3 thoughts as Nebraska football turns the page to Ohio State

To be honest, I didn’t expect to sitting here on Monday morning following a 56-7 defeat for Nebraska football. As foolish as it sounds, I actually expected the Huskers to win the game.

Or at least be competitive. I didn’t expect Indiana to score five rushing touchdowns or 56 points. That was as shocking to me as it was to Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule.

“I didn’t see this coming,” Rhule said after the blowout loss. 

Nobody did. Not the local pundits, not the national college football analysts — not anyone. It wouldn’t have been surprising if Indiana won the game. The Hoosiers are a good team — even better than we realized.

But the way Nebraska football lost was stunning and here are three final thoughts on Indiana before turning the page to the Ohio State game.

Marcus Satterfield shouldn’t be calling plays

Putting together a staff is probably the most important job of a college football head coach. Matt Rhule turned to people he knew and trusted and so far, that looks like a mistake.

Marcus Satterfield worked with Rhule previously. He was hired from South Carolina, but despite being the 14th-highest-paid OC in college football, the results have been a disaster.

The Huskers rank 91st in scoring (25 PPG). In Big Ten games, the Huskers are averaging just 18.2 points per game. Satterfield has coordinated 13 Big Ten games and only once has Nebraska scored 30.

Indiana scored more points against Nebraska than the Huskers scored in the previous three games combined. It’s hard to criticize play calls. But you can’t argue with the results. They haven’t been anywhere near good enough and I think it’s time to give Glenn Thomas a shot.

There needs to be accountability at some point. The special teams coordinator and offensive coordinator aren’t getting the job done. I get waiting until the end of the season but this offense needs a spark. Oklahoma and Utah also moved on from their offensive coordinators, so it’s not crazy.

Maybe that’s not the right move but a change needs to be on the table. How could it not be?

The run game has to get going

People will talk about Dylan Raiola, but the biggest issue with the offense is that the Huskers can’t run the ball. They ran the ball well last season but that was due to Heinrich Haarberg in the run game.

Without the QB run game, Nebraska football is averaging just 3.7 yards per attempt. They have been held under four yards per attempt in three of four Big Ten games.

Nebraska is averaging 34 rushing attempts per game for 93 yards in Big Ten play (2.7 yards per carry). That’s not bad. That’s atrocious and until that gets resolved, this offense will continue to be stuck in the mud.

It’s gut check time for Matt Rhule

It was stunning to see Rhule say that he didn’t see this blowout loss coming. That was the most disturbing thing of his 19-game tenure — worse than the fact that he appears to have whiffed on two of his three coordinator hires, not to mention his hand-picked QB last season Jeff Sims.

Rhule has talked all offseason about how much talent this team has. The Nebraska football head coach has everything he needs to win — at least against teams like Indiana. Maybe not Ohio State or Oregon, but it was the Indiana Hoosiers who routed Nebraska by 49 points — one year after going 1-11.

The next five games could define the tenure of Rhule. Good or bad.

Nebraska needs to get off the mat. Another beatdown Saturday in Columbus could shatter the mental makeup of this team heading into a crucial four-game stretch.

Unless Nebraska pulls one of the biggest upsets in program history against Ohio State, the Huskers will be 5-3 needing a win to reach a bowl game, just like last season.

The closing schedule isn’t easy. Nebraska gets UCLA and Wisconsin at home, as well as winnable road games against USC and Iowa. The Huskers could go 4-0. They could also go 0-4.

Rhule needs to win at least one more game and get to a bowl. If not, the pressure heading into the 2025 season will be unimaginable.

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