Year 3 of the Matt Rhule era at Nebraska is essentially in the books, and it couldn't have ended in a worse way. With a 40-16 loss, It felt all game long that the Huskers just didn't want to be there, that they were more worried about making mistakes than just going out and playing.
Nebraska fans have seen plenty of that in the last few years. It never works out. The team inevitably always makes mind-numbing mistakes. On Saturday, they made enough mistakes that they allowed a mediocre Iowa offense look like a juggernaut. John Butler's unit, for the second game in a row, had no answer for the running game or the passing game.
For what felt like the 12th straight game, the defense missed tackles and took bad angles at precisely the wrong time. When the smoke cleared, Nebraska likely played its worst game of the season on both offense and defense. Now, as the Huskers head to a bowl game that few will be very excited to watch, there are far more questions surrounding this program than there should be.
Nebraska football offers more questions than answers in season finale
Emmett Johnson was the only bright spot of the Cornhuskers' embarrassing blowout in Memorial Stadium. As he has been for most of the season, he was the best player on the field. But that also begs the question. Is Dana Holgorsen the answer at offensive coordinator?
The offensive attack didn't look all that great in the Big Ten season unless Emmett Johnson was carrying it. On Friday, EJ had 239 yards of total offense. Nebraska had 39 yards of offense on plays that did not involve Johnson. Thirty-Nine.
Meanwhile, is John Butler the answer on defense? In the final two games of the season, the Huskers allowed 37 and 40 points. 37 to a Penn State team playing without its starting quarterback and its head coach.
40 points to an Iowa offense whose season high against a Power 4 team was 41, against Minnesota.
Indeed, execution is a problem, but the number of times Nebraska has lined up with three men on the line on 2nd or 3rd and short has become rather comical. He's seemingly been outschemed by any team with an offensive pulse.
And of course, the biggest question is whether Matt Rhule is the answer for the Huskers. This team hasn't shown a great deal of improvement from Week 1 to Week 13. It could be argued that it's shown no progress at all since Week 1 of last season to Week 13 of this season.
7-5 against this schedule was a failure of a season. Many, many questions will follow this staff and team now that the postseason has arrived. Not the least of which is how is Iowa this much better than Nebraska year after year?