Matt Rhule Does Not Want His Team to Overreact to the Indiana Loss

He hopes the loss will snap his players 'back to reality' rather than discourage them.

Indiana's Josh Sanguinetti (19) runs after the catch during the Indiana versus Nebraska football game at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

A loss like the one Nebraska suffered against Indiana can change an entire season.

The Huskers were 5-1 heading into a game that some picked them to win. The matchup with Indiana was seen as a near toss-up and a chance for the Huskers to get back in the thick of the Big Ten Conference championship race. Instead, the Huskers were blown out 56–7. That has caused a complete national re-evaluation of Nebraska and its prospects for the rest of the season.

Head coach Matt Rhule talked about the aftermath of the loss and how he hopes his team is able to respond and not overreact to the result.

“I think if you have the right team and the right group of men in the room, if anything, 56-7 should snap you back to reality," Rhule said. "We had some success defensively the last game. I’m more worried about success leading to complacency than I am about coming back from something hard."

Rhule went on to discuss specific things he has taken away when watching the film from this game. Including missed opportunities on defense.

"We go back and watch the tape now, if you watch the coaches tape, 2-3 times, we should’ve sacked guys. Guys that were all over the news interviews or all over Twitter talking about how many sacks they had, they didn’t show up in that game."

Rhule sounds confident in his team being able to learn from this game. He does not want this talented group of players to keep underperforming when it matters most, but he believes they will get their problems fixed.

"I’m worried about complacency. I trust our players. I think our players just have to settle down and go back to the drawing board. You have a bunch of veteran players. We’ve had a couple opportunities to get to these big moments and we’ve gotten there, but it’s fallen a little bit flat... Here we are on the road against Indiana, a team I thought we were prepared for, and it fell flat. Part of my job is getting us to not fall flat. I’m not saying we were flat, the effort fell flat. I don’t worry about our guys not competing. I really, honestly don’t. That’s the least of my worries.”

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