Sunday Morning Quarterback: Nebraska-Iowa Postgame and Butler Fired

Wow…that was quick.

Iowa rolled into town and - despite the heroics of team MVP Emmett Johnson - steamrolled the Big Red, 40-16. While Jay was optimistic in calling for a Big Red victory, Bob saw this coming in last week’s podcast, predicting an Iowa blowout.

The game actually started well and was a 1-point game late in the second quarter. A late score put Iowa up by 8 at halftime. Not great, but not insurmountable. The problem is, Nebraska is a terrible second-half team.

Not counting the tomato cans from Akron and Houston Christian, Nebraska was outscored 138-82 this season in the second half. The only times they scored more than an opponent were in the Michigan State and Northwestern games.

There are really only two reasons for continually getting outscored in the second half. The first (and most obvious) is the lack of halftime adjustments by the coaching staff - time after time, SMQ seemed to see a light switch go off with other teams that said “here’s how we’re going to beat them, and they’re powerless to stop us.” The second reason is that the team is out of shape and gets worn down. With the advent of the 3-minute break on TV timeouts, you would think this is a lesser concern…but who knows.

The end result? Embarrassment, combined with a serious rethinking of Coach Matt Rhule’s extension.

While we were busy licking our wounds and wondering what was going to happen, Coach Rhule dropped a bomb and fired defensive coordinator John Butler. In a world where things move fast, THAT was fast.

Trophy hoist — Iowa players hoist the Heroes Trophy after defeating Nebraska. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

Whenever you make such a big decision, it begs one question: Did Rhule know he was going to do this before the game? As business guys, Bob and Jay know that “knee-jerk” decisions aren’t really so knee-jerk.

The next question is, what other dominoes are going to fall? While quarterback TJ Lateef did his best to run the offense, the Huskers went from over 25 points a game with Dylan Raiola (not counting the tomato cans) to only 18 with Lateef (and 13 in the last two games.) To be fair to Butler, if your offense can’t score, you’re already behind the defensive 8-ball.

At SMQ, we think the problem is one of philosophy - we keep bringing in JV offensive and defensive philosophies into the Big Ten. For the defense, we bring in a pro-style defense that protects the pass first…while teams maul the Huskers in the run game. For the offense, we have long, long, long-developing plays that lack the speed needed to win in the Big Ten.

Letting Butler go is a good first step. The big question is - what happens next?

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