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Changing of the guard? Not yet, but one thing seems clear after watching Iowa-Nebraska thriller
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Friday was a new chapter in the Iowa-Nebraska rivalry.
To be clear, it is now a “rivalry,” and it’s no longer some manufactured border-war deal with a random B1G trophy that was forced on us because of conference expansion.
It’s an actual rivalry. Like, a good one.
In many ways, Friday felt like a changing of the guard. Nebraska finally wasn’t getting completely dominated at the line of scrimmage and for the final few minutes, it even felt like the Huskers were going to go all 2014 and pull out the stunner in Iowa City.
That didn’t happen. Instead, Iowa kicked a game-winning field goal and locked up its fourth consecutive win in the Heroes Game dating back to that 2014 showdown, which happened to be Bo Pelini’s final game in Lincoln. Mike Riley, of course, never beat Iowa. He was outscored by 80 points in 3 matchups, including last year’s 56-14 Black Friday massacre.
Scott Frost’s first Iowa game didn’t feel anything like that. It instead felt like an equal chess match with a pair of coaches who will be battling in down-to-the-wire thrillers for years to come.
Had Nebraska stormed back and pulled off the come-from-behind-win, the narrative would’ve been somewhat obvious. “The changing of the guard” would’ve been the natural assumption, considering that would’ve given the Huskers their fifth win in their final 6 games.
For now, that narrative is on hold. At least it should be.
Until Nebraska gets over the hump of beating Iowa, the ceiling is always going to be limited. It’ll always be the “yeah, but” whenever the Husker hype train is picking up a little too much steam.
The Huskers had plenty of chances to get that breakthrough on Saturday. Down 28-13 in the fourth quarter, I don’t think anyone would’ve said that about the three previous teams that Iowa faced on Black Friday. Whether you want to chalk that up to Frost or Adrian Martinez, it was evident that Nebraska’s “mail it in” second-half tendency is a thing of the past. That’s what made that game worth fighting the tryptophan-induced post-Thanksgiving sleepiness.
At different points of that game, you could’ve said “Coach X is getting out-coached badly right now.” Both Ferentz and Frost made decisions that easily could’ve cost their teams the game.
Even against Iowa’s elite run defense, it was baffling to see Devine Ozigbo still sitting on 4 carries late in the third quarter. Equally baffling was Ferentz’s decision to attempt a fake field goal with a 28-13 lead.
Both coaches, I’d argue, made up for those curious decisions with brilliant calls late.
Frost’s balanced final drive to tie the game had to make Husker fans salivate about the future (I still have no IDEA how Cade Warner got his foot down on that 2-point conversion).
Looks like that clutch gene runs in the family 👀
@HuskerFBNation's Kade Warner with the big play. pic.twitter.com/XCaIFiP4A9
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 23, 2018
And Ferentz’s decision to let Nate Stanley attempt not to overthrow a pass on fourth down in the final minute was New Kirk at its finest.
Really, this was the Heroes Game Rivalry was at its finest. And who’s to say it won’t continue to get better?
Martinez is at Nebraska for another 2 years at least, and A.J. Epenesa will spend another year in Iowa City before likely cashing in on NFL millions. Nebraska’s line play, which was mostly dominated by Iowa in the first 3 quarters, will continue to improve as Frost’s strength and conditioning program takes shape (literally). And knowing Iowa, Ferentz is going to continue to win 8 games for the next 25 years because he’s an ageless wonder.
All of those things are going to continue to make this one of the B1G’s best rivalries. Maybe there will be division titles at stake down the road. After watching Friday, didn’t it almost feel like there was?
Last year, I remember recently-hired Nebraska athletic director Bill Moos saying that after he hired Frost, he admittedly tuned into his future coach’s last regular season game at UCF. He wasn’t alone. Tons of people watched Frost’s team edge USF in an epic, back-and-forth shootout in Orlando.
Unlike Moos, though, not all of his were doing so while sitting in a luxury box high above Memorial Stadium in the midst of a 56-14 beatdown at the hands of Iowa.
I don’t know where Moos was for Friday’s game, but I’d bet a Runza/Casey’s Breakfast Pizza that he didn’t divert his attention from the action on the field during Iowa-Nebraska to watch a different game. Moos was likely watching Frost knowing that his team is heading in a completely different direction. As a result, so is the Iowa-Nebraska rivalry.
I think I speak on behalf of all of college football fans when I say this — it’s about time.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Tradition. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.