Paul Finebaum rips ‘delusional’ Nebraska football fans for living in the past

Paul Finebaum dragged the entire Nebraska football program and its fans through the mud.

Public enemy No. 1 of the Nebraska football fanbase has to be ESPN’s Paul Finebaum after his latest comments disparaging their entire “delusional” football culture of firmly living in the past.

“I don’t think they can (get back to what they once were). I did when (Scott Frost) got there because, to me, he was the coach of the future,” said Finebaum on WJOX. “Sometimes you just have missed your moment. Nebraska is like a lot of these software companies or computer companies of the ’90s. They just never change. Or the entertainment companies of the last 10 years that said ‘streaming? Nobody cares about that.’”

“The problem with Nebraska, too, is the fan base. You would have heard Keith (Jackson) and Frank (Broyles) talking about how there’s nobody more loyal. That’s true. They are a loyal fan base, but they’re also a delusional fan base, guys. They still think it’s 1980. They still think it’s 1990. They still think it’s 2000.”

“Go back and look at the first coach after Tom Osborne. They fired the guy because he was winning 10 games a year. They’ve had pockets of success since then. Every time I talk about Nebraska, I get the Big Red Machine coming after me. But I think you might as well say a prayer to this program and put it to bed because it’s not coming back.”

Paul Finebaum rips the Nebraska football fanbase completely to shreds

The single biggest mistake Nebraska made was switching conferences over a decade ago. Despite their rich and proud football tradition, leaving the Big 12 for the Big Ten had unforeseen and disastrous consequences. A big reason Nebraska won as much as it did in the Big 12 and the old Big Eight before that was it could go into the fertile recruiting state of Texas and get top talent.

But by playing in the Big Ten, the parents of Texas recruits cannot watch their sons play in-person with any great regularity. What used to be Nebraska recruits are now going to play for SEC schools, especially after adding Texas A&M to that Power 5 conference. Tom Osborne may have been a legendary coach, but Nebraska’s bad decision-making keeps them forever living in the past.

Even if his alma mater is struggling too, Finebaum took a blowtorch to all things Nebraska anyway.

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