The 3-1 Nebraska Cornhuskers still have a ton of football ahead of them in this 2025 college football season, and there’s absolutely a world in which the Cornhuskers can find themselves in the College Football Playoff.
They’d have to win their big games coming up, of course, but in the here and now, that includes mentally moving on from the tough 30-27 loss to No. 20 Michigan that the Cornhuskers suffered right before their bye week.
They now play 3-1 Michigan State, which should be a winnable game, but none of Nebraska’s long-term goals for this season will work out if they don’t come out of the bye week focused on this game and this game only. The Michigan loss, as tough as it was, has to be in the past.
“No one cares about your feelings,” head coach Matt Rhule explained recently, according to Thomas Goldkamp of Rivals. “I was frustrated, they’re frustrated. Play better, that’s the message. Play better, practice better. No one’s coming to rescue you.”
Rhule needs Nebraska to move on from tough loss to Michigan
Rhule’s point is this: If Nebraska doesn’t want to feel that way again, there are certain things that the Huskers can control. They can’t control their schedule and they can’t control some of the bounces of the ball when the hits are for real on gameday.
They can control their preparation and mindset. Part of that mindset is realizing that in the 12-team CFP era, one loss is not a killer. Nebraska still has a game against No. 7 Penn State coming up in which it can make a CFP statement. That game won’t mean anything, though, if the Huskers don’t take care of business in the meantime.
What that means, according to Rhule, is that it’s time to get back up off the mat and not let one loss snowball into another.
“It’s just a new age of football. There’s a lot more parity,” Rhule said. “You lose the game, correct it, move on. We’ve tried to correct it, we’ve tried to move on. I think good teams never let a game beat them twice. That can sometimes be hard to do, but there’s no time to wallow in self pity.”
