5 things we learned from Nebraska football loss to Colorado

It was a rude awakening for Nebraska football on Saturday in Boulder and here are five things we learned in the Huskers’ loss.

The preseason optimism that Nebraska football fans had came crashing down to Earth on Saturday as Colorado ran away from the Huskers in a 36-14 win.

Nebraska was a three-point underdog and lost by 22 points. The Huskers had four turnovers. Two of those came on their own side of the field, basically gifting points to one of the most explosive offenses in the country.

Jeff Sims was terrible and this team didn’t look ready. Matt Rhule didn’t have much to say afterward, other than that it will get fixed. Well, we have heard that before, and here are five things we learned from the Nebraska football loss to Colorado on Saturday.

Rhule messed up with Jeff Sims

Through two games, Sims looks like a disaster. He couldn’t even handle the snap on Saturday, dropping it twice, leading to fumbles. He also signaled for the snap too early, forcing a field goal attempt instead of allowing the Huskers to run a play on a third-and-short in Colorado territory.

In the first half, the Huskers got inside the Colorado 30 twice and got zero points. Last week, Nebraska football was inside the 10 twice against Minnesota and got three.

That’s a quarterback problem. And make no mistake, Sims is an issue.

Nebraska would be at least 1-1 with Casey Thompson and if he were the quarterback yesterday, it probably would have been a competitive game.

And frankly, the QB depth is thin, Nebraska has no other options, which makes the decision to go all-in on Sims even worse by Rhule, who flubbed one of the first big decisions of his tenure.

Cameron Lenhardt is a stud

There were a lot of bad things that happened on Saturday, but Nebraska football also notched eight sacks, which is the most since the 2009 Big 12 championship game.

And freshman Cameron Lenahrdt came away with two. They were each in the first half, not in garbage time or anything. Ty Robinson was out in the first half, but Lenhardt made it not really matter.

The former four-star EDGE was selected as a preseason All-American and through two games, he has looked the part and if you need a positive from Saturday, Lenhardt’s play is one.

Turnovers are killing Nebraska

Sims wasn’t the only guy to put the ball on the ground. Gabe Ervin had a fumble too as Nebraska was trying to come back and also, the defense has forced just two turnovers in two games.

One takeaway per game isn’t enough. Meanwhile, Nebraska is also giving the ball away four times per game, which is why this team is sitting at 0-2.

Colorado had more penalties than Nebraska, but the Huskers had some painful ones in key situations. However, no team is going to win with a -3 turnover ratio in a game.

What’s baffling is that many of these turnovers are self-inflicted wounds, which is what is so frustrating. Rhule was supposed to address these problems and because of Sims, a quarterback with 23 interceptions in 25 career games before coming to Nebraska, it’s gotten even worse.

Prime shows rebuilding is a thing of the past

Yes, Deion Sanders had some built-in advantages. Matt Rhule didn’t have a way of landing Shedeur Sanders or Travis Hunter, but the point remains the same: rebuilding is a thing of the past.

TCU and USC showed that last season, as did Michigan State in 2021. Colorado is just the latest program to turn things around quickly, although it’s more dramatic.

If Rhule thinks he’s getting years to rebuild this thing, he’s mistaken. Nebraska is good enough to win now. A decent quarterback would help and he’s responsible for the signal-caller, so the head coach doesn’t get a pass because he screwed up selecting his hand-picked QB from the portal.

Rhule essentially told Thompson to leave which makes this all even worse. And I don’t buy for a second that Nebraska was in such bad shape that this season was always going to be a waste.

If you have a good head coach, you can win right away in college football. So far, Rhule isn’t getting the job done and the rebuilding excuse is just that an excuse.

Tony White is a star

One of the positive hires Rhule made was defensive coordinator Tony White. The defense wore down and frankly, played badly at times in the second half, especially with all of the third downs it gave up.

But there were some positive signs. The eight sacks were good and I loved how White was mixing things up by bringing pressure or dropping into coverage. He had Shedeur Sanders guessing for a little bit.

Sanders figured it out in the second half. His athletes are also a lot better than the guys Nebraska has on defense and that’s obvious when Isaac Gifford is covering Travis Hunter down the field one-on-one.

That’s not a matchup Gifford is going to win very often. But White has shown some good things for two weeks and not to mention the Huskers have allowed only 113 yards rushing.

If the offense can get out of its own way, the defense is good enough for this team to win some games, but the way Sims is playing now makes it feel like the Huskers are headed for 3-4 wins.

As much as it pains me to say it.

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