NU tries to shut out negativity
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By BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star
Ben Eisenhart never had to look very far for football advice when he played for the Huskers.
He would usually get suggestions on how the team might improve when he went to class, when he went to eat, when he went to his Facebook account. Anywhere and everywhere.
Advice was especially easy to get in 2007, when Eisenhart was a senior on a Husker team that lost five in a row and finished 5-7.
“The thing at Nebraska is everyone thinks they know what’s going wrong,” said Eisenhart, a native of Culbertson who grew up attending Husker games. “So everywhere you go there’s someone telling you, ‘Well, so-and-so should be playing quarterback, so-and-so should be getting balls more, you should be playing this defense.’ That’s the thing about Nebraska. It’s great. The fans are unbelievable and behind you, but there are so many fans that think they know what should be different.”
Advice is a pleasant way to describe it. Criticism might be a more accurate one. Certainly there’s been plenty of that in the wake of Nebraska’s 9-7 loss to Iowa State last Saturday.
NU is 4-3 and coming off a loss that at least belongs on the list of Most Bizarre Ways to Lose a Game. Grumpiness has ensued.
We’re certainly not to the point where people are putting grocery bags over their heads to hide in shame as happened in 2007. But a considerable dose of negativity has taken up residence in Nebraska over the past couple weeks.
Players and coaches say they try to ignore it. But how realistic is that in a place where you can’t walk 10 steps without hearing someone talking football?
And if you can’t altogether ignore it, how does a team not let outside opinions begin to have an impact in the locker room? What gets you through this?
“The biggest thing is leadership,” said Josh Sewell, a former Husker center. He was on the 2002 team that went 7-7 and the 2003 team that rebounded to win 10 games, winning the 10th after the firing of Frank Solich and a circuslike December.
“You’ve got to have those guys that are mature enough to say, ‘Hey, things like this happen and we’re going to get over it,’” Sewell said. “It’s those leaders that make sure guys have their heads screwed on right and they’re not feeling sorry for themselves and worrying about what external sources are saying.”
Brett Byford, who was a senior during the 2007 season, said you need to draw on the encouragement of your teammates to help you through the tough times.
“Because there’s really no one else in the state that can know what it’s like or really know what you’re going through except those guys that you work with and sweat with every day,” Byford said. “One advantage you do have of being on the team is you’re kind of in a silo every day in the stadium, and you don’t really see the armchair quarterbacks as often as you do when you graduate and you get a job and move out into the community.”
Sometimes getting out of a funk just takes one big play. Eisenhart remembers the 2005 season, when people were irate after Nebraska lost at Kansas 40-15. It was the team’s third straight loss. NU’s record was 5-4.
The whole season appeared ready to go down the drain the next week when the Huskers trailed Kansas State 25-24 in the fourth quarter. Then Harrison Beck completed the only pass of his Nebraska career. And Jordan Congdon followed with a 40-yard game-winning field goal in swirling winds.
It was nothing pretty. But as Eisenhart said: “All of a sudden, we’re just right back on track.” Nebraska beat Colorado 30-3 in Boulder, then defeated Michigan in the Alamo Bowl, completely changing how that season was viewed.
But what if the big play never comes? In 2007, there was no turnaround or easy answers as to how the team went downhill so fast.
“I think one thing people on the outside don’t understand is, people are like, ‘Why is this happening? Why is this happening?’ All the questions,” Eisenhart said. “And the players are asking themselves the same thing. It’s not like they’re oblivious to what’s going on. … I remember people were asking me these questions and I’m like, ‘Well, if we knew what was wrong, we’d fix it.’ You’re asking us what’s wrong. Well, we’re asking the same thing.”
If 2007 was the ultimate example of how a season can blow up, sophomore defensive tackle Jared Crick doesn’t see any way this team loses control of the season like that.
Crick was on the roster two years ago, redshirting. He thinks the program has something now that it didn’t then: Trust.
“Coach Bo (Pelini), he brings that factor to the table,” Crick said. “We believe in what we’re doing. In ’07, guys kind of didn’t trust the scheme, didn’t trust the coaches maybe. But this year you see that. Guys are sticking together. We trust in the schemes. We trust in each other.”
Reach Brian Christopherson at bchristopherson@journalstar.com or 473-7439.
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