by T.J. Birkel
Nebraska lost in all too familiar fashion against Illinois on Friday night, squandering a 4th quarter lead and making too many mistakes to overcome. We’re going to dispense with the usual categories and just dive right to the topline takeaways from the evening.
Time to Reassess Expectations for the 2024 Season. It’s frustrating enough that some of the same old issues from the last several years of Nebraska football reared their heads on Friday. Untimely penalties. Missed opportunities on offense. A missed field goal. As usual, the Huskers were not good enough to overcome their mistakes. But of much greater concern to me was the performance of the defense. Illinois quarterback Luke Altmyer had time to throw all night, receivers were running wide open, and perhaps most concerning, the Illini seemed to run the ball with ease, especially when they needed it most. If anyone has earned the benefit of the doubt, it’s Nebraska defensive coordinator Tony White. It’s not ridiculous to hope he can get the defense back on track; there’s plenty of season left.
But after Friday, it’s hard not to wonder what the ceiling is for this team. It seems the hype train after Nebraska beat Colorado on the way to a 3-0 start took on a little too much steam. National media types like Kirk Herbstreit predicted the Huskers would be 7-0 going into the Ohio State game on October 26. Husker fans even had dreams of the playoff dancing in their heads. Last night showed that was premature.
There’s still plenty to play for this season, and I’m in no way giving up on this team. But we need to remember that many observers were saying in the offseason that getting to a bowl game was the logical next step for this team; I remember thinking I’d be thrilled if they won seven or eight games. This is still a team learning how to win, and it was probably too much to expect there wouldn’t be any bumps in the road along the way. Let’s see how the Big Red gets up off the mat, starting with the game at Purdue next week.
Little Things Add Up. On Nebraska’s first scoring drive…