Tad Stryker: Nebraska Football’s OS is Not OK

All forward momentum ceased Friday night in Champaign, Illinois. A Nebraska football season that ran off the rails in the fourth quarter against Washington came to a grinding halt with a 24-13 loss to Illinois. The Cornhuskers’ operating system has crashed.

The Husker offense continued to grope its way along, misfiring time after time against a defense that hasn’t impressed many observers this fall. Once again, the Huskers ran more plays, won the time-of-possession battle and produced yards, but not points. The inability to finish drives is damning evidence of a undependable running game that obviously is not a high priority for offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen, who was just as ineffective while ensconced far above the field in the press box as he has been while working on the sideline.

Under Matt Rhule, Nebraska (5-4 overall, 2-4 Big Ten) will lose more conference games than it wins for the fourth consecutive season. It will be the 10th such year in a row for long-suffering Nebraska fans, and once more it must be said: never in the history of college football have fans given so much support — including season ticket purchases, traveling coast to coast to support the team, shelling out large donations, and more — to a program while getting so little in return.

Anthony Colandrea completed 32 of 43 passes for 284 yards against Illinois, but could get his team into the end zone just twice. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Nebraska is one of the few college sports programs in the nation that run their operation in the black. That will not continue for long unless something dramatic changes the way the football program is being handled, because without dramatic change, it’s inevitable that support for NU football will start to ebb. I’d be amazed if the sellout streak doesn’t come to an end on November 21 against Ohio State. A downturn in football attendance will put other Husker sports programs — and the planned Big Red Rebuild of Memorial Stadium — in peril. Ultimately, it will force the university to become like almost everyone else and start using tax money to subsidize its athletic department.

The situation at 1 Stadium Drive is dire. It cannot be swept under the rug a minute longer. The football program is shrinking back when it desperately needs to move ahead.

There’s no reason Holgorsen should still have a job by sundown on Saturday. If he does, it calls Rhule’s competence into question even more loudly than does the ruckus being raised by a growing number of critics in my inbox.

Rhule has his back to the wall. He’s worked himself into pretty much the same position Bill Callahan faced late in the 2007 season. Callahan decided to double down and allow his personal albatross, defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove, to eventually take down his entire program. Will Rhule allow his albatross of an offensive coordinator to do the same? Troy Dannen has a lot of people watching his every move closely, and those folks don’t seem too interested in the fact that Nebraska is coming off its best finish in years in the Learfield Directors’ Cup. Nebraska’s football problem ultimately threatens the existence of several much more stable programs under Dannen’s stewardship.

Rhule needed wins over Washington, Illinois and Rutgers to show discernible progress this season, and that frankly was not a high bar to clear. It would’ve put Nebraska at 8-2 and set the Huskers up for an encouraging finish to the season. Instead, another pathetically anemic performance by the NU offense has the Huskers sinking quickly into the Big Ten’s lower division.

If he doesn’t dismiss Holgorsen within 24 hours of the loss to Illinois, the vultures will start circling expectantly over Rhule. And that would be a shame, because Rhule is a good ambassador for the state and has done a lot of heavy lifting to raise the floor of the Husker football program. The question is, does he have what it takes to elevate the ceiling much beyond .500? Right now, there’s little evidence that he does.

Nebraska placekicker John Hohl missed both his field goal attempts at Illinois, and the Huskers allowed the Illini to successfully run a fake field goal. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Ultimately, Holgorsen sealed his own fate with about three minutes left in the third quarter, and Nebraska trailing 14-7. With fourth-and-one from the Illinois 25-yard line, Holgorsen lined up Anthony Colandrea in a naked backfield and asked him to throw from the pocket. You really can’t make up this level of ineptitude. That’s not exactly the mark of a physical football team. Neither are the Callahan-like 43 pass attempts by the Big Red. At least Callahan could put points on the board. Holgorsen has proven he cannot.

Colandrea’s short pass, intended for Jacory Barney, was batted down at the line of scrimmage by defensive lineman Pat Farrell, and with it, died Nebraska’s final decent chance to get its season back on the rails again. The Blackshirts started to give ground in chunks, especially on first down, and the kicking game was in no condition to provide a much-needed spark.

But the main problem lies on the offensive side. Holgorsen has demonstrated he doesn’t have what it takes to succeed as a coordinator in the Big Ten. His offense has averaged 13.5 points per contest since the Indiana game.

Frankly, an immediate firing of Holgorsen would be the most merciful thing Rhule could do for the former West Virginia and Houston head coach, before Iowa’s defensive coordinator, Phil Parker, thoroughly embarrasses him for the third straight season on Black Friday. And it’s the bare minimum needed to demonstrate Rhule has the Husker program’s best interests at heart.

Four times, Nebraska put together drives that lasted 11 plays, but produced zero points. It wasn’t all Holgorsen’s fault. Penalties at inopportune times doomed two of those drives, and the Huskers missed two more field goals. This time, John Hohl did the honors, misfiring from 45 and 54 yards. Whenever the Huskers got inside the Illinois 30-yard line, they found more ways to fail.

Illinois RB — As the game wore on, Illinois running back Jordan Anderson (23) and his teammates started to achieve success on first down. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Rhule has talked unceasingly about building a culture of grittiness and physicality at Nebraska, but he has not delivered. In November of Rhule’s fourth season, Nebraska has miles to catch up to the level of toughness of a midlevel Big Ten team like Illinois. The lack of focus and discipline on Rhule’s team is discouraging. The Huskers are among the worst offenders in the nation for penalties and penalty yards per game, and Friday night was more of the same —11 flags for 82 yards. When faced with pressure, the Huskers’ level of discipline tends to shrink.

There has been a small upgrade of talent in the offensive and defensive lines, but they are underperforming. The same could be said of Rhule’s coaching staff, which this season rates in the bottom half of the league.

The most important and hopeful hire of the past year, offensive line coach Geep Wade, has some good material to work with, and if anyone had the moxie to immediately re-establish a power and/or option-based running game in Lincoln, I think Wade could start a mini-resurgence that might bear fruit next season. There’s a decent amount of depth in NU’s offensive line room; it just needs to be developed, and Wade deserves another year to make that happen. However, Wade needs a coordinator willing to make that his top priority. If the Husker program is ever to make a resurgence, that’s where it must begin.

Yes, there are more games left on the schedule. Whether Nebraska fields a competitive team is a huge question at this point. A win over Rutgers will be a heavy lift. Ohio State and Iowa are both far superior to Illinois and Washington. Does Rhule have enough command of his roster to perform a hard restart on the 2026 Nebraska football season? His future in Lincoln depends on the answer to that question.

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