Nebraska is confident after rocky start to season

MADISON – The mood inside the Nebraska locker room on Sept. 16 was funereal.

Nebraska had just suffered a 21-17 home loss to Northern Illinois, which was without its No. 1 quarterback, and head coach Mike Riley appeared drained when he met with reporters.

“This is going to be a couple of things,” he explained. “We have to stick together. And the other thing is that there is no way out of a hole like this without working.

“So, the ability to kind of get to Monday so that we can start to get better is kind of the theme right now.”

That loss led to the firing of athletic director Shawn Eichorst, the man who hired Riley from Oregon State before the 2015 season.

When Riley met with reporters earlier this week, he wore the look of a coach whose team had stared down adversity.

Nebraska (3-2, 2-0 Big Ten) has won its last two games since that ugly home loss and enters its showdown with No. 8 Wisconsin (4-0, 1-0) at 7 p.m. Saturday at Memorial Stadium teeming with confidence.

“I think this team has prepared themselves in the last two weeks in a very good way to compete,” Riley said. “I would say there’s an excitement about playing football right now for them that is contagious throughout the team."

Nebraska’s victories came over struggling teams – Rutgers (1-4, 0-2) and Illinois (2-2, 0-1).

Yet after the fourpoint loss to Northern Illinois, a game in which quarterback Tanner Lee saw two of his three interceptions returned for touchdowns, the Cornhuskers couldn’t afford to be choosy.

Perhaps the most comforting part of their 28-6 victory last week at Illinois was that the offense was balanced and Lee avoided completing passes to defenders.

Nebraska had 252 yards on its first three offensive possessions and finished with 411 total, 246 passing and 165 rushing.

“I really believe it was a balanced football game, offense and defense,” Riley said. “I thought it was probably overall the most balanced game we've had.”

Lee completed 17 of 24 attempts for 246 yards and three touchdowns. That pushed his season totals to 10 touchdown passes and nine interceptions.

“I want to build off every performance,” said Lee, who has completed 57.4% of his passes. “And as an offense, we did a lot of good things. And a lot of things we can build off of in the future and know that we can feel comfortable running those different types of plays."

Nebraska’s defense, under first-year coordinator Bob Diaco, has grown stronger after an ugly first-half performance in Week 2 at Oregon.

The Cornhuskers have allowed a combined 23 points in the last 14 quarters.

“Confidence has been building week in and week out, at least I can speak for the defense,” said junior defensive tackle Mick Stoltenberg. “We put together a couple of good weeks and I think it’s a testament of how we’ve come back after facing adversity.

“Guys usually aren’t down these Mondays when we come back to work. Guys are excited to get to work, they’re excited for another chance to get out on the field and show what they can do."