close
close

Association-anemone

Bite-sized brilliance in every update

    • College Football Week 10 Misery Index: Nebraska starts to fade November
    asane

    College Football Week 10 Misery Index: Nebraska starts to fade November

    Online Niel Posted on

    play

    The problem with Nebraska starts with the name, the mascot, the essence of the place.

    They are called Cornhuskers.

    As legend has it, the term actually came from a 1900 sportswriter named Cy Sherman, who began using the name “Cornhuskers” to refer to the football team that was then called the Nebraska Bugeaters. A few years later, it stalled.

    These days, we have a lot of mascots in sports that represent relics of the old world: Knights, Pirates, Raptors, Trojans, Knights. We could go on and on.

    For the people of Nebraska, the name Cornhuskers represents a similar tradition, but with a more personal and meaningful touch. It signifies the hard and noble work of the farmers who settled the Great Plains and nurtured America, a lifestyle that went hand in hand with football as they saw it in their 20s.th century.

    But in the modern world, corn crops are processed by machines that can handle several tons per hour. The industry has evolved. There are no real corn huskers anymore.

    The state’s other major commercial crop, however, did not fare well. Nebraska football still does the same thing every year.

    After starting 5-1 and looking like a lock to make the postseason for the first time since 2016 — yes, you read that right — Nebraska’s season is back on the ropes after a 27-20 loss to UCLA.

    The level of catastrophe in this outcome is difficult to fully and accurately convey. It’s not just that UCLA was 2-5 or that Nebraska was playing at home or that the Bruins pretty much dominated the game and took a 27-7 lead midway through the third quarter.

    It’s the model.

    Last year, Nebraska was 5-3 with winnable games remaining. It ended with 5-7. In 2022, Nebraska was 3-3 and lost its next five games. In 2021, Nebraska was 3-3 and yet to find a stinker. In 2019, the Huskers were 4-2 and missed out on bowl eligibility as they lost five of their last six and couldn’t beat 4-8 Purdue.

    So the November crash is not only real, it’s as predictable as the fall harvest. And to the horror of Nebraska fans, it’s happening again.

    At 5-4, Nebraska needs to win in Southern California, beat Wisconsin or go to Iowa the day after Thanksgiving and win in Kinnick Stadium to become bowl eligible and prevent another horrible slide at the end the season.

    It won’t be easy, especially considering how difficult things have been offensively for freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola in recent weeks. Nebraska has scored a total of 58 points in its last four games.

    At this point, no one expects coach Matt Rhule to launch the Huskers out of nowhere into national title contention. He won at Temple, he won at Baylor, and it would be one of the most amazing developments in recent college football history if he doesn’t eventually win at Nebraska.

    But still, there is no excuse or good explanation for losing at home to a very bad UCLA team. After paying Rhule a lot of money (he’s owed $56 million after this season) to break this intolerable streak, a mascot in blue jeans and a red cowboy hat representing a 1900s rancher who doesn’t- and husk your own corn is enough false advertising.

    UP AND DOWN: Ohio State leads the Week 10 winners and losers

    That’s why Nebraska is No. 1 on the Misery Index, a weekly measurement of the programs feeling the most angst.

    Four more in the mess

    Penn State: A lot of people can watch the same movie over and over, but still find it captivating, even if they know every line to the letter. Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, for example, claimed to watch “The Town” several times a week. Here at Misery Index, “Casino” is that movie you just have to click on if you see it on the TV guide. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve seen it, it’s still awesome.

    Penn State football is the opposite. It’s the movie that no one in their fan base wants to watch over and over again.

    Anyone who invested time and emotion in this program over the past decade under James Franklin felt it deep in their loins when the Nittany Lions stood on the 3-yard line with a chance to tie or take the lead against Ohio State less than seven. minutes to go: Penn State had no way to score. They didn’t, being stuffed three times before Drew Allar threw an incompletion in the end zone. Penn State didn’t touch the ball again in a 20-13 loss, dropping Franklin to 1-14 against top five teams and 3-18 against top 10 teams.

    THE TIRED ACT: James Franklin, Penn State are short again

    Clemson: what is he doing a 33-21 loss at home to Louisville so annoying is that Clemson fans were convinced that many of the problems of the last few years were fixed. And why shouldn’t it have been? After an embarrassing 34-3 loss to open the season against Georgia, the Tigers played very well over the next six games, especially on offense. At the very least, Clemson looked like a team ready to compete for the ACC title and a spot in the College Football Playoff. But it turned out to be an orange mirage, and Clemson won’t make the CFP unless it can win the ACC title. They just don’t have good earnings. Beating Appalachian State, North Carolina State, Stanford, Florida State, Wake Forest and Virginia isn’t impressive when you’ve been beaten by the two best teams on the schedule.

    That’s the reality for Dabo Swinney right now. Clemson is not the best program in the ACC. That would be Miami. It’s not even second best because it would be SMU. National championships are now long in the rearview mirror, and the Tigers are pretty mediocre.

    Arizona: It’s almost impossible to believe now, but the Wildcats were actually ranked 21stSt in the preseason US LBM Coaches Poll. Even with Arizona comeback architect Jedd Fisch gone to Washington, the return of quarterback Noah Fifita and receiver Tetairoa McMillan gave the Wildcats a 1-2 punch on offense that should have been the foundation for many points. Instead, Arizona’s offense has fallen off a cliff under head coach Brent Brennan and offensive coordinator Dino Babers.

    Entering the week, the Wildcats were ranked 71stSt nationally in total crime and 98th in scoring. It was more of the same Saturday in a 56-12 loss to UCF, dropping the Wildcats to 3-6, as Fifita once again struggled in this new system. Arizona is without a doubt one of the most disappointing teams in the nation.

    Chestnut: An Iron Bowl will be played on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, as it always is. But this year, the Alabama state championship has already been won — by Vanderbilt of all teams. The Commodores completed an Auburn-Alabama sweep and became bowl eligible with a 17-7 victory at Jordan-Hare Stadium. It shouldn’t have been a huge surprise. Vanderbilt is a pretty decent team that has been competitive against everyone in the SEC. Auburn is a 3-6 team in need of a miracle to avoid a fourth straight losing season.

    At this point, Auburn fans must be asking themselves, “How did it get to this?” Well, Diego Pavia played a huge crazy role. The Vanderbilt quarterback beat Auburn last year when he was at New Mexico State. And even before that, in 2022, then-Liberty coach Hugh Freeze beat him 49-14. If you’re one of those people who paid Freeze $6.5 million a year to come to Auburn, it’s fair to wonder if Pavia would have been a better investment.

    Miserable, but not miserable enough

    Georgia: At this point in the season, you’ll find broad agreement in college football that Georgia is the team most likely to win the national championship. The depth of talent is unmatched. The coach’s record is impeccable. In wins over Texas and Clemson, they’ve already shown they can beat some of the best teams in the country. But is Carson Beck good enough to lead the Bulldogs to the promised land? It’s a legitimate question for Georgia fans to ask. Because even in a 34-20 win over Florida, a game that was tied deep into the fourth quarter, Beck threw three interceptions. That gives him 11 for the season and eight in the last three weeks. He just makes too many mistakes and Georgia fans will have heartburn every time he drops back to throw.

    Virginia Tech: A year ago, Syracuse decided the program’s 6-6 trajectory wasn’t good enough and hired Fran Brown, who was the defensive backs coach at Georgia, to replace Dino Babers. It is a decision that has paid off nicely. Syracuse is now 6-2 and riding high after defeating Virginia Tech 38-31 in overtime.

    Meanwhile, Virginia Tech fans watched their team blow out a 21-3 lead and give up a 14-play touchdown run late in regulation to tie things up with 29 seconds left against a team that hadn’t advanced since 7 last year’s 6 record under Brent Pry. If you’re jealous of the excitement of Syracuse football fans, there may be a problem with your schedule.

    Oklahoma State: For the second week in a row, we ask where the fire is with Mike Gundy, a team that was projected to be a College Football Playoff contender sinks to 3-6 (0-6 in the Big 12) after going 42-21. home loss to Arizona State. Obviously, this season is gone and never coming back. So we can go to the big picture here, which starts with the following statement Gundy made in his postgame press conference.

    “I’m not sure we agreed with our plans,” said Gundy, who more often than not looks bored coming into his early 20s.th season. “There are some things I don’t really agree with.”

    Although he declined to elaborate, it’s a pretty weird thing to say. And it raises more than a few questions — questions like, Aren’t you… the head coach? Are you talking to your coordinators? Do you attend meetings? Are you going to practice? And if there are things in the scheme and game plan that you don’t agree with, aren’t you the person with the power to change them?

    Wisconsin: The great thing about the Badgers’ rivalry with Iowa is how similar the two programs are. They’re the Big Ten’s best, playing a special brand of Midwestern football that conjures up images of frostbite, beer and heavy bruising. Out of 98 meetings, only two wins separate them. In many ways, they are one of the best measuring sticks of the others – and now the reading is clear. Wisconsin lost touch with its rival after a 42-10 Iowa victory. Two years later it was Luke Fickell, why aren’t the Badgers better than this? Why are they on a three-game losing streak against the Hawkeyes, none of them particularly close? Why do the Badgers feel like they’ve been relegated to the third or fourth tier of Big Ten programs? Between 1998 and 2019, Wisconsin was basically a top-25 seed. Now, the Badgers are just jumping into the middle of the Big Ten rankings.

    Online Niel
    View all posts

    You Might Also Like