Washington 17 Nebraska 10 – Someone Needs to Be Fired

I’m writing this from my sister’s bathroom in Lincoln. It’s a much nicer bathroom than mine. It’s also the only quiet place I could find after Nebraska vs Washington, a 17-10 loss that was bad enough that somebody should lose their job over it. The rest of the day was good. I saw old friends […]
I’m writing this from my sister’s bathroom in Lincoln. It’s a much nicer bathroom than mine. It’s also the only quiet place I could find after Nebraska vs Washington, a 17-10 loss that was bad enough that somebody should lose their job over it.
The rest of the day was good. I saw old friends at a tailgate that I hadn’t seen in a long time. The Blackout looked great. Memorial Stadium was loud. Then the game started.
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BTW. This article is a SUMMARY of the video. It has been cleaned up. If you want to see the real frustration, watch the video.

I’ve already gotten the texts. Worst officiating ever, and so on. I don’t care. Not one bit.
The officials didn’t put up seven points for most of a football game against a team that isn’t one of the best in the country. Nebraska did that. If that’s the offense we’re getting for the rest of this era, then Dana Holgorsen should be fired. I think he’s a good offensive coordinator. If he’s not getting the job done on his side of the ball, though, somebody has to go.
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Here’s what bothers me most. One part of this team played its tails off.
The Blackshirts held a Big Ten team to three points through three quarters. Washington had 146 yards and one rushing yard going into the fourth. They tackled. They did their jobs. They didn’t force a turnover, which hurt, but you could see them working.
Then there’s the offense.
Anthony Colandrea re-signed for another year this week. Great timing. He threw interceptions on each of Nebraska’s first two possessions. Bad ones. The kind a high school senior would be embarrassed by.
Earlier this season I said I thought he was a good, quick decision-maker, and better at it than Dylan Raiola. I also said he could be a little Brett Favre, and if you remember Favre, you remember the interceptions that made you want to throw the remote. We got that version tonight.
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He finished 24-of-44 for 255 yards, one touchdown and three picks.
On the third one, Alex McLaughlin picked it off and ran 48 yards for the touchdown that put the game away. Here’s what I saw from the stands. I didn’t see a single Nebraska offensive player make a real effort to tackle him.
It looked to me like they didn’t care. I think that describes most of this offense right now.
I’m not blaming the coaches for that part. The receivers don’t block. They don’t catch the ball. Indiana has a guy named Charlie Becker, and I’m not sure he’s dropped a pass all year. Maybe one or two. Imagine that. We drop balls constantly.
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The offensive line is better than it’s been in years past, and I’m not giving up on Geep Wade. But they don’t double-team well, and they don’t get off to the linebackers well. Do we have other guards and linemen who will block? Do we have other receivers who will play with effort and conviction, like they want to win instead of just collect a check? If we have them, play them.
This is the series somebody should be fired for.
Nebraska leads 7-3 in the fourth quarter. Jacory Barney Jr. makes a big catch and sets up first-and-goal at the 5. One touchdown here probably puts the game out of reach.
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The offense is rushing to the line. A guy behind me yells that they need to call timeout. They don’t, and they get flagged for delay of game. I didn’t have a replay, but I’m guessing Matt Rhule, the mystery timeout user, was busy arguing with the referees instead.
Now it’s first-and-goal at the 10. A throw to Barney inside the 5 gets dropped. The next one gets broken up. Colandrea gets sacked for an eight-yard loss. Then Kyle Cunanan misses a 36-yard field goal.
Zero points.
Nebraska has used power sets before. The heavy formations where the defense crowds into the backfield and you just shove the ball 5 yards into the end zone. Nobody thought to do that. The whole series was a disaster.
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Washington then brought Demond Williams Jr. off the bench, hit Chris Lawson for a 25-yard go-ahead touchdown with 1:30 left, and added the pick-six seconds later. That’s the third straight game Nebraska has taken a lead into the fourth quarter and lost. Indiana, Oregon, Washington.
I’m very serious about this.
If you want Rhule fired, give me the names of three coaches you’d replace him with. Urban Meyer doesn’t count. Find three coaches who are actually doing a good job in college football right now.
From what I saw, Ohio State lost at USC. My guess is their old quarterback could just throw it up to Jeremiah Smith, and Smith would go score. The new one can’t do that as easily, and Ohio State doesn’t run it well enough to make up the difference. Good coaching isn’t carrying them. They still have athletes everywhere.
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Go through every team in college football and ask whether there’s a coach worth a darn. Curt Cignetti, maybe. Indiana keeps coming back in games, like they did against Minnesota. Kirby Smart, maybe. Beyond that, I don’t think there are many very good college coaches right now.
People threw things on the field. I think it’s embarrassing, and I wouldn’t do it. I also completely understand it.
Two pieces of this team deserved a game ball. The first was punter Archie Wilson, who did his job. The second was the crowd. Washington false-started more than once, and that was the crowd. It wasn’t Colorado-loud. It was loud enough to bother them.
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Fans spend their time and money and a huge amount of effort getting to these games. Then they watched this. People stayed until the end, too. Why? Because we’re Nebraska fans, and we keep thinking it’s going to be OK.
Last year it was clear by the end that the defense had lost faith in its coaching, because it had a bad defensive coordinator. Look at this offense. The effort isn’t there, and the work isn’t getting done on the field. Don’t you think they’ve lost faith in the coaching on that side of the ball, too?
I don’t have $100 million lying around to buy out a coach. Even if I did, I don’t know who I’d hire.
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College football is a mess. Every week is a crapshoot. I don’t know how anyone gets kids who are paid that much money to give full effort all the time. Whoever figures that out is going to win the national championship this year. Maybe Cignetti. Maybe Smart.
Nebraska is 5-3. We might win another game. We might not. Next up is Illinois on Friday night.
I get paid for some of this, and not a lot. If I were a Nebraska fan who wasn’t, I wouldn’t go to another game until something happens. Somebody gets fired. Something real changes with this football team.
Somebody should be fired. That’s the end of it.

Washington 17 Nebraska 10 – Someone Needs to Be Fired

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