Moving on from last night's game, these are my thoughts:
How does Nebraska bounce back? This was our season, our Super Bowl. While any bowl game (other than the BCS Title game) following a CCG is sort of anti-climatic, last year the Huskers were fueled by that last second loss to Texas. They were angry and they took it out on Arizona. That :01 fueled enough rage to propel them through the offseason into this year, and to within 3 points of their goal. What is going to fuel us now? We're headed to a minor bowl game and to a new conference, where there is no payback motivation, no urgency to win the conference championship in our last year in the conference.
The team has responded unbelievably well to losses under the leadership of Pelini. But this one is the toughest loss in his 3 years as head coach. Can the players get up off the mat, practice with fire, and meet their potential in a bowl game, where their opponent will likely be overmatched? Do they have the kind of drive that championship teams need during the offseason?
Tom Osborne's mid-90's teams were immensely talented, but they were fueled by that 1994 Orange Bowl loss to FSU like the 2010 version was fueled by :01. Osborne's 94 team had "Unfinished Business" to take care of in the Orange Bowl, and after that his teams were fueled by once in a lifetime leaders like Frazier, Peter, Wistrom... All-Americans that got angry and came down on their backups when the 2nd string and 3rd string didn't play as well as the first string... It was a beautiful thing...
Now we're heading into a new conference with new rivals and no longstanding grudges to be settled, and I think it's obvious we don't have the kind of student leadership that we had in the 90's. We're also looking at a potentially tumultuous offseason with coaching staff changes, although I still think that's rather unlikely.
Does this team have the fire it takes to build a championship team this offseason? Or do we fold a la 2007 Nebraska post-USC? Something inbetween? I'm looking forward to the bowl game for a hint...
How does Nebraska bounce back? This was our season, our Super Bowl. While any bowl game (other than the BCS Title game) following a CCG is sort of anti-climatic, last year the Huskers were fueled by that last second loss to Texas. They were angry and they took it out on Arizona. That :01 fueled enough rage to propel them through the offseason into this year, and to within 3 points of their goal. What is going to fuel us now? We're headed to a minor bowl game and to a new conference, where there is no payback motivation, no urgency to win the conference championship in our last year in the conference.
The team has responded unbelievably well to losses under the leadership of Pelini. But this one is the toughest loss in his 3 years as head coach. Can the players get up off the mat, practice with fire, and meet their potential in a bowl game, where their opponent will likely be overmatched? Do they have the kind of drive that championship teams need during the offseason?
Tom Osborne's mid-90's teams were immensely talented, but they were fueled by that 1994 Orange Bowl loss to FSU like the 2010 version was fueled by :01. Osborne's 94 team had "Unfinished Business" to take care of in the Orange Bowl, and after that his teams were fueled by once in a lifetime leaders like Frazier, Peter, Wistrom... All-Americans that got angry and came down on their backups when the 2nd string and 3rd string didn't play as well as the first string... It was a beautiful thing...
Now we're heading into a new conference with new rivals and no longstanding grudges to be settled, and I think it's obvious we don't have the kind of student leadership that we had in the 90's. We're also looking at a potentially tumultuous offseason with coaching staff changes, although I still think that's rather unlikely.
Does this team have the fire it takes to build a championship team this offseason? Or do we fold a la 2007 Nebraska post-USC? Something inbetween? I'm looking forward to the bowl game for a hint...