Nebraska humbled by Gophers' beatdown as questions continue to surround Mike Riley's future

With Nebraska already trailing by 26 points with about five minutes left Saturday, the Gophers stopped Cornhuskers backup quarterback Patrick O'Brien at the 50-yard line, preventing the Cornhuskers from converting a fourth-and-1.

Gophers coach P.J. Fleck hopped off his sideline to congratulate his players with a sort of fist-pump/hip-thrust hybrid move perhaps only he could pull off, while all his players fed off his excitement.

Compare that to the Cornhuskers sideline, where coach Mike Riley and his players stood like statues.

Nebraska ultimately lost 54-21 at TCF Bank Stadium and, at 4-6 overall and 3-4 in the Big Ten, now must win out against Penn State and Iowa to avoid a losing season.

"Right now, you have to inherently rely on the character of the people around you," Riley said. "It sounds like a broken record, but the coaches will get together to plan and prepare, and the players, I think, will just have to call upon whatever their own personal pride to do the right thing. Whether or not their lights have been on all the way, whatever that is, whatever the opinion of what it looked like today, they are good kids. They have worked hard. They did prepare.

"We had a plan. We did not, obviously, prepare for this, surprised by it. But I will continue to say that they had great intentions and tried in every way to get ready to play."

Riley's future at Nebraska is even more under siege after the loss, the Cornhuskers' second this season in which they gave up at least 50 points; they lost 56-14 to Ohio State on Oct. 14. The Huskers are 19-17 in three seasons under Riley, and Shawn Eichorst, the athletic director who hired him, was fired in September, replaced last month by Bill Moos.

Of course, Spielman had a chance at all those kickoff returns because the Gophers kept scoring. Nebraska hadn't given up that many points to Minnesota since a 61-7 loss in 1945.

Granted, Nebraska did have to do without starting quarterback Tanner Lee for the second half when he endured an "impact migraine," and the Gophers proceeded to sack O'Brien six times. But the result still doesn't look good for a fourth year for Riley.

"It's not all the way 100 percent," senior receiver De'Mornay Pierson-El said of coaching rumors. "At the moment, it's a false reality. It's not true. Nobody said anything. Nobody's fired. So at the end of the day, these are our coaches, and you follow their leadership. That's just what you have to do."

Well, that, and prove that despite the body language, the Huskers aren't channeling Rhett Butler at the end of "Gone with the Wind."

"Losing at this program, it's hard. It really is because we care too much. We want to win every game, and our program, people expect us to win. We expect to win. So times like this, it's hard," junior offensive lineman Jerald Foster said. "This is still a Nebraska team, and we hold that strong.