7-0 start wasted; season ends 9-4

lincoln, neb.» Nebraska’s 7-0 start and top-10 ranking in late October are a distant memory for a fan base yearning for the Cornhuskers to show staying power on the national stage.

The No. 24 Huskers (9-4) lost four of their last six games, including 38-24 to Tennessee in the Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn., on Friday, and they head into the offseason with questions about how to fix a dented defense prone to breakdowns and what their offense will look like without four-year starting quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr. and three of their top four receivers.

Nebraska won three more games than it did in the 2015 season, when it sneaked into the Foster Farms Bowl with five wins and posted a convincing win over UCLA.

The death of all-Big Ten punter Sam Foltz in a summer car accident and the arrest of receivers coach Keith Williams for drunken driving pulled the Huskers together, and they looked like Big Ten contenders after reeling off seven straight wins and rising to No. 7.

But an overtime loss at Wisconsin, a 62-3 embarrassment at Ohio State and a hamstring injury to Armstrong in a win over Minnesota the next week derailed the season. A limited Armstrong played in the final regular-season game, a 4010 blowout loss at Iowa.

Ryker Fyfe, who started in Armstrong’s place against Maryland, got the call against Tennessee and was harassed all day by the Volunteers, and the running game was held to 61 yards.

A program that looked to be on the rise in October under second-year Huskers coach Mike Riley doesn’t look much different from the one that consistently lost four games a year under the fired Bo Pelini.

By all accounts, the Huskers are faring well on the recruiting front — and the onus is now on Riley to produce on the field.

Riley was ready to turn the page after the Huskers’ loss to Tennessee.

“The experience of playing in this game will be good for our team. It’s kind of the end of one team and the beginning of another, as leadership emerges right after the results of this game are in and we get back to campus,” he said. “It should be a great motivator for the guys that were playing in this game that are coming back for next year’s team.”

Tulane transfer Tanner Lee and Patrick O’Brien, who redshirted as a freshman, are the front-runners to replace Armstrong at QB. Devine Ozigbo, Tre’ Bryant and Mikale Wilbon will compete for the No. 1 tailback job with the departure of Terrell Newby. Stanley Morgan Jr. and De’Mornay Pierson-El are the most experienced receivers from a corps that loses sure-handed Jordan Westerkamp.