By Rock Westfall
The Nebraska Cornhuskers believe it is their birthright to dominate the Iowa Hawkeyes and Wisconsin Badgers. While the actual football program won’t publicly admit it, most of the fan base will certainly confirm that sincere conviction. Nebraska fans refuse to surrender their historic national championship heritage and DNA. Problematic is that Big Red’s self-perception is not based on recent reality.
Since joining the Big Ten in 2011, the Iowa Hawkeyes have become Nebraska’s new rival. They replaced Colorado, which replaced Oklahoma in 1996 when the Big 12 Conference was formed. Although Nebraska won three of its first four meetings against the Hawkeyes, it has since lost eight of its last nine.
Wisconsin modeled its program after Nebraska when Cornhusker alum and former linebacker Barry Alvarez arrived in 1990 to save and transform the program. In turn, Nebraska resents how its DNA was stolen and bitterly believes the Badgers are imitators. Since 2011, the Big Red has only one win against Wisconsin (2012). While the last three meetings were once score games, before that, blowouts were the rule rather than the exception.
But there is a sense that the times have aligned in Nebraska’s favor in 2024. While Nebraska is vastly improved and a near certainty to make a bowl game, Iowa and Wisconsin face increased challenges regarding their viability as Big Ten contenders.
Nebraska in the CFP Era
• 49-63 Overall Record (43.8%) ❌
• 2-29 vs Ranked Teams (6.5%) ❌
• 33-29 at Home ❌
• 30-50 in Conference Games (37.5%) ❌
• 1-2 Bowl Record ❌
• 8 Losing Seasons ❌
• 6 Consecutive Losing Seasons ❌
• 4 HCs in this span ❌
• 2-7 vs Iowa ❌… pic.twitter.com/ebBQ0OnOPF— College Football Report (@CFBRep) October 5, 2023
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No Offense, But Iowa’s Offense is Offensive
Last year, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz could no longer protect his son, Brian Ferentz, who was his offensive coordinator, thanks to some creative maneuvering around state nepotism laws. Brian Ferentz’s offense became so bad that nobody but his mom and dad would defend it, and he was fired. Because of its offensive impotence, Iowa wasted the efforts of championship-level defense and special teams.
Somehow, the Hawkeyes won ten games in 2023. It was the third time in five seasons that Iowa posted ten wins. But much of that success was based on playing in the Big Ten West Division. Starting in 2024, the Big Ten has eliminated divisions. Thus, Iowa and the rest of the inferior teams from the former West Division have nowhere to hide.
New offensive coordinator Tim Lester must keep his unit within the ultra-conservative Kirk Ferentz guard rails. Perhaps moderate improvement will come with Michigan castoff QB Cade McNamara in 2024. But it may not be enough to make Iowa a serious contender.
Tennessee crushes Iowa in the Citrus Bowl, 35-0. Disaster all around for the Hawkeyes, especially on offense. QB Deacon Hill commits 3 costly turnovers. Iowa finishes 10-4. Highlights from @TrentReicks and @MurphyKeith pic.twitter.com/kLFpe7r7mR
— SoundOFF (@SoundOFF13) January 1, 2024
Wisconsin Forsakes Proven Formula for a Fickell Hybrid & Castoff QB
Madison, Wisconsin native, UW alum, and former QB Paul Chryst was once viewed as the perfect fit as head coach of the Badgers. From 2015 through 2019, he posted four double-digit win seasons, three division titles, and two final rankings inside the Top 10. When he landed the nationally coveted Graham Mertz, he was celebrated for signing the best quarterback prospect in school history. At that time, Wisconsin was viewed as all-future.
Ironically, Mertz was a key component in Chryst’s downfall. Wisconsin’s old formula of game manager QBs was replaced by efforts to “modernize” the offense with a more creative passing attack. The offense became dysfunctional, and Wisconsin’s record began to erode. After going 4-3 and 9-4 with Mertz as his starter, Chryst was fired after a 2-3 start in 2022.
Another Badger alum and former player, athletic director Chris McIntosh, decided to go all-in on modernizing the offense. New head coach Luke Fickell arrived highly acclaimed from his work at Cincinnati, where he produced a College Football Playoff bid and was known as a strong recruiter.
But 2023 was a painful transition that included admissions of locker room strife and players not caring, something previously unheard of in Badgerland. Fickell went 7-6 in his first season, which included a 5-5 start and embarrassing losses to Indiana and Northwestern.
Most disconcerting was that Wisconsin showed a loss of physicality and character in 2023. Some will write that off to the coaching transition. But Wisconsin previously had three different head coaches after Alvarez retired with no interruption in production. More likely, the results were caused by the Badgers forsaking their proven formula and culture.
This year Wisconsin will turn the offense over to a transfer QB for the second straight season. Tyler Van Dyke, who flamed out and lost his starting job at Miami-FL, is now number one on the Wisconsin depth chart. Most sportsbooks have Wisconsin’s 2024 win total of 6.5. The Badgers have suffered an alarming fall in public perception and esteem. The successful days of multi-year game managers as starting QBs are over, and the results show.
https://twitter.com/SSN_B1G/status/1723454579939979551
The Time is Now for Nebraska
Previously, Nebraska suffered through its own version of Wisconsin’s program culture shock. UW’s changes are eerily reminiscent of when Nebraska alum and athletic director Steve Pederson fired head coach Frank Solich, a Nebraska alum and a former player, assistant, and then head coach. Solich went 9-3 in his final season at Nebraska and went 58-19 in six seasons. But Pederson wanted to “modernize” the program just like McIntosh now claims to be doing at Wisconsin. Nebraska never fully recovered from Pederson’s blunder. The comparisons are unavoidable.
Second-year head coach Matt Rhule is overseeing a cultural revolution at Nebraska. Rhule is not intimidated by coaching players hard and potentially losing them to the transfer portal in response. Rhule demands that players be about Nebraska instead of the bag, which, incidentally, Nebraska can supply competitively well in comparison to most teams. Rhule is attracting character guys with toughness who want to stay and take advantage of all that Nebraska has to offer.
The best example of Nebraska being poised for a renaissance comes in the way of 5-star QB recruit Dylan Raiola, who flipped from Georgia, the best program in college football.
Indeed, Nebraska is ready to reassert itself as a national brand and to put Iowa and Wisconsin back in their places, as they have always seen it. Rhule is exorcising the demons of past mistakes that set the program back two decades. Nebraska is emerging as a complete team, culture, and program.
In 2024, Iowa faces an uncertain future with an unproven offense and QB, while Wisconsin is returning to Nebraska the DNA that it stole from the Huskers in 1990.
Based on the three programs’ current state of affairs, 2024 will likely be known as the year when people say “Big Red Rising!”
https://twitter.com/rockwestfall711/status/1730624071493165125
