Tad Stryker: Appreciating the Process

It makes sense for Nebraska football fans to buy into Matt Rhule’s development culture

Dylan Widger-USA TODAY Sports

Nebraska football, after a long period of wandering in the wilderness, finally appears to be headed in the right direction. Can Husker Nation enjoy the trip between now and Thanksgiving, at least without fretting about how soon the promised land is reached?

That will come down to the level of trust felt by each individual fan. Matt Rhule appears to be making big strides gaining credibility among his current players, and the players he’s recruiting. Step 2 will be to gain the confidence of the constituency.

With a freshman quite likely starting at quarterback, how high will Nebraska fans’ expectations be? Will they learn to appreciate the process? Although certainly not perfect, Nebraska football fans have a pretty good record when it comes to patience, which is a good indicator as we look to the 2024 season.

Are they as patient as Iowa fans? Probably not. After all, both Bob Devaney (in 1968) and Tom Osborne (in 1976 and again in the early 1990s) felt plenty of heat. Meanwhile, after firing Bob Commings in 1978, the Hawkeyes rarely batted an eye at Hayden Fry and Kirk Ferentz, both of whom averaged a shade over seven wins a season during their combined 45 years as head coach in Iowa City.

It’s true that Nebraska is the school that fired two coaches who averaged nine wins a season, partly because of pressure from fans who wanted more. But when hometown hero Scott Frost returned to coach his alma mater in 2018, fans showed plenty of patience — in retrospect, probably more than Frost (a shade under four wins per season in Lincoln) deserved.

It’s also true that Iowa fans have not sold out Kinnick Stadium every year since 1962, while Husker fans, even after the dismissal of Bo Pelini, have continued to support their team with their feet and pocketbooks despite declining results on the field over the past decade. That requires amazing patience and dedication.

Matt Rhule and his staff are having a tremendous offseason, landing a Top 25-rated 2024 class, including two of the nation’s top high school quarterbacks, and have attracted what appears to be a strategically targeted group of five transfers over the past couple of weeks, while losing only two players I would have expected to significantly contribute this fall. Even so, Nebraska fans — including major donors — would be wise to line up behind their athletic director and play the long game, relying on player development instead of quick success. In short, buy another wagonload of patience for the coming year.

Does it make sense for Power Five football programs to develop their own talent anymore? Is that concept simply archaic thinking these days? I recently saw this sentence in a story about Alabama replacing Nick Saban: “Times have changed a lot … College football is now all about the transfer portal and NIL.”

I don’t buy that theory. It’s foolish to ignore the portal, but even more foolish to make it the foundation of your program. Trev Alberts and Rhule are development guys, but in Rhule, the Huskers have a coach who seemingly is comfortable living in both worlds. That in itself should be worth a lot of trust.

The Husker offensive line has been slowly, painstakingly built over the past few seasons, with many missteps along the way. Rhule patched in a transfer last season in Ben Scott, and has done it again with highly regarded guard Micah Mazzccua, who considered the Huskers last year before choosing Florida. It’s possible — even plausible — that Nebraska finally will have a Big Ten-caliber offensive line this fall. The defensive front has been constructed in similar fashion, with homegrown tackles Ty Robinson and Nash Hutmacher as anchors, and true freshman Princewill Umanmielen as a dynamic edge rusher.

The Huskers have gone both ways at quarterback. In his first year, Rhule made his biggest mistake so far, bringing in Jeff Sims via the portal, thereby illustrating the old football adage, “The worst time to look for a quarterback is when you need one.” While it made sense to get a new quarterback from outside the roster for 2023 (actually, Rhule had few good options in his first season), the coach apparently has chosen a different path for 2024, with two true freshmen, Dylan Raiola and Daniel Kaelin, central in his plans for arguably the most important position on the field. That strategy likely will raise the Huskers’ ceiling in 2025 and beyond, but could limit Nebraska’s chances for an upper-division finish in the newly upgraded 18-member Big Ten this season, even though the Huskers have finally “gotten old” up front.

Still, there is evidence that patience pays off, both from the NFL in this Packers.com story by the Green Bay Packers’ team historian, and from the perspective of a Husker All-America lineman in this Lincoln Journal Star piece.

As NU’s climb begins (frankly I think it has already begun), Husker fans would do well to learn to appreciate what they have, while still maintaining high standards, including the institutional memory of what elite college football looks like. If there’s anything good about the Huskers’ recent slide, I think fans by and large will enjoy future victories more than they used to during the Golden Age, when everyone simply assumed nine-win seasons and spent too much time picking apart those victories, looking for flaws.