The truth of the matter is that we all love our Huskers and want them to be competitive regardless of our whining. I, for one, never expected us to win 8 or more games this season but I was hoping that we would at least get 6 wins and make the postseason for the first time in what seems like a century. We are the ONLY power 5 team not to get to a bowl game in 7 years. So, yes, if we are invited to one, we should jump to that opportunity regardless of whether anyone feels we have earned it or not. It is a chance to have our young players experience a bowl game and maybe shoot for a better result next season.
Having said that, I am extremely disappointed with Rhule’s first year and I do not buy any of his excuses. If an interim coach at northwestern can get to 7 wins in his first year with little head coaching experience in the same division as ours, Rhule should have no excuse not to get at least 6 wins. You can blame the players all you want. Some of the losses are on him and his coaches. His failure to fix the turnovers, penalties, and piss poor play on offense and special teams are not something new. With his experience, he should have had some fixes. I have not seen any evidence that next year will be any better. However, the husker in me always wants to believe that sometime this century, we might become semi-relevant. After all, if Kansas, Kansas state, Missouri, Iowa state, Iowa, and so many other teams can get to 8 wins or more, why can’t we? We have not had a single signature win forever.
