Every successful team has one. Losing teams? Not so much.
For better or worse, Minnesota stuck to its identity – even with its backup quarterback – and pulled off the comeback win Saturday in Memorial Stadium, 20-13.
Although Nebraska led 10-0 after a dominant first half, it didn’t last. The first scripted drive led to the Huskers’ only touchdown. They managed just two field goals out of their other ten possessions.
Nebraska doesn’t have an identity. Hasn’t for years. There are times you may have thought you saw various head coaches have one, but it only counts if you can actually execute on that vision.
Obviously this is not interim head coach Mickey Joseph’s fault. He’s doing what he can with the pieces he has. A healthy Casey Thompson at quarterback may have even led Nebraska to victory Saturday.
It is instructive, however, to look at P.J. Fleck. Not as a candidate to coach Nebraska, but to explore why he wins in the Big Ten. While he may not be your favorite coach – he’s not mine, either – he knows who he is and his teams are consistent winners.
Why? Fleck wins because everything revolves around the Gophers’ identity. How they play offensively and defensively. What plays they excel at. What they focus on and what they do well.
- 12th nationally in rushing.
- 16th nationally or better in rush defense, pass defense, total defense, and scoring defense.
- 1st nationally in converting third downs, and 2nd nationally in stopping them.
Minnesota runs the ball, plays solid defense, and wins on third down on both sides of the ball. The Gophers keep the game close or get a lead, then lean on you late until they knock you down.
Another instructive aspect of watching the Gophers is how complementary these elements are. Running the ball successfully leads to long drives, which give your defense time to rest and regroup. Since they play tough defense, they typically get teams into third and long, which favors the defense and gets the ball back to their offense. The fact that they run the ball consistently well usually sets their offense up in favorable third-down situations. It’s why they had converted 60% of their chances leading into this game.
Credit to Nebraska defensive coordinator Bill Busch for holding Minnesota to just 3-for-11 on third down. Not an easy task, but NU came up with enough stops to win the game. The problem, however, was that on the four drives they gave up points, they forced only three third-down attempts. Two of them were stops and forced field goals, but they’d already let Minnesota into field goal range. The third was converted by Mo Ibrahim, who gained six yards on third and 1.
Nebraska had a chance to get Fleck off his game. The 10-0 lead in the first quarter could have grown to the point where it would have forced more passes. A three-score lead changes Minnesota’s offensive approach and plays into Nebraska’s hands. Mickey Joseph said as much after the loss. “When you play a team like that, you gotta really get it to three scores up on them before they can change their game plan. Two scores, they’re comfortable. They were gonna stick with their game plan as long as it was a two-score game and it was in reach.”
In fact, this was the first win for Minnesota in 33 games after they trailed by 10 or more points. They had lost 32 in a row when down by that margin.
How did Nebraska let them back in? Inconsistency, no identity and a lack of in-game adjustments.
Once it was clear the Gophers had figured out how to defend Chubba Purdy, and that Joseph and offensive coordinator Mark Whipple kept sending him back out, the game could flip if Minnesota got even one scoring drive. Which they did, right out of the halftime locker room.
Minnesota not only won the game with their backup QB playing the second half after Tanner Morgan was knocked out on a sack to end the first half, but they won without completing a pass in the fourth quarter.
They didn’t have to.
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After holding the Gophers to just 31 total yards in the first half, NU allowed 217 yards in the third quarter alone. The drive that started in the third quarter and ended in the fourth was the go-ahead field goal that made it 13-10. Their game plan was still working, so why pass?
Minnesota is not unique in the Big Ten West. Wisconsin, Iowa and Northwestern have all won division titles with very similar strategies. Even Purdue, which wins with the pass game under Jeff Brohm, has an identity and sticks to it. They’ve produced NFL wide receivers with it.
Without a plan to forge a durable, attainable identity at Nebraska, the next head coach will fail. Just look to history.
Scott Frost thought he’d do what he did at Central Florida with speed over size, got humbled, tried to overcorrect, and couldn’t win games late.
Mike Riley chose to adapt the offense to fit Tommy Armstrong’s strengths as opposed to going all-in on his favored passing attack. It did work in 2016, but the growing pains in year three that could have been in year one ultimately did him in.
Bo Pelini did very well defensively early on, but his teams struggled with the best opponents on their schedule each year. The Big Ten transition and change in offensive coordinators also stunted the program’s growth.
Bill Callahan actually did implement his West Coast offense, personnel be damned, in 2004, and it paid dividends with a division title in 2006. He won big in recruiting, too. That 2007 defense was his downfall.
These are oversimplifications, but you get the point.
Twenty years of up-and-down and inconsistent changes on the fly have all lead us to this moment. What will sell athletic director Trev Alberts that he’s found the right coach to find that identity? Will it be a Big Ten West-style run game? Will it be a take-some-risks-but-force-turnovers defense? How much will it matter if the candidate has the foresight to lay out how offense and defense would complement each other?
Minnesota is not necessarily the standard Nebraska wants to set long-term. But if you are a Husker fan, would you take 5-7, 7-6, 11-2, 3-4 (2020), 9-4 and 6-3 (2022 so far) over the next six years? That is Fleck’s tenure in Minneapolis. That’s what an identity can get you in this division, or in a division-less pod schedule with the 16-team conference coming in 2024.
It’s perhaps the most important conversation Trev will have with anyone under consideration for the job of Nebraska football head coah.
What’s your identity?
How have you planned for it?
How will you recruit to it? Develop it?
How can you lean on it when times are tough?
How do you win with it?
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