Look Back in Anger
- Sean Brennan
- Jan 9
- 10 min read
After a shockingly bad finish to the season, you can’t help but wonder if Husker fan anger is giving way to apathy
Sitting and watching the clock tick away in Nebraska’s 44-22 loss to Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl on New Year’s Eve – despite Timeout Taker of the Year Matt Rhule’s best efforts to prolong the disaster well into 2026 – I noticed a familiar sense of detachment.
My Husker friends text chain stopped popping at halftime. One fell asleep. One was walking his dog. Win a situation where typically I would receive a succession of angry texts, the silence was deafening. Surely it was a similar situation on couches all across Husker Nation. Even the Nebraska attendance at Allegiant Stadium was far less than expected.
This detachment felt similar to what I felt watching Iowa stomp us 56-14 on Black Friday in 2017 as the Huskers limped to the end of the Mike Riley era. Our players looked smaller, slower and much less excited to be there than their opponents. It was exactly how it feels watching your team coached by a guy who’s about to be shown the door.
But where there are similarities ...
There are also differences
The biggest difference this time around, of course, is that Rhule isn’t going anywhere. Not anytime soon, thanks to the midseason panic extension Nebraska offered Rhule in October – one he gladly accepted after Jedi-mind tricking Husker Nation that Penn State might actually hire him (admittedly I fell for it, too) – that includes a $71 million buyout should the administration choose to fire him. For reference, Nebraska “only” had to shell out $6.2 million when it fired Riley.
Another difference? At least during that Iowa game in 2017 we knew we were less than seven days away from the inevitable signing of Scott Frost, and how could that possibly go wrong? (I know, I know – the Post-Traumatic Frost Disorder dies hard.)
Nebraska lost its last three games to Penn State, Iowa and Utah by a combined score of 121 to 48 (staying with the masochistic theme – because what else is there? – Riley’s teams were outscored 166 to 79 in their final three games) and looked nowhere remotely close to a College Football Playoff-caliber team. The Huskers lost to all five upper-echelon teams that were on their schedule. In fact, against the Utes, they looked more like a Group of Five team (to be fair, NU was without four of its best players; but wait! So was Utah).
Pickled in the head
A very difficult schedule looms heading towards in 2026, one that features games against all three of the Big Ten’s CFP participants: Ohio State, Indiana and Oregon plus nine-win teams Washington, Iowa and Illinois. Let’s put it this way: anyone predicting anything more than seven wins in 2026 isn’t “drinking the Kool-Aid,” as they say, but rather the Jungle Juice – put in ALL the liquor – because they are clearly pickled in the head.
The question moving forward is how much is left in the Huskers Fan gas tank? I’m sure there’s plenty; we’ll all be grasping to some sort of hope by August. But the striking thing at the present moment is the lack of anger, and the powers-that-be in charge of the Big Red Machine surely know that when it comes to gauging fan interest anger is much preferable to apathy.
For Rhule, he has one final difference working in his favor. The transfer portal and the college football landscape is wildly different in 2025 than it was in 2017. I hate it, you hate it and except for coaches like Rhule looking for a quick fix, everybody hates it. No longer do you base hope for the next year based on the product you last saw on the field. And good thing, too, judging by what we saw in the Las Vegas Bowl.
Got hazmat suit?
Oh yeah, the Vegas Bowl. For the bowl games that exist outside the College Football Playoff in the year 2025, there is a lot to say, and there is nothing to say. Hell, with the aforementioned transfer portal open and player movement aplenty, the Las Vegas Bowl disaster already seems like a nightmare from a lifetime ago and everyone in the media has moved on. Let’s go back, then forward, and then back again, and then maybe forward again, too. That’s college football these days, where seasons start before they even end.
There’s a lot of sewage to sift through, so put on your hazmat suit, keep your hat facing frontwards and let’s look back at the latest disaster, go through some final thoughts on Dylan Raiola, and find some reasons for hope for Nebraska football going forward. Ready, down, hut-hut!
FOUR DOWNS
1. Nebraska was successful running the ball and going up tempo on its first two drives, both of which resulted in touchdowns. Then they promptly stopped doing both things. The Huskers came out of the gates balls afire, scoring on both of their first two possessions while racking up 158 yards on 20 plays – a well-oiled machine, impressive considering All-American and tough sumbitch Emmett Johnson was cheering from the sidelines in street clothes. But it was mostly fool’s gold.
On those first two drives that resulted in 14 points, running the ball was key – Nebraska did so 13 times and passed it just seven. I guess that was just working too well. Because on its next five drives, which resulted in zero first downs, that ratio more or less flipped; NU passed 10 times and ran it just five. They also seemed to slow down their tempo after the 14-point start, which again, to be fair, was the result of a “chicken or the egg” scenario – you can’t establish a tempo without getting momentum-generating first downs in the first place. It’s also possible Rhule offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen realized trading touchdowns with Utah was unsustainable and opted to try a more complimentary approach.
Either way, it didn’t work. By the time Nebraska finally got another first down and found its traction again on offense, they were trailing 38-14 and just 2:44 remained in the third quarter.
2. When your program is going through a rough patch, the elixir can always be found by playing Nebraska. Utah lost long-time head coach Kyle Whittingham to Michigan five days before the Vegas Bowl. Because we’re always fair-ish here at Huskers Dispatch, it should be noted that Whittingham was planning on stepping down after the game anyway, but still. Nebraska didn’t exactly take advantage of a potentially demoralized squad. But that’s small potatoes compared to Penn State, with an interim coach and standing at 4-6, getting its disastrous season back on track against Nebraska in late November, which is somehow even smaller potatoes compared to what happened in Minneapolis in October. The Gophers played four games against ranked teams this year. In three of them, against Penn State, Iowa and Oregon, they lost 25 to 19. The fourth, against Nebraska (it seems comical now, but the Huskers were No. 25 in the AP poll the week of October 17) … well, you know what happened … the Gophers sacked Dylan Raiola NINE times and embarrassed Nebraska 24-6 in Fox’s marquee, nationally televised time slot. It’s quite possible Dylan’s soul entered the transfer portal that very night.
The get-right voodoo goes for individual players on opposing teams, too. Utah’s Devon Dampier – a quarterback whose career was thrust into limbo with Whittingham’s departure to Michigan and with highly-touted freshman Byrd Ficklin projected to start next year – is good. Nebraska made him look great. He passed for 310 yards and ran for 148 more, tallying five touchdowns in the process. In total, the Utes amassed 535 yards. The most surprising thing were those 310 passing yards – the secondary being the one constant throughout the season.
3. What’s up with the hat, Matt? At a pre-Vegas Bowl press conference in mid-December, Huskers media staple Steve Sipple of On3.com (and formerly of the Lincoln Journal-Star, for fans who’ve been cheering from under a rock for the last quarter-century) asked Rhule if 2026 would be a “reset year.” Rhule seemed frustrated by the question, called the suggestion “ridiculous” and at some point during the press conference turned his military fatigues-themed hat backwards to indicate a “shift in responsibilities.” (He would be coaching the defensive line for the bowl game.) Um, OK. In reality, it seemed more like he was indicating an “I’m getting my hands dirty,” tough guy approach. Which is all well and fine – unless you get your ass kicked. Or more specifically, the position group you are coaching gets their ass kicked. Then, my friend, the joke’s on you.
Since they were playing in Vegas, let’s just say Rhule misplayed his hand. And maybe it wasn’t so much that he wore his hat backwards, it was that he wore it drooped back on his head like the chubby catcher from “The Sandlot.” Unlike the chubby catcher from “The Sandlot,” we’re not laughing with you. Even more comical was college football’s Timeout Taker of the Year trying to add another touchdown at the end of the game like he was trying desperately to cover the 14-point spread – an implication that’s made in jest, of course, but also not a good look in a town with hundreds of sports books down the road. Just sayin’.
Rhule stands at 19-19 through three years. Ugh. Roughly a third of those wins came against Northern Illinois, Louisiana Tech, UTEP, Northern Iowa, Akron and Houston Christian. Double ugh. And with the loss to Utah, Nebraska’s streak of consecutive losses to ranked teams reached 30. Triple ugh. On the brighter side of the road, and in Rhule’s defense, it is tough out there in the Big Ten, we have gotten to two straight bowl games and, at least compared to other middling programs, there seems to be relative stability (players like it here – I promise you most of the Nebraska players who did enter the transfer portal didn’t necessarily do it willingly).
To be clear, I’m not calling for Rhule to be fired. (Although I’d prefer he return to the more professional sideline look. Come on man. Seriously). His contract makes it damn near impossible barring an outright Titanic season in 2026 (not out of the question, by the way). But several things, most notably Rhule’s inability to win games against good teams and the contradictory way he talks in circles from behind the podium – one week he doesn’t have the money to compete; the next week Nebraska has the funds to sign any player it wants – has been aggravating and fans are starting to see gaping cracks in the facade. But it hasn’t been a disaster of Scott Frost proportions either. With a contract signed through 2032 and that $72 million buyout looming, it would be shortsighted not to give Rhule a few more years.
But as for 2026 being a reset year, the notion isn’t ridiculous at all, Matt. As we’ve already covered, it’s college football in 2026. By midday of the first day the portal opened a staggering 4,500 Division I football players had entered the portal. They’re all reset years to some degree. It’s the best thing you have going for you, man. After a 7-6 season that by year’s end felt more like a 5-8 season, you’d be wise to embrace it. Which, of course, he will. Which brings us to…
4. Realistically, how successful will Nebraska be in the transfer portal this year? We won’t know the answer to this until this time next year. (No shit, Sean.) But Rhule talked a big game earlier this season about Nebraska being able to compete financially for “any player.” If that’s true, which I’m not sure it is (at least not for several big-money players), it then begs the question: besides money, why else would any top-tier player want to come here? Nebraska’s facilities and fan support are elite, but the modern-day player, holding on to most of the power, prefers three things to those two: 1) a big stage, 2) preparation for the NFL and 3) money – and not necessarily in that order.
The test is whether or not the Husker coaching staff can find players who fit their system and how well they develop them and put them into spots where they can succeed more than their opponents. That’s what has made Indiana’s Curt Cignetti so successful. It can be done. One overlooked aspect of the transfer portal is that outside of a handful of elite, can’t-miss players at any given position, most of these guys are relatively similar. Whether you are successful with those similarly skilled players depends mostly on how you coach them once they’re on campus and to some degree, their own will. Like so many things in life, getting help and helping yourself go hand-in-hand.
If you’re read this far you’re probably already up to speed on movements. I like quarterback addition Anthony Colandrea from UNLV, an impressive Plan B pivot after Kenny Minchey did us dirty. As I said earlier, during the Utah game Nebraska looked like a Group of Five team. So far, they’re getting mostly guys from the Mountain West. Not overly encouraging, but it’s a model that can work. I’d rather have proven guys from lesser conferences than castoffs from the SEC. Ultimately, it’s a case-by-case thing. With that contract runs through 2032 – as hard as it is right now, and as much as you’d like to post a video to social media of yourself setting that backwards cap on fire – keeping the faith in Matt is really all you can do.
Dealin’ Raoila
Final thoughts on Nebraska’s five star now searching for greener pastures
What’s done is done, and barring the unforeseeable five-star quarterback Dylan Raiola is finished in Lincoln. I have mixed feelings on the issue. On one hand, it’s disappointing that yet another thing we got reeeallly excited about didn’t work out – not to mention one with ties to the glory days (both apply to Frost, too). On the other hand, Dylan wasn’t so good that it’s something worth losing sleep over (which, if he had been a 3,500-yard passer and we had made the College Football Playoff, I assure you I would have).
Onward and upward, or in Nebraska’s case, most likely sideways – if that.
Dylan’s two-year stint under center will undoubtedly go down as a disappointment, and while I’m one of the seemingly few who still believes Dylan has a very bright future in the right offense surrounded by the right guys, I don’t disagree. But what I’ll remember is how tough it was to decide exactly who to pin that disappointment on. It was a vicious cycle: Dylan didn’t have any pass protection, but was he holding on to the ball to long? The receivers rarely created enough separation, but did the offensive line even give them enough time to? Holgorsen was maddeningly frustrating as a playcaller, but did Dylan really fit his scheme? Dylan wasn’t effective as a runner, but it’s not like that should have come as a surprise. Far too often it was a goddamn mess; thank god for Emmett Johnson.
But the truly great ones find a way to transcend. Maybe Dylan will transcend somewhere else. The cycle of disappointment continues.