If Nebraska Beats Michigan, It's Time to Believe in a Special Season

What would a Nebraska win over Michigan mean for the program? Not only would it be the first ranked win since 2016, it would also mark the program's first 4-0 start since that same season. But what would it mean for the psyche of Nebraska football? With a manageable October to come, would it be time to start thinking about the College Football Playoff?

Josh Peterson and Jack Mitchell tried to answer that question on this week's I-80 LIVE. Below is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.

Josh: Jack Mitchell, what happens if Nebraska wins on Sunday?

Jack: I don't think people are ready. And I’ve said this forever. I've said at some point it will happen. I hope I'm alive. At some point, it'll happen. Things will get going good again, and there are going to be so many people who don't know what to do with the reality, and that feeling, that it is going to be overwhelming for people. Because just like we talked about, that four-game stretch [in October] after a loss, those same four-game stretches are there after a win.

Josh: Yeah! And then Jack, if you win this game, you look at October and you say, “Oh, hello! Why can't they go 4-0 in October? Why can’t they enter November 8-0?”

Jack: You go in weeks from talking about, “hey, it'd be great if they could get two bowls in a row” to “would not making the playoff be a disappointment right now?” And I only say that a little bit tongue in cheek.

Josh: Yeah. John Bishop, my cohost on Unsportsmanlike Conduct, as we did mulligans for our college football predictions, because we're like 25% done with the regular season. He had Nebraska in his new playoff. He had them in the College Football Playoff, and [a subscriber] says, “you go to playoff talk.” [Another subscriber] says it too: “Two weeks for the media to talk about Rhule’s year three magic.”

Jack: Matt Rhule goes on tour! He goes on a world tour. He's going to be in Hamburg on Sunday night. That two weeks is going to be insane.

Josh: Jack, honestly, the psychological component of Matt Rhule if they suddenly are in that space will be really interesting, because he has been gassing them up. And I wonder if it would start turning into, “we need to chill. It is early. We are only 4-0. There's a long season to go.” He would probably change his operation.

Jack: I agree with that. That doesn't take away from the fact that playoff discussion will be the norm. Then, the playoff projections, everything will begin to be fascinating to Nebraska fans. And then, you know, scoreboard watching. If they win a couple more games, right?

Josh: It does change the tenor of the entire season where you are watching other teams and games and you are viewing it through the lens of “what does this mean for my team's playoff hopes?”

Jack: 100%. And if they beat Michigan – add on to that – if they beat Michigan and look good doing it, which if they win, I assume they do, I don't know how the level of confidence in this team [doesn’t go up]. Michigan State comes in, and people are gonna be predicting 56 to 10.

Josh: Yeah, they're ready to run away with that game. “Hey, let's go up to Minneapolis and kick the crap out of the Gophers!”

Jack: The quickness with which that will flip from anticipating the Groin Kick to confidence in a way that they have not felt since I don't know when.

Josh: I think these are a couple of interesting comments from [a subscriber]; “how huge is winning the [Cincinnati] game by stopping them on the final drive with the team psyche if we're in that position late? I was in the stands, nearly covering my face, waiting for it to happen, but we actually sealed the deal.”

Brendan Sorsby had a big night against Nebraska before throwing an interception on his final pass of the game. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

Jack, I'm watching that drive right now on YouTube, and I'm putting myself in that moment in time, standing in an RV, watching the end of this game, thinking, “Oh my gosh, is this about to happen again?” And then it didn't. And you and I have been wondering, and everybody has been wondering for years now, what happens if they finally get one of those wins? What happens if either the offense drives down or the defense bows up? And in this game, it was the latter.

What does that mean if they are in the same position on Saturday? I have to imagine it means something good that the offense or the defense believes. “We did it there, why can't we do it here?” We got a stop there, why can't we get a stop here?” I have to imagine that that ends up helping them on Saturday.

Jack: Boston College [in the 2024 Pinstripe Bowl], Cincinnati; we’re throwing some dirt on the Groin Kick Era. A little bit of dirt. You kick almost all of the dirt the rest of the way in if you beat Michigan. Especially if you beat them in a close game.

Josh: Especially.

Can Nebraska force freshman QB Bryce Underwood into making mistakes? | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Jack: I don't care if you win in the goofiest, terrible, true freshman throws a bad interception at the end like Cincinnati did or whatever it is. However you beat them, the feel might be a little bit different, but it will change everything. Like it will change everything. And it sounds so stupid to say that, but you have not had a fanbase that has had the psyche of a 4-0 team, who will probably be ranked, and who's got a beatable schedule coming up.

I guess you had it in 2016.

Josh: But there's always the caveat that people didn't believe that Mike Riley was the guy, or they didn't want to think that Mike Riley was the guy.

Jack: Yeah, they didn't like it. I wasn't like that way, by the way, in 2016.

Josh: Neither was I. But the fanbase was very split on him. And while there are people who are annoyed with Matt Rhule or maybe think that what he did at Baylor and Temple isn't feasible in this era of college football anymore, I think collectively this place wants to believe that Matt Rhule is the guy. I genuinely believe that about this place.

And so if you get this win, it's like permission for the fanbase to believe. And you're right, going back to what you said at the start of this, I've been covering the team since 2014. Obviously, I've been watching them for two more decades before that. And it's been so long now that I don't think we know what to do.

There's a whole generation of fans who truly would be in uncharted territory. But I think a lot of us in the media space, you and I have been doing this podcast our fourth year. We've never had something like this. We've never been excited about an October. We've never been excited about the possibilities. We've never been scoreboard watching for good reasons. We've never gotten a chance to do that. Like what would that be like? You know, what would it be like if that happened?

Want access to the entire podcast, plus other bonus episodes from Josh and Jack? Head to patreon.com/i80club today and subscribe for as low as $5 a month!

And don't miss After Nebraska Football on Saturday night, when they give their full recap on the game against Michigan! It's available for free on the I-80 Club YouTube channel.

More From Nebraska on SI

Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, subscribing to HuskerMax on YouTube, and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.