LOS ANGELES — Nebraska football is America’s most emotionally spent major-conference program.
Its fans are the most drained of any in college sports.
How do I know? Well, the evidence is anecdotal.
As the Huskers and their travel party left the area of the visitor’s locker room at the L.A. Coliseum on Saturday after another one-score Nebraska defeat — the ninth in 22 games under coach Matt Rhule — they grabbed plastic containers of lasagna and chicken alfredo and walked slowly up a long ramp toward the row of buses that would carry them on the first leg of their journey back to Lincoln.
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There were few long faces. There was little conversation. Mostly just empty stares.
Many of the 20,000 Nebraska fans who invaded USC’s home stadium on Saturday wore the same blank looks after the Trojans escaped with a 28-20 win in a game they tried several times to lose.
Dylan Raiola (15) and the Nebraska Huskers have lost four straight games to sit at 5-5. (Gary A. Vasquez / Imagn Images)
They all appear lost.
“Husker Nation’s probably got a lot of doubt,” Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola, “a lot of uncertainty.”
Raiola understands, he said, but he believes the Huskers are set to break out and play well against Wisconsin.
“We’re only going to keep building on it these next two weeks,” the freshman said. “And we’ll get the win next week and get us to a bowl.”
The indicators on Saturday around Raiola belie his apparent confidence.
It’s not exactly doubt that defines the Nebraska football community after four consecutive losses, all with bowl eligibility at stake. It’s more the resignation, an acceptance that this state of constant disappointment is the Huskers’ destiny.
For Nebraska and its fans, the dramatic and the absurd have grown to feel like the norm.
The reality is, you’d be surprised if Nebraska hadn’t lost a tight one Saturday on an interception in the end zone as time expired with Jahmal Banks, the targeted receiver on the last play, being held directly in front of an official.
There was a lot of contact on that final play for Nebraska pic.twitter.com/nqxeiXp4Cq
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 17, 2024
“I thought I saw a lot of cloth,” Raiola said. “But we’re not here to complain and blame the officials.”
Raiola threw for the end zone three times in the final 25 seconds, a third consecutive game that ended for Nebraska with an interception as the Huskers tried to march for a score to win or tie. Raiola drove the Huskers 56 yards on that final possession. Nebraska took over with 2:45 to play. It had two timeouts and the two-minute timeout to aid the drive. It was almost too much time, seemingly, but it ended amid a frantic rush.
The final throw came on first-and-19 after a false-start penalty.
You’d be surprised at this point if any of it went differently. Or if Nebraska had succeeded in snagging any of the five gettable balls that first-time USC starting quarterback Jayden Maiava put in the air after Ceyair Wright took a first-quarter interception for a pick six against his former team.
USC’s second touchdown, a 12-yard Maiva throw to Kyron Hudson, went through the fingertips of Nebraska defensive back Malcolm Hartzog. The Trojans’ final scoring march stayed on track after Maiava’s third-down throw to Makai Lemon pinballed through the air between the receiver and Nebraska linebacker Javin Wright.
That unlikely completion set up a fourth-and-1 at the Nebraska 47. USC converted on a speed option toss to Woody Marks that went for 34 yards. Lincoln Riley’s unorthodox play call worked.
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Nebraska fans and observers nationally would have been surprised if it hadn’t. Victory — at least a better shot at it — slipped through the hands of the Huskers once again.
“For me, it means I need to get one step quicker or reach one step farther to impact this game,” defensive lineman Ty Robinson said.
That’s a fine thing to say, but Robinson harassed Maiava into a pair of turnovers. The second, a forced fumble that linebacker Mikai Gbayor recovered, allowed Raiola and his offensive teammates to take over at the USC 16-yard line late in the third quarter. They got only a field goal, pulling to within 21-20.
“The worst thing that could happen,” Rhule said, “is if I start feeling snake bit. I feel like I’ve been entrusted to coach the program, and I’m trying to help us break through. Any time you break through, you punch something, and you want it just to open up. But you keep punching until finally it breaks.”
What will break first, that door or Nebraska’s stamina as a program?
There’s danger in play. When the losing becomes so normal that players, coaches and fans are numb to the pain, the bid to recover turns more challenging.
It’s already hard enough at Nebraska, which is staring down the possibility of an eighth consecutive season without a bowl game. Everything appears way too hard.
The dramatic action that Rhule undertook in the bye week did not produce results. Dana Holgorsen, hired from the outside as the offensive coordinator, added a few wrinkles in his first game. Some of it looked innovative and intuitive.
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Holgorsen found a soft spot in the Trojans’ man coverage to squeeze out a few big runs. He quickened the pace, simplified the packages and tinkered with personnel.
But the yards gained and points scored did not reflect improvement for Nebraska.
“I just expect us to elevate,” Ceyair Wright said. “We came out here to fight and we fought really well. Next week we’ve got Wisconsin; we just got to go out there and bring it to them.”
In finishing against Wisconsin and Iowa, unless Nebraska finds a way to shake free of its swoon, there’s no helping this program. It must help itself. And frankly, that can only happen on a field in the fall. Forget the quick fix.
There’s no five-star quarterback prospect on the way to win an offseason hype contest. No coaching change to explore; Rhule is still owed $62 million on his contract after this year, so don’t even talk about that.
The progress evident is no greater in this moment than at the darkest times of the past decade. So what’s left to do, other than to accept your fate as a Nebraska fan?
Acceptance is the final stage of grief. Beyond it on this path comes an action that’s difficult to consider for even most of the blank-staring players and fans who streamed out of the Coliseum on Saturday.
To move on from Nebraska football.
(Top photo: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
