As Aviva Stadium buzzed with Nebraska football fans celebrating an 11-point lead, a Husker head coach went for the coup de grace — a surprise onside kick that, if recovered, might have sealed a win over Northwestern and kick-started a must-win season.
The Wildcats got wise. An Irish wedding turned into an Irish wake. Nebraska lost its edge. Within three weeks, Scott Frost lost his job.
His successor, Matt Rhule, made a point this winter to his new players, one that both places Frost’s decision in context and sets a goal for the future.
“I told them: Everyone talks about one play that happened in the third quarter,†Rhule said of Nebraska’s 31-28 loss in Ireland. “But you had a lead in the fourth quarter.â€
Ditto for NU’s loss to Georgia Southern. And the loss to Wisconsin. Against Minnesota, the Huskers were tied at 10 heading into the final 15 minutes. Four games Nebraska could have won, and it didn’t. Rhule wants to make a defining trend of the Frost era a thing of the past.
“I want to get our guys so comfortable that, games in the fourth quarter, our heart rate doesn’t raise,†Rhule said of Nebraska’s multi-year penchant for losing winnable games.
In 2021, the Huskers squandered fourth-quarter leads against Michigan State, Michigan and Iowa. In 2019, it was losses at Purdue and Colorado. In 2018, those leads were against Colorado and, perhaps most painful of all, Northwestern, which drove 99 yards for a game-tying score in the fourth.
“We’ve got to make one more play,†Frost said that day. “Somewhere.â€
Rhule wants Nebraska to make fourth-quarter plays, too, and he plans to make practice competitive and physical enough that, when it matters most, NU has trained itself to manage the wear-and-tear of a 60-minute Big Ten football game.
Nebraska is likely to play more defenders for more snaps, as an example. And Tuesdays and Wednesdays of each week will be reserved for “iron sharpens iron†sessions between the top players on the team. Rhule may even dial down additional station work so deep reserves can watch Nebraska’s best competitors tangle.
“We won’t be stupid — we’re not going to hurt each other — but we’re going to practice hard because I don’t want them to see practice as practice,†Rhule said. “I want them to see practice as football. We like football.â€
He wants a fast team, but also a big one, that can lean on foes until they relent. He wants an offense with an “identity†that, when an opponent goes to aggressive press-man defense, can counter with explosive plays.
“Illinois came out and just played man (coverage) across the board against us and pressured us,†Rhule said of NU’s 26-9 loss, “so we have to find ways to beat that and have the players who can beat that. Which I know we do.â€
And, through its rigorous offseason workout program, Rhule aims to build a team that better manages pressure moments and the physical toll of games. A healthier, heartier bunch.
And while Nebraska made gains there under Frost, one telling statistic — yards per carry in the fourth quarter — shows a notable gap.
Last season, NU averaged a league-worst 2.7 yards per carry in the fourth quarter, allowing 3.67 yards per carry. That’s a gap of -.97. In Frost’s five seasons, Nebraska only once, 2019, had a positive margin, but even that season the Huskers allowed a league-worst 4.59 yards per carry in the fourth. In Big Ten games that season, NU allowed 5.66 yards per carry.
So in a most basic way, Nebraska consistently lost at the line of scrimmage, and the fourth-quarter run game became increasingly anemic as Mike Riley’s offensive line recruits graduated and Frost’s recruits took over in their entirety.
Rhule has said he likes NU’s returning linemen, but work ahead is evident — to win games in the fourth quarter, Nebraska intends to transform.
“One of the biggest things we need to do is build a team that’s strong enough and physical enough — I don’t know when we can do this by — that, when we get into a game in the fourth quarter, we’re going to win the game in the fourth quarter,†Rhule said. We’re not going to be a ‘hey, let’s start fast’ team. We’re going to be a ‘hey, let’s throw body blows for four quarters and then try to win the game in the fourth quarter.â€
He reiterated Wednesday that it make take “awhile†to get there. But that’s the culture he wants.
“I really like a team that gets us to the fourth quarter and, man, and we’re hard to beat.â€