Husker Dan: Is this the beginning of the end?

 
The sad part of last night’s 31-24 OT loss to Northwestern was that this was a game Nebraska could have and should have won.

The play selection late in regulation was absurd. And in the OT?  More of the same.  In short, Nebraska deserved to lose the game.  It’s that simple.

It’s a shame, because the players were trying to win the game. Riley and Langsdorf did all they could (IMO) to ensure another loss.

NONSENSE TALK

And the talk that Nebraska is still “bowl eligible” is nonsense.  If 6-6 is now the new norm of Husker expectations, count me out.

And with games coming up at Penn State and at home against Iowa (could anyone have imagined what the Hawkeyes did to the “mighty” Buckeyes Saturday?)

Nebraska may win this Saturday at Minnesota, but PSU and Iowa are going to kill Nebraska.  Neither game will be close.  That means Nebraska finishes with a miserable 5-7 record.  That’s right: two losing seasons out of three for Mike Riley.

And Riley is 19-16 at Nebraska, which puts him right where his career winning percentage was before he came to Nebraska.

A WAKE?

And when Coach Mike Riley held his postgame press conference, he sounded as if he knew his fate was sealed with the loss.  And Mike Riley isn’t to be blamed for the mounting losses.  As I’ve said before, Riley’s a nice guy, but he should never have been hired in the first place.

COFFIN CORNER?

If Saturday’s loss isn’t the final nail in Mike Riley’s coaching coffin at Nebraska, I don’t know what it will take.  It is all too evident, the Husker football program is clearly out of sync, out of balance, without a clue and, more importantly, has run out of time.

Bill Moos must make a change as quickly as he can.  Expect him to hold a press conference soon after the Hawkeye game.

I don’t know if Scott Frost is the guy Moos wants or even if Frost wants to come back to Nebraska.  But my vote goes to the guy at Central Florida.

HUSKER FANS TO BLAME?

And maybe we (the fans) are at least partly to blame for the poor product we’ve put up with through the years.  Despite shoddy performances, Husker fans continue to fill the stadium, to the tune of an NCAA-record 360 consecutive home sellouts (and counting).

But how can Husker fans be blamed?  They’re the best, right?

Absolutely.

But by being such loyal fans, maybe we’ve been doing the football program a huge disservice.  Maybe if we stopped showing up through the years, we would have sent a more immediate message that we’re not going to tolerate such performance.

“I’M MAD AS HELL”

Peter Finch’s classic tirade from the 1976 movie “Network” said it best.

“I don’t need to tell you things are bad.  Everybody knows things are bad… All I know is that you first have to get mad….

So I want all of you to get up outta your chairs…and yell, ‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!'”

Of course Finch wasn’t talking about Husker football, but these are words all Husker fans can understand.

 
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