Interesting to compare Rhule's postgame presser today to his presser after last year's close loss in Iowa City. Last year he was flat-out angry. He felt like his team outplayed Iowa, they outcoached Iowa (didn't say it but might as well have), and they deserved to win. It was hard to argue with that sentiment after they held the Hawks to 160 total yds. That presser gave the impression he was determined to never let that happen again.
Then earlier this week he admitted the Iowa game means a tremendous amount to him. You could feel it.
However, today's postgame was pretty much a 'I feel your pain' apology to Husker fans. He admitted Iowa was the better team. Then he throws in odd comments like "I thought we played well last week, thought we played well this week" and "Defense is about big hits, strip sacks, scoop and scores." Huh? I thought the purpose of Defense is to keep the opponent from scoring. Egads.
After consecutive 7-5 seasons, he acknowledged that isn't good enough and took full responsibility, but you certainly didn't get the sense that he knew how to improve their situation. He seemed a lot less sure of himself compared to the end of last season. He's discovering the BTen ain't the Big12.
And their BTen schedule next season is A LOT tougher than it was this season.