Nebraska Football: Huskers are far from conference villain

Nebraska football may have been outspoken, but they are not the villain.

I came across this piece written a couple days ago by Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports that suggested Nebraska football was the new villain of the Big Ten. Did they make their opinions known? Yes, in fact they did. Are they the villain of the conference? No, not at this point anyway.

At the end of the day, Nebraska football and head coach Scott Frost want to play football. They aren’t badmouthing or cheat any of their opponents. They just want to play. To his credit, Wetzel gave Nebraska credit for standing up for themselves. That is certainly more credit than certain national media outlets have given the Huskers over the past week.

Is the Nebraska football program a villain in the eyes of the national media? Yes, I think Nebraska is not looked at favorably right now. Are they the villain of the Big Ten? No. there are a few factors why this is not the case. Hopefully, they will be the villain of the conference sooner rather than later.

For starters, there needs to be consistency in that winning football games if they want to be considered a villain. Sports media has certainly had their fun criticizing the Huskers, but we also saw several Big Ten coaches stand up for Nebraska. Urban Meyer was one of them, and for that, I tip my cap to him.

Surely this will all blow over soon and this isn’t something that will make Nebraska have villain status. To have villain status, you have to be either very good on the field, or extremely outspoken. Especially in a conference where football reigns supreme, Nebraska has fallen low on the totem pole in that regard. They have kept quiet on major college football matters. That’s perhaps why the stand they took last week was so big. In the meantime, Scott Frost and the coaching staff are working hard to make them relevant again.

Certainly, Frost’s comments earlier in the week helped them achieve that goal. they have received more national recognition than at any point in recent weeks. Their contest against Ohio State and the week leading up to it was the last time, in my estimation, that they received any major national recognition. Now, while football is in a bit of a lull, they are receiving more than perhaps they bargained for.

Does the added attention make them a villain? No. It does drum up some interesting conversation pieces. Nevertheless, labeling a rebuilding program a villain in a conference full of consistently successful teams seems a bit premature.