You said we lose because the other teams play harder. That’s false. It implies our team quits. Not true. Our guys fight like hell. They just can’t finish. It’s a completely different problem.
That doesn't imply quitting. I played on a losing team in college one year that cared if we won or lost, but not as much as the other team. We gave an effort. But it's easy to make it look to the coaches like you're playing hard (cause everyone wants to play). But we weren't doing the painstaking little things that take extra energy and we had guys giving up early on plays.
So how do you measure effort? One way is if most people believe that you are playing harder than your opponent. After all, if your opponent is out working you, do you really need to be congratulated on how hard you played?
This Husker team had individuals who played very hard. The defense as a unit played hard. And the team didn't "quit". But they would have won more than one game this year if they played as hard as some are implying.