[Husker] Cap bowl

[Steve Reichenbach]

> Methinks the SEC/Gamecocks are too much for Taylor Martinez and mates.

That was sort of my thinking before the game, but despite weaknesses on
the Husker team, this was a game the Huskers could have won.  I was left
thinking that despite those weaknesses, NU may have been the better team.

Certainly, NU has some things to fix.  The DE play contributed little
to the team's successes this year.  The OLine is young and inconsistent.
Many of the receivers are talented but young and inconsistent.  Martinez
is improving but still makes a fair number of mistakes.  The LBs were
not up to what might have been expected (except David).  The secondary
was not as good as the past few years.  There is a lot of youth, so the
potential is there, but losing Crick, Denard, and David will leave some
holes on the defensive side.

Still, NU was pretty successful stopping a top-10 team both running
(except some QB scrambles) and passing (except a couple of big plays).
And, on offense, NU looked like it was going to take control for more
than half the game.  So, despite problems, NU is not that far from
being a top-10 team.

I am worried about some other issues and patterns.  One is that this
team seems to lack concentration, focus, and composure at critical
points.  I wonder if Bo's demeanor contributes.  At any rate, I think
that for Bo to grow as a coach, this is an issue that he needs to
consider.  I'm not sure how one gets a team to play with more focus,
concentration, and composure --- that's not my job --- but hopefully
Bo and the other coaches will come up with some answers.

Also, I worry that programs have trajectories that can be as much
or more difficult to maintain than initiate.  Bo and the other coaches
put NU on a great trajectory, but if NU doesn't take the next steps
then what will be the consequences on that trajectory.  Will it hurt
recruiting, interest, etc.

I take some comfort that many were asking the same questions after
Nebraska's last Citrus Bowl game --- a loss to Georgia Tech that I
thought was one of the worst games I'd seen a Nebraska team play.
(Granted, I'd only been watching for 25 years or so at that point
during which NU had played pretty good football.)  SI ran an article
that talked about how NU couldn't succeed with the new recruiting
restrictions.  The DN expressed what many thought in editorializing
that TO wouldn't be able to take NU to the MNC and should resign.
Only local businesses buying up tickets kept the sell-out streak
alive.  I thought that the future didn't look bright for NU, but
thought that getting rid of Osborne --- a coach who had NU consistently
compete for the conference title and put itself in the national
discussion --- because the measuring stick was winning a MNC would
be destructive to the program.  My question was who, if anyone,
could NU get who would be a better coach.

>From the telling of it, the NU coaches asked themselves what they
needed to change and they changed some things.  The turnaround
wasn't immediate, but the gloom and doom and worries about trajectory
slowly began to fade.  The next year, NU played hard but lost at home
to a Washington team that was clearly a 'whole nother level' better
and was blanked by Miami 22-0 in its bowl.  The year after that,
Washington won again, NU lost at Ames looking bad, and FSU handled
NU pretty easily in the bowl.  But, the year after that, NU went
undefeated in the regular season and likely would have knocked off
FSU in the bowl game except for a penalty call.  That year was the
first of what may be the greatest five-year runs in college football.

I don't know that anyone knows what accounted for the success.  There
is credit given to the unity council and certainly some key recruits
played a role.  Another unspoken factor may have been in the training
regime.  Whatever the factors were, within three years, NU was the #2
team in the country within a whisker of the MNC and at the beginning
of a great run of championships.

So, now we are a period with the same questions being asked in 1990
(although I'd say there may have been even more quesions in 1990)..
Will the coaches and players find the answers?  How will the fans
react if it takes another three years to become a top-10 team again?
As fans, history tells us to support the team and expect the coaches
to look for and find the paths of improvement.

Go Big Red!