If Nebraska fans had been told before the season started that the Huskers would finish the regular season 8-4 and that two of their losses would be three-point defeats to Indiana and Oregon, most would have accepted that prediction without hesitation.
In college football, things rarely play out the way anyone expects. That's what makes the sport so great. It's also why an 8-4 finish, even if it is technically an improvement over Matt Rhule's first three years in Lincoln, won't feel like real progress. Instead, it will feel like another season of "what could have been," with questions about whether the Huskers' head coach can take the program where it should be.
One thing Matt Rhule deserves credit for: when he believes a staff coach isn't doing the job, loyalty doesn't get in the way. Over his first three years, he's made numerous staff changes. Entering Year 4 this season, Marcus Satterfield is the only on-field coach who has been alongside Rhule since Year 1. Even Satterfield was demoted from OC to tight end coach.
The problem is that it's unclear whether Rhule's changes have really changed anything. Some changes, like letting Mike Ekeler go after one season because the two men apparently didn't get along well, seem to have set Nebraska back.
Matt Rhule faces bigger Nebraska football questions after late collapses against Indiana and Oregon
Then there's bringing in famed offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen. The offensive coordinator who proclaimed 2026 the year he could really cut loose and call his offense after replacing Dylan Raiola with Anthony Colandrea. For the first five games of the season, the Huskers appeared to have a different, more explosive offense.
Then came those three point losses to Indiana and Oregon. It's not just that Nebraska scored just 17 and 14 points in the last two games. It's that the offense went into a shell in the fourth quarter. They've been outscored 25-7 in the game's final period. Worse, they faced that fourth quarter deficit with the period in both games beginning with a Husker lead.
That's not just a Holgorsen problem, obviously. That's a team-wide issue. Nobody's really doing their job. But it raises a question. Is this the best a Rhule staff can do? Is getting close to knocking off the defending national champion the best fans can expect?
On a day when the No. 1, No. 2, No. 5, No. 6, and No. 7 teams in the country all lost, Nebraska fans have the right to ask why it's never them. Why don't they ever see the kind of rise the Hoosiers have seen under Curt Cignetti, or what UCLA is getting with Bob Chesney?
If the Huskers win 8 games this year, two things can be true at once. Matt Rhule has shown the kind of progress that makes it clear his job is not in jeopardy. But even if they finish the campaign 9-4 after bowl season, it will be the emptiest, most frustrating 9-4 record in Nebraska football history.
Something's got to change. The problem is that it doesn't look like whatever it is will change, even though Rhule and his staff are clearly trying.
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