This whole " we are Nebraska" so we will easily win these type of games concept is about the stupidest thing I've ever heard. If there are really players on this team that believe that then I am shocked. Even when we were the Nebraksa that steam rolled everybody,even then those guys worked their asses off everyday and took care of business on Saturdays.
I just don't even see how players could even have this mentality, it doesn't make any sense. I guess it's possible though after hearing there were players losing focus and backing off a bit in the first game of the season. Not sure why your here if that's your mindset.
I see where you are coming from.
Interestingly, your post reveals some great insight. As you refer to the days when NU was really strong, you state, essentially, that they played hard and practiced hard and took the foot off very rarely... they knew that effort was the key. That characterizes a well-coached team. A team whose attitude is "we must out effort all our opponents and play everyone hard... and get better each week."
Now to the recent teams. The comments from player after player over the past few years and the general degree of effort shown makes clear that at least a reasonable subset of the recent NU teams do have a "we are NU" attitude and we show up and can win. Effort has not been stressed. Their coaches go on record saying all is fine... when it is not. This is not a driven team. It has not been a driven team. This is a major coaching flaw.
I agree that such a perspective is foolish for the team to adopt... but that does not mean that that foolish perspective has not been adopted. i think, to a degree anyway... that it has. Perhaps an embarrassment or two more and that attitude will go away. I hope that that would be the response. I think it would help if the coaches would fess up publicly and say "we have been unprepared, out-coached, undisciplined and have played poorly and there can be no excuses... it is not youth, it is not anything but a coaching staff and a team that has to wildly improve in every area." A problem will not be fixed until the problem is identified.