, the late-game loss will come for you.
The latest edition of “Nebraska Loses Close Game” arrived on Saturday in the form of Wisconsin scoring the winning touchdown with just 35 seconds left in a 15-14 win over the now 3-8 Huskers.
Since 2018, when you-know-who was hired, Nebraska has gone a stunning 6-25 in games decided by eight points or less. You have no doubt seen this stat in its various forms as the streak was born and matured, but it gets you every time.
Unfortunately, the solution is not evident. You may think the antidote to Nebraska’s sickness is obvious. You would be wrong.
In fact, there are plenty of outward, public-facing aspects of the program that are encouraging.
- Tough players unexpectedly returning from injury? Doesn’t matter, they still lose.
- Not quitting until the bitter end? Great fight, but a loss nonetheless.
- Saying the right things to the media? Terrific, but that won’t hit the win column.
- Out-recruit your division rivals? So what, they beat you anyway.
True freshmen phenoms and senior send-offs, getting the calls or getting the shaft, the losses have still piled up.
Conventional wisdom suggests the team just needs a new leader, and success would surely follow. Well, they’ve had that with Mickey Joseph for eight games now. His record in close games is 1-3, a 25% clip. That’s only marginally better than Scott Frost’s 18.5%.
Does this tell Trev Alberts that he’s certainly not the new voice they need? Not necessarily!
We all know that a no-more-interim, full-time hiring of Mickey Joseph would be a more fair assessment of how he could do in the big chair. And hey, he is in the mix.
I lay all of this out there to say there are no sure things. You can love Mickey! He could coach NU to the College Football Playoff in three years. Or, he might not get all the recruits we think he would, and even if he does, they may not develop into winners at the major college level.
Perhaps the external candidate at the top of your list gets the job. Yay! Just remember he may not work out, either.
Also, don’t think of this hire as so likely to fail that there’s only one possible future out of 14,000,605 outcomes in which Nebraska wins another conference championship in your lifetime. The odds aren’t as bad for Nebraska’s Big Ten battles as they were for The Avengers in their Infinity War against Thanos.
Trev Alberts will hire someone soon, and you will have a choice. You can choose to support them, to welcome them to Lincoln with open arms. You can buy more merch, or game tickets, or support businesses partnering with player NIL deals. You can also choose to be a hater, whining on talk radio and social media, claiming to be right all along when he stumbles. I won’t tell you how to be a fan.
This next head coach will succeed or fail for any number of reasons. Some may be easier to spot than others. We learned a lot about the inner workings of North Stadium under Frost after he was fired, didn’t we?
Look, I can’t tell you how long it may take to cleanse the program of a seeming refusal to win games. But maybe this is bottom. Maybe we finally hit the last wall, stepped on our last rake.
Maybe Nebraska will rise up to defeat their rival to the east next Friday, denying them a division title in the process. Maybe that’s the beginning of the great comeback of Husker football.
Your fandom is legendary already. Regardless of your thoughts on the validity of the sellout streak, it does illustrate your commitment. (Also, it’s not because there’s nothing else to do here. Lincoln is almost three times the size of College Station, Texas, and check out the pictures of Kyle Field on Saturday.)
The most impressive thing about Nebraska fans is how loyal they are. Sticking together in all kinds of weather is a nice lyric, but it’s damn impressive to see in action.
Anyone can pull for the top-five team. It was cool to pull for the Huskers when they always won, and it was definitely more fun. You should be proud to hang with the 3-win teams, maybe even more proud, as long as you keep the expectations of a winning program.
No matter the morass, you can come back from hard times. And, if you can stick it out and things click around here again, it will be all the sweeter knowing you never lost faith.
You’re the best.
-Cole