OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — It's tough to see the Huskers lose close games as they did on Saturday night, but the Husker faithful who spoke to 3 News Now said meaningful change might take some time.
"Mistake-free football, disciplined football — that has to become a culture and when you hear people talk about culture, that's one of the big aspects of it. It takes a while to ingrain that into players," said Rob Zatechka, a former Husker player.
He says cleaning up the game will be important.
"I would hope to see at least an attempt to clean up that undisciplined play. Again, those little mistakes that have haunted Nebraska, those are the kind of things that you want to see fixed whether it's right away or long term," Zatechka said.
He says a few wins would help the morale and would make the close losses a little easier.
But some changes might take a little longer.
"They have to get back to concerning themselves not so much with narratives — whether they are going to win games, whether they are going to win the Big 10 West, whether they are going to win the Big 10 — but just getting down to the granular details of the process," said Sam McKewon, sports editor for the Omaha World-Herald.
He thinks for now they have to focus on the team they have on the field.
"They are going to have to do a complete reboot of the program, re-imagine everything. What does it look like to win in 2022, in the Big 10? Not, what does it look like to win in 1997 in the Big 12? And I think that is going to be the biggest challenge for Nebraska going forward," McKewon said.
And as a former player, Zatechka says he just wants the current players to have a similar experience to his.
"We want to see the players down there right now have that same kind of experience. We want them to experience the success that we had — to see those titles — whether it is conference titles, national titles," Zatechka said.
Overall, they both say it seems like the little things should be the focus and hope the culture of the program will start to shift with time.
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