Has the Nebraska football fanbase every been “low maintenance?” According to Omaha World-Herald writer Sam McKewon, not only has it been, but it is at the present moment.
McKewon was writing about the sights and sounds of Big Ten football during last week’s media days, when he talked about the expectations of the Huskers for the 2024 season. In his recent column, he compared expectations of Husker fans compared to say, USC.
Nebraska football fanbase still isn’t low maintenance despite lower expectations
“At Nebraska, the bar, for now, is lower,” McKewon wrote. “But Husker coach Matt Rhule, with unprecedented resources in his career, nevertheless has an ongoing list — currently at 17 to-do items — that can make the program better. He’s not aiming for a run of seven-win seasons.”
This is where the writer go it right. The expectations are lower. Most people will be happy with six wins and a bowl game. This year.
“And, again, even 6-6 will scratch some of the fans’ itch in 2024. Husker Nation is still a low-maintenance, easy-to-please fan base.”
Here’s where someone who has been covering the Huskers as long as he has gets it weirdly wrong. The first part that sticks out is the idea that NU fans are “still” low maintenance.
That would imply they’ve been that way before. And for a while. And are right now.
None of those things are really true. Low expectations don’t make fans any lower maintenance.
Last season is case in point for that argument. The Nebraska football fanbase is where it was in 2023. No one was talking about national titles. No one was honestly talking about Big Ten titles.
The talk was a bowl game. The first steps towards getting back. And despite that, there were calls for offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield to be fired after one game. Those calls for his departure really never went away.
They somehow blamed him for the insane number of turnovers Nebraska saw last year. When it was pointed out he wasn’t the one throwing the ball to the other team, allegations that he recruited a turnover-prone quarterback were somehow a sign of his incompetence.
McKewon was, by the way, one of those pretending that Satterfield’s offense somehow led to interceptions.
There were also plenty of fans who were talking about Matt Rhule potentially being the wrong hire. Especially after his first year team went from 5-3 to 5-7. These were first year head coaches. And some people already had them on the chopping block.
That’s not low maintenance. Even if you agree with the calls that Satterfield isn’t right for the job. Even if you never had faith in Rhule, calling for their jobs weeks into their first season is very much not low maintenance.
Low maintenance has never been a Nebraska football hallmark
What really got me, what really stuck in my craw about a relatively benign sentence was the “still.” It just doesn’t make a ton of sense.
The argument could be made that fans were fairly low maintenance during the Scott Frost years. His losses and the way he lost and the moronic things he said after those losses should have led to people turning on him far quicker than they did.
But it’s not like even the fanbase that was giving Frost all sorts of excuses, such as the close losses weren’t still calling for blood.
Whether it was his assistants (I’ll admit, I grew tired of them quickly) or recent UFL MVP Adrian Martinez, someone was always on the chopping block.
Someone should ask Bo Pelini, Mike Riley, Bill Callahan, or Frank Solich how low-maintenance the Nebraska football fanbase has been. Go ask Tom Osborne, who famously entertained offers from other programs because he was tired of being told that he wasn’t winning enough. Despite going on an unprecedented streak of non-losing seasons.
And it’s not like the Husker fanbase was all that low-maintenance even during the glory years. The expectations just changed. From “can we please beat Oklahoma or Miami” to “how many National Championships can we win?”
Remember when fans chanted for Frankie London right before halftime after eventual national champion quarterback Scott Frost wasn’t putting up dazzling enough numbers? Frost sure does. He’s carried that grudge with him for decades.
High maintenance is in the Nebraska football fans’ blood
Having been a part of the things that makes Husker nation “high maintenance” I need to make it clear it’s not necessarily a bad thing. We’re high maintenance because we were spoiled with decades of great football. We wanted to see the team reach new heights.
Those demands, while they weren’t always appreciated by Osborne, did eventually help spur him to change his approach, both on the field and in recruiting. It’s safe to say that if the fans were “still low maintenance” back in the 1990s, they might have never won it all.
Sometimes, we, as a group can go way overboard (though not on Bo Pelini, he needed fired) and sometimes, like these days, it feels like most people understand what they can reasonably expect. However, one thing is very true.
Once Matt Rhule gets the Huskers back to a bowl game, there will be plenty who suddenly feel it’s not enough. And then the cycle will begin anew.
I don’t know exactly why the idea that Nebraska football fans are, or have ever been low maintenance. Other than it seems to be a fundamental (maybe intentional) misunderstanding of the relationship between the fanbase and this program.