Despite starting off season with a tough loss, Huskers finish strong

Sweat drenched hair with a blazing sun scorching two white numbers on the back of a jersey that form a players identity, to someday be known as a legend for his dedication and accomplishments in the game, all known as the sport of football.   On the gridiron, success comes with countless hours of practice, discipline and strength training.  In moments, the University of Lincoln’s football team has demonstrated these qualities.

A team’s ability to close games when everything is known is an important part of being in the AP Top 25 rankings.  One too many times fans of Lincoln have been disappointed.

Every season of football marks a new beginning for a team.  The Huskers began their season with a heartbreak loss against BYU, ending in a Hail Mary catch clutching the Tigers’ win over Nebraska.  Two weeks after the kick-off of college football, once again the Miami Hurricanes rallied against the Cornhuskers to finish the game with a 36-33 win.

Soon enough, this trend caught on with other games such as against Illinois, Wisconsin, and Northwestern.  This year has seemingly been filled with series of unfortunate events.

The team has only been able to have two consecutive wins at the current point of playing the Rutgers.  Consistency has been an issue for this Husker team by not being able to having continuous wins.

Through this season, little mistakes and a weak Nebraskan secondary has led to a series of embarrassing touchdowns and long-distance catches.

Improving on this defensive aspect would lead to an overall change in ability and versatility for the Huskers.  With a defense, the offense would feel less pressure of always having to score each time they were to receive the ball.

Bo Pelini was hired for his specialty in defense.  Respectively, the years under his coaching the defense had improved drastically.

The situation of losing Pelini only made the year worse.  Mike Riley former Oregon State coach, failed to clutch a win over Big Ten teams often enough to be accounted for simply losing a coach that many of the players had known for their college years, made it all so difficult to perform well.

Pelini brought around an average of 10 wins per season.  Although he would have his intense moments, it normally did not become public or bad enough where referees would penalize him for it.

Although Riley has showed improvement in the program since the beginning of the season, it is too early in his career to decide whether or not he will leave Nebraska with a positive impact.

Fans of Nebraska overall are expecting to much from a team that is beginning to rebuild and form after the loss of a coach.  These standards are putting an enormous amount of pressure on college students shoulders.

This season has been many tough losses, well deserved wins and a time of what the program will become. Specifically, what the next year will bring.  With a losing record at the beginning of the season, things were looking tough until players seemed to step it up in places.

Next year will be better than how this year played out.  Recruiting is a big part of Riley’s game, and with that talent will come in and develop into a national championship team.

Simply enough, this is exactly what Tom Osborne did to turn Nebraska into a National Championship team, winning back to back titles in 1994 and 1995.

“Well, I guess it’s really true, it’s never easy. I think everyone gets an overall picture of what that game was. We played pretty well early but we didn’t capitalize in the red zone with touchdowns,” said Riley.