Stressed out yet?

The future of the Nebraska football program is riding on two decisions which have either already been made, or will be made over the next week or two.

The first decision is whether Bill Moss is going to fire Mike Riley. Nine out of 10 Nebraskans believe that Mike Riley will likely be fired following the Iowa game. The remaining ten percent of Nebraskans who don’t know if he will be fired are either too busy watching Netflix or they are Creighton basketball fans.

The second decision is going to be made by Scott Frost. Will he stay at Central Florida? Some believe that UCF could be a sleeping giant. Could he take a job at Oregon, Florida, Tennessee, UCLA or any of the several other jobs that could come up? Or could he legitimately become a hero and come back home to Nebraska?

Most seem to believe the “Frost to Nebraska” deal is all but officially done. We are only waiting for him to sign on the bottom line.

I hope so.

But I am beginning to lean towards the fact that he might stay at Central Florida. This is just a gut feeling. I may be trying to hedge my bets and protect myself from emotional turmoil if and when he chooses not to come to Nebraska.

If that were to happen, then I would like to ask Coach Frost for one favor. Just one.

Please either issue a statement regarding your decision to not come back to Nebraska or at least expound on it during a press conference of some type. Let Nebraska fans know that while Bill Moos did everything he could to persuade you to come, that you chose to stay at UCF for reasons beyond the control of Bill Moos and others in the athletic department.

The fan base needs that. We need the closure. An opportunity to move on.

The next football coach, if it is not Scott Frost, does not have a chance at Nebraska if we do not get that closure.

Even if we were to hire a great proven coach like Gary Patterson, there will be a very large segment of the fan base that will always say, “but he isn’t Scott Frost.” Especially, if Frost continues to win.

So if Frost can make it explicitly clear that there was nothing Nebraska could have done at this point to persuade him to become the next football coach, then maybe the fan base will finally be able to unite and rally around the next football coach at Nebraska.

On to the five reasons Nebraska will beat the team 240ish miles east of the Missouri River.

WE HAVE THE BETTER QUARTERBACK

The most underappreciated player of this Nebraska football season is none other than Tanner Lee. To say that he has been playing behind a porous horrible no-good line during this season would be an understatement. If you can stand the torment - try rewatching the Penn State game. Tanner Lee was getting drilled play-after-play-after-play-after-play. Yet he continued to stand in the pocket and make the throws.

He’s tough. He hasn’t complained. He shows up at the podium after every game. No wonder he was named a team captain by the players.

Yes we know that he played poorly at the beginning of the season. That is indisputable.

So instead of looking at the season as a whole, I decided to take a look over the last four games of the season. Tanner Lee’s average passer rating over the past four games is currently sitting at 149.33. That is pretty good.

On the other hand, the average passer rating over the past four games of the other team’s quarterback, Nathan Stanley (good first name at least), is 108.75.

Recent history is a better predictor of future results, and I would take Tanner Lee easily.

IT IS SENIOR DAY AFTER ALL

The senior class of 2017 is not very big, and it has not won as many games as they would have liked. But I promise you that senior day at Memorial Stadium means much more to them than it does to us.

I think as fans we can become a little overzealous and make huge nonfactual generalizations about the current players on the roster. Like the following:

How they didn’t walk to school and back uphill both ways without shoes in five feet of snow like the players in 1995 did when they were in school.

Or how they don’t lift and workout like they did in 1971 when they used those barbells with the large and circular balls at the end and every man and woman had pointy mustaches while lifting.

Or how the music they listen to today just isn’t the same as it was in 1997, when songs like Barbie Girl by Aqua and MMMMbop by Hansen were hitting the top of Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 Radio Show. The music they listen to now is just so distracting.

One thing you can be sure of is that the players of today care about the last time they’ll play in their home stadium. They want to go out winners.

SEND COACH RILEY OUT WITH A WIN (INTO RETIREMENT? OR BACK TO OREGON STATE?)

Is anybody else interested to know what Mike Riley is going to do after this season? I would say that he and his wife have more than earned a comfortable retirement somewhere nice.

But a coach wants to coach.

Maybe the Oregon State faithful will look back fondly at its time with Coach Riley at the helm. Especially after this season. They could probably get him for a bargain since we will be paying him for the next three seasons. I think it is a win-win situation.

The players obviously really like Coach Riley, and if they believe that he is done after this game, I hope they will want to send him out as a winner.

IOWA IS 0-4 ON THE ROAD

I think that means something.

Nebraska is 2-4 this season at home. That probably means something else.

IT IS A RIVALRY WHETHER SOME NEBRASKA FANS WANT TO ACCEPT IT OR NOT

One of the type of fans I would like to have purged* from our fan base is the fan who references the 90’s on a consistent basis. After that purge I think the “Oklahoma is our only rival” fan should be next.

The fan base needs to move on from the past. Why are you still claiming Oklahoma as our only rival? Not only do we not play them every year - we don’t even play them every other year. So if you are saying that Oklahoma is the only school who is allowed be our rival then we have no rivals.

How does that feel? The historic Nebraska Cornhuskers football program does not have a rival.

A rivalry does not always have to be built upon mutual respect - as with Oklahoma. There are other ways to build a rivalry. Do I have respect for the Iowa Hawkeye program? Not really.

But do you know what I do have for the Iowa Hawkeye program? Hate.**

Don’t you hate it when they win? Don’t you love it when they lose?

I think hate is a great start to a rivalry. Feel the hate. Let the hate flow through you.

*When I say purged I do not mean a 24 hour period where all laws are suspended and we take out all the “but in the 90’s” fans. Lets just purge the mindset.

**I don’t hate the people, I just hate the program. Hate is a strong word when used personally. But when it comes to sports it is a little bit of a lighthearted hate.