Fourteen Years In, Nebraska Still Doesn’t Play 'Big Ten Football'

If “Big Ten Football” were listed in the dictionary, it’d be pretty easy to understand the definition.

The tenets of the league are pretty simple. Almost every team from the traditional Big Ten is a power football program that operates with four core values/principles:

Physicality
Elite Defense
High-Level Line Play
Disciplined Coaches & Players

Friday night against Minnesota, Nebraska put up an 0-fer against the Gophers.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not your grandfather’s Big Ten Conference anymore, thanks to expansion, but when you play the original members like the Huskers did Friday night, you can expect those original values to dictate the play on the field.

After a low-scoring first half, Minnesota asserted its dominance over Nebraska in the second half. | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

Nebraska has been a Big Ten team for 14 years now, and it can be argued they still haven’t adjusted to the conference or its traditional style of play – with Friday night’s laugher at Minnesota being the most recent example.

The Gophers barely broke a sweat against the No. 25 Huskers en route to a 24-6 win, and Nebraska coach Matt Rhule didn’t shy away from the fact that his team never got off the plane for this one.

“They were the more physical team,” Rhule said of Minnesota. “They beat us pretty convincingly. Obviously disappointed for our guys.”

Nebraska coach Matt Rhule gave all the credit to P.J. Fleck for his team's ability to outmuscle the Huskers Friday night. | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

Disappointed doesn’t scratch the surface for a Nebraska fan base who thought Friday night’s Minnesota game could have been a jumping-off point for the famed “Year 3” under Rhule. Instead, the Husker faithful went to sleep wondering if they’re in store for a repeat of year two.

“At no point did we make the play you needed to make to win the game,” Rhule admitted. (We were) one for five on third down in the first half, and just a really bad effort. I thought they were the more physical team tonight. We’re not going to make any excuses. They got after us.”

In the coming days, many will point to Nebraska coming in distracted after every national sports media member under the sun talked about Rhule possibly leaving Nebraska to take over at Penn State. While there have been some recent remarks that have put Husker fans more at ease, Rhule hasn’t flat-out said he won’t be taking the job or that he’s not interested.

All week, players and coaches were asked about the rumor mill surrounding their head coach, but NU running back Emmett Johnson said that had no impact on them Friday night.

Nebraska running back Emmett Johnson didn't have the homecoming story he was hoping for in a 24-6 loss to the Golden Gophers. | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

“We just didn’t perform to our standard, and that’s all we were focused on,” Johnson said. “It wasn’t about anything else. We’re tuning out the noise. We’re just focused on us, but we just didn’t execute to our standard.”

It didn’t take long to hop on social media and see people making the joke that Rhule coached to secure his spot in Lincoln Friday night. Going back to the four tenets of Big Ten football, Nebraska didn’t even challenge Minnesota in any of the categories.

Let’s start with physicality, which ultimately decided this game early on. Throughout the night, Nebraska was unable to pressure Minnesota into a bad play, ending up with just one sack for all of two yards.

After a 3-interception performance at Maryland, Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola was sacked 9 times at Minnesota. | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

The Gophers, on the other hand, made Dylan Raiola’s life a nightmare. Minnesota sacked the Husker signal caller nine times, totaling 63 yards. Raiola was scrambling for his life most of the night, and when he was given a clean pocket, he held on to the ball too long and didn’t take what the defense was giving him.

On multiple occasions, Raiola refused to check it down to wide-open options six or seven yards down the field, while instead looking for bigger “splash” plays. That resulted in the Gophers’ defense pinning their ears back for four quarters, and the Husker offensive line couldn’t keep up.

“We just got beat flat out,” Raiola said. “I mean, I have to go back and watch it, but we just got outplayed – as simple as that. Six points is pretty brutal, and I’ll take that one. I’ll take all the blame. I’ll take all the hate – that’s fine. That’s part of my job, and that’s why I’m here.”

Nebraska coach Matt Rhule was beside himself Friday night in a 24-6 loss where the Huskers were dominated on both sides of the ball. | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

The lack of physicality transitioned to the defense as well. On top of yielding just one sack, Minnesota used clean pockets and a consistent run game to keep Nebraska’s defense on the field for most of the game.

“We never really put them under any duress,” Rhule admitted. “We never scored any points on offense, so we just didn’t play a complete game. I just think they were the more physical team as the game wore on tonight, and we didn’t make any plays to change that.”

When looking at the first three tenets of physicality, elite defense and high-level offensive line play, you already knew the game was over for Nebraska. Then came the ultimate nail in the coffin – discipline.

Minnesota was able to ice the game with long drives thanks to continuous costly penalties from Nebraska on "make-or-break" pl — Minnesota was able to ice the game with long drives thanks in part to continuous costly penalties from Nebraska on "make-or-break" plays. | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

The Huskers committed only six penalties, but nearly every one of them proved to be a game-changer. From offensive lineman Elijah Pritchett jumping on a defenseless defender for targeting more than 10 yards away from the play to several crucial defensive holding and defensive pass interference calls to extend Minnesota drives, Nebraska didn’t have a chance. When Minnesota wasn’t beating up on NU, the Huskers beat up on themselves.

It's going to be some pretty tough tape to watch for the coaching staff and players this weekend, but they do have an extra day now to prepare for a Northwestern team that recently went to Happy Valley to beat Penn State. It’s likely they won’t be too afraid of Nebraska in Lincoln.

It may still be unknown if Rhule himself is buying a one-way ticket to Happy Valley soon, but he’s got some coaching to do this week, and it might be one of the toughest weeks he’s had to coach in some time. Last year’s week following a loss to three-win UCLA in Lincoln could be the model, and Rhule knows his team needs to get better in a hurry.

It's back to the drawing board for Rhule and his coaching staff as they set their sights on Northwestern. | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

“(Minnesota was) just absolutely the better team tonight, and we never took advantage of anything the whole night,” Rhule said.

As for the physicality concerns, Nebraska’s Minnesota native at running back is confident they’ll right the ship this week.

“I’m not concerned at all,” Johnson said. “We’re going to be good. I’m not worried. Just kind of move on, but we’re going to be good by next week. We’ll be good.”

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