Nebraska
What Went Wrong for Nebraska Football Against Minnesota — and What Comes Next
The title of last week’s article was the following: Nebraska Football’s Emerging Identity – Clutch, Grit, and Closing Time. It would be fair to question everything we thought we knew about this team after their dud of a performance at Minnesota on Friday night. The Big Red either thought they could just show up and win easily, or they failed to show up entirely. Either way, it made for a dreadful performance against the Gophers.
We cover it all in the Topline Takeaways.
CHEERS TO THAT
Special Teams. It is literally hard to find anything positive to point to after that game. That said, Special Teams continues to be a bright spot for this Nebraska team, and Mike Ekeler’s unit accounted for all of the Huskers’ points on Friday night. Additionally, Archie Wilson (who had to punt five times) looked fantastic, averaging nearly 45 yards per punt, and Jacorey Barney had a nice looking 30 yard punt return. The Huskers will need Special Teams to continue to execute at a high level as they look to rebound, both next week vs. Northwestern and beyond.
Husker Nation. Hats off to you, Husker fans. After a strong contingent showed up against Maryland, Nebraska fans were again well represented in the Friday night tilt vs. Minnesota. In both games, you could actually hear the strong Husker fan presence in each respective stadium on TV. Nebraska fans are absolutely the best on planet earth, and they deserve much better than what this football team has shown for the last decade. The play on the field is going to turn around, and when it does, it will be well deserved by Husker Nation.
REASONS FOR CONCERN
Not Showing Up. Head coach Matt Rhule said after the game that the team was out of whack the entire game, and that nothing he saw in practice during the week suggested that such a performance was coming. It certainly happens to teams, but it’s pretty aggravating from a fan perspective. For Nebraska fans in particular, we never seem to have the payoff of a major win over a ranked opponent, or a special season where everything comes together. It’s only “they didn’t show up” type of games. The Big Red will still have an opportunity to get some wins that would be very meaningful to the fan base, namely against USC, Penn State, and Iowa. Winning one or more of those would go a long way toward making a game like this easier to swallow.
Sacks, Sacks, and More Sacks. At this point, the sacks are on everybody. At times, offensive linemen completely got beat by Minnesota’s defenders. Other times, quarterback Dylan Raiola held the ball too long. It’s been such a problem this season, you have to start questioning the coaching as well. What is happening with the scheme that Raiola keeps ending up on the ground? Are the offensive linemen not being coached properly? Are receivers not getting open? Is Dylan not seeing them? Why do we stick with this straight drop back game over and over? Could we not try more run-pass options, slants, screens…something to try to keep the defense off balance?!?! It’s maddening to watch, and there is absolutely more going on than just offensive linemen getting beat repeatedly.
Run. The. BALL!!!!!! According to a tweet from Omaha World Herald reporter Sam McKewon, Nebraska called 38 pass plays and only 16 runs. This is getting really old. Nebraska is flat out not committed to the run game on a consistent basis, in a league where you absolutely have to be able to run the ball. The Huskers’ inability to run the ball played right into Minnesota’s game plan, and it is sickening to watch other teams beat Nebraska at something we used to do better than anyone: smash mouth football. Rhule has talked about being committed to the run, but that’s simply not what we’ve seen this season.
It seems to me that Nebraska still doesn’t know what its identity is, especially on offense. I don’t want the Huskers ever to settle for being Minnesota or Iowa, but those teams know exactly who they are and how they want to win. It’s hard to say the same is true of Nebraska football.
BOTTOM LINE
Despite all the frustration from Friday night’s loss, my Common Fan Podcast co-host MattyO made a great point the day after the game: we still have five games left, and I want to enjoy them. We only get to do this 12 Saturdays a year, and the Huskers have nearly half a season left to play. As infuriating as it was watching the game (and still is thinking back on it), Nebraska has done a lot of good things this season, and we shouldn’t write off their ability to bounce back. Win against Northwestern this week, and they’ll be 6-2, bowl eligible, and we’ll see what they can do in November.
Speaking of Northwestern, the Wildcats will come into Lincoln at 5-2, much better than most people predicted prior to the season. They just beat Purdue (which put up 20 points on the way to almost beating Minnesota) 19-0, and this will not be an easy out for the Big Red. This is an important test for Matt Rhule’s young team. They need to get up off the mat and show that they can be the ones to throw a punch.
As always, GBR for LIFE.
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The future of data centers in Nebraska took center stage at a North Omaha town hall Thursday evening.
The event was hosted by State Sens. Terrell McKinney and Ashlei Spivey, who alongside Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh sponsored a bill in the Nebraska Legislature that looked to help regulate data centers.
Parts of their bill were adopted and passed in LB1010, which requires reports on annual power usage, water usage and ownership.
“Having this passed in a package showed a lot of bipartisan work,” Spivey told a crowd of attendees at Nelson Mandela Elementary School.
The proposed regulations were shaped in part by Bold Nebraska, an advocacy group focused on eminent domain and clean energy. Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party and founder of Bold Nebraska, said before the bill passed there were “zero laws on the books” to address a boom in data centers.
“If one is coming into the community, we wanted to make sure that there were some basic transparency things in place,” Kleeb said.
Political discussions around data centers heated up in recent months following reporting by the Flatwater Free Press that showed Google is considering a data center in Nebraska that could require more than three times the amount of power the entire city of Lincoln uses at peak demand in the summer.
The Nebraska Legislature recently passed another bill, LB1261, that allows private developers to build and own power plants to serve a large industrial customer, including data centers. That bill was proposed by the governor’s office and celebrated by Gov. Jim Pillen.
“Our state is once again taking a bold and strategic step – one that will create an environment that attracts business and multibillion dollar investment, while legally preserving Nebraska’s unique and consumer-friendly public power model,” Pillen said at the time.
At Thursday’s town hall, McKinney called LB1261 “the bogeyman bill.”
“It’s a bill that the governor pushed through the legislature to allow for data centers to create their own power,” McKinney said. “It’s a bill that I stood on the floor and said this is going to harm our communities.”
LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – Hundreds of people are without power in southeast Nebraska after a severe storm passed through Thursday morning.
The Lincoln Electric System outage map showed 115 customers without power across the city at 11:36 a.m.
Norris Public Power District’s outage map also shows 45 customers affected by the storm. As of 11:36 a.m., there were nine active outages.
According to the Nebraska Public Power District outage map, 657 customers were affected by the storm. Most of the affected customers were near Plattsmouth in southeast Nebraska. As of 11:37 a.m., 27 customers remain without power.
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Mandatory evacuations have been ordered near Crawford, including Fort Robinson State Park, as the South Fork Fire continues to spread in western Nebraska.
According to the City of Crawford, evacuations are currently underway for an area north of Crawford that includes the area south of Dodd Road, west of Dodd Road, and FF Street.
Fort Robinson has also been evacuated.
The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission said Fort Robinson State Park and Peterson Wildlife Management Area have been temporarily closed due to the fire.
The fire has burned approximately 9,000 acres and is currently 0% contained, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
Nebraska Game and Parks said the park and the WMA will remain closed until further notice to support firefighting operations and protect public safety.
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