There were concerns after Nebraska’s games against Akron and Houston Christian that the games were nothing more than walk throughs and didn’t serve Nebraska’s best interest. Former head coach Chris Petersen, who is now an analyst for FS1, even suggested at halftime of the HCU game that he didn’t know how much good the game was doing Nebraska. He went on to say they weren’t likely to get much better for it, and that they would’ve benefited in playing a tougher opponent. Then he dropped a Matt Rhule line, “Iron sharpens iron.” Ouch! That one hits home.
He has a point, and in hindsight the way Michigan pushed the Huskers around those games may have taken the edge off rather than sharpening.
Now, I’m going to pivot. For the record, I’m not a fan of Indiana HC Curt Cignetti, but what about Indiana and their non-conference schedule. They played Old Dominion, Kennesaw State, and Indiana State before facing Illinois. Of those three teams Old Dominion was the best they faced. Despite Indiana’s schedule, they dismantled what was supposed to be a good Illinois team, putting up 579 yards of offense and scoring 63 points. Defensively the Hoosiers held the Illini to 2 yards rushing, 161 total yards, 10 points and had 10 tackles for a loss and 7 sacks. Cignetti’s squad dominated.
Perhaps it’s something more than strength of schedule. Maybe the secret is attitude. As Nebraska guard Roco Spindler’s father likes to say, were the Huskers, “Cocked, locked, and ready to rock.” If you had to use that phrase to describe Nebraska or Indiana Saturday, who looked the part? I said before the Michigan game the Huskers needed to go in with the tenacity of a pit bull. Well, I watched the Illinois – Indiana game, what you saw at Bloomington wasn’t what we saw in Lincoln. The Huskers competed, but we didn’t see the same intensity from them that the Hoosiers displayed.
Cignetti had this to say when talking about Illinois, “We broke their will and just pounded them.” While Cignetti is one of the most arrogant, braggadocious, and conceded coaches in college football, he’s stating the truth. It’s clear to anyone who is paying attention he has his team playing with an edge. That’s something you can’t say about Matt Rhule and the Huskers. In fact, Rhule said in his Monday press conference. “We started absorbing contact rather than taking the fight to them.”
You can talk all you want about talent, technique, and schemes. Football is a contact sport, and it starts with the desire to seek contact and play violently. The thing missing on this Nebraska team is physicality, nastiness, and the desire to make people pay for stepping onto the field with them. To put it bluntly, they’re soft. Matt Rhule needs to talk to Bud Crawford and ask how he trains for a championship fight. I’m sure he finds the best sparring partners available, because pillow fights don’t make champions.
The Nebraska staff has two weeks to rectify the problem before Michigan State. Maybe two weeks of full contact hitting and tackling drills would do more for this team than games against Akron and HCU did.
Michigan gave the Huskers a lesson in Big Ten football. Let’s hope we see a Nebraska team that comes out pissed and gives some lessons of their own the next time they take the field.
GO BIG RED!!
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