From the Omaha World Herald.....
"Of course, with what’s going on at Nebraska, Wisconsin (3-2, 0-1) may not need much more than its defense, which is fourth nationally in giving up points and tied for 11th in allowing yards.
The reason? The Huskers (2-3, 0-1) lead the nation in ways to give games away. Two things are at play here.
First, someone should alert Mike Riley and staff that Nebraska football isn’t a starter kit. You should have figured out by now what you want to do — including a way to “weather-proof” the offense for Big Ten play — and how to go about it.
The quickest way to get on the wrong side of Nebraska fans is to forget two longtime tenets for how any Husker athletic team is expected to perform:
Act like you’ve been coached, and play like you care. Right now, neither of those is good enough.
The second issue is that a virus still infects this program. Under duress, this team panics, makes mistakes and struggles to shake off adversity. This is a direct result of the “us against the world” mentality fostered under the previous regime.
Such a dark view can work briefly, but over time it quickly turns into an “every man for himself” mindset. The number of championships that has produced is zero.
Here’s more regression to bad times at NU: Some captains duck interviews after games, including offensive tackle Alex Lewis, who twice now has interacted badly with fans. For me, his captaincy would be gone with a game suspension added to it.
Some will say this is media whining. That’s not it. The key is learning to show up and take responsibility, good or bad.
If your captains aren’t strong and poised enough to handle adversity, how is the rest of the team supposed to react? Lack of accountability and mental toughness are prior issues at Nebraska that have not gone away."
"Of course, with what’s going on at Nebraska, Wisconsin (3-2, 0-1) may not need much more than its defense, which is fourth nationally in giving up points and tied for 11th in allowing yards.
The reason? The Huskers (2-3, 0-1) lead the nation in ways to give games away. Two things are at play here.
First, someone should alert Mike Riley and staff that Nebraska football isn’t a starter kit. You should have figured out by now what you want to do — including a way to “weather-proof” the offense for Big Ten play — and how to go about it.
The quickest way to get on the wrong side of Nebraska fans is to forget two longtime tenets for how any Husker athletic team is expected to perform:
Act like you’ve been coached, and play like you care. Right now, neither of those is good enough.
The second issue is that a virus still infects this program. Under duress, this team panics, makes mistakes and struggles to shake off adversity. This is a direct result of the “us against the world” mentality fostered under the previous regime.
Such a dark view can work briefly, but over time it quickly turns into an “every man for himself” mindset. The number of championships that has produced is zero.
Here’s more regression to bad times at NU: Some captains duck interviews after games, including offensive tackle Alex Lewis, who twice now has interacted badly with fans. For me, his captaincy would be gone with a game suspension added to it.
Some will say this is media whining. That’s not it. The key is learning to show up and take responsibility, good or bad.
If your captains aren’t strong and poised enough to handle adversity, how is the rest of the team supposed to react? Lack of accountability and mental toughness are prior issues at Nebraska that have not gone away."
