Nebraska beat Rutgers 31-0 on Saturday in Piscataway, and the losing streak is dead. Four straight losses, an offensive coordinator fired, a fan base ready to burn it all down, and then a clean, boring, physical shutout. It’s the first shutout Nebraska has posted in the Big Ten era, and I believe the first of any kind since the 2009 Holiday Bowl against Arizona. That’s a long time between donuts.
It also makes Nebraska bowl eligible at 6-4.
This one probably won’t do big numbers on YouTube, because
Nebraska played good football. Nobody clicks on good football. They click on disasters. Today wasn’t one.
Nebraska vs. Rutgers: Glenn Thomas Called a Grown-Up Game
The biggest thing I liked was Glenn Thomas’s play calling in his first game since taking over for Dana Holgorsen.
Thomas leaned on 13 personnel. Three tight ends, a lot. He ran the ball, and Nebraska rushed for 237 yards on the way to 429 total yards with 192 through the air. Is Rutgers a team you’re supposed to run on? Yes. They’re kind of a broke team. But you still have to actually do it, and Nebraska did.
Here’s what the run game looked like:
- Jamal Rule: 22 carries, 103 yards
- Anthony Colandrea: two passing touchdowns, one rushing, and a big chunk of yards on the ground
- Team: 237 rushing, 192 passing, 429 total
Colandrea’s reads were better this week. On the option looks he picked the right side far more often, instead of keeping it and getting buried in the backfield. That’s a real improvement, and it matters a lot more against the teams left on the schedule.
The Third Quarter Scared Me
The one stretch I didn’t like was the first possession of the third quarter. Nebraska came out of halftime throwing, and it went nowhere.
The broadcast kept pointing out that no wide receiver had a catch. My immediate reaction was that somebody decided the receivers needed to get the ball to stay happy. Maybe that’s just where college football is now. You have to keep players involved in the game plan or you hear about it.
Which raises an honest question. Are tight ends cheaper than wide receivers in the NIL market? Because if three tight ends and a running game is what wins, I’m fine with that being the identity.
The good news is the offense went back to what was working. The bad news is that drive made me wonder, for a few minutes, if we were about to see the same old stuff.
Fix Third-and-Two and Fourth-and-One
If I were the offensive coordinator, this is the first thing I’d be working on Sunday.
Nebraska had a third-and-two and a fourth-and-one. They lined up and ran the ball both times. They failed both times.
On the third-and-two, the blocking just wasn’t good enough. On the fourth-and-one, somebody shot a gap and blew the play up in the backfield.
That has to get figured out. I don’t care if it means putting defensive linemen in the backfield as blockers. Nebraska has to be able to make two or three yards when everybody in the stadium knows what’s coming. Short yardage is where good teams separate themselves, and it’s where this offense has bled all season.
Special Teams and the Throw Carter Nelson Will Never Live Down
Carter Nelson’s throw on the fake punt is going to follow him around for the rest of his life. Ten years from now he’ll be at some reunion and a teammate is going to bring up that wobbly ball against Rutgers. That stuff lasts forever.
Was it the right call? Probably. One guy was uncovered, it looked like a hot read, and they took it. It just needed a better throw.
The Blackshirts Pitched a Shutout
The defense held Rutgers to 143 total yards: 101 rushing and 42 passing. That run defense number is very good.
Yes, there’s context. Rutgers was down to its third quarterback, and the guy they had playing looked like he was still hurting from the week before. It was pretty obvious they weren’t going to throw it, and late in the game they just ran out the clock. Rutgers is 2-8, and Greg Schiano will probably be back next year because the program likely can’t afford to buy him out.
None of that changes the bottom line. Nebraska’s defense has been good enough all year to play with anybody, even with injuries to key players like Owen Chambliss. A shutout in the Big Ten is a shutout.
My one worry in the fourth quarter was Colandrea getting hurt. Quarterbacks are dropping all over the country this year, and a late injury would wreck the end of this season the same way the end of last season got wrecked.
The Penalties, and Who Teaches Excellence Now?
Nebraska had six penalties for 50 yards. That’s not catastrophic, but the dumb ones, like false starts, are still showing up.
Earlier this week, Luke Lindenmeyer said the team commits penalties in practice and then figures it will clean them up on game day.
That reminded me of a passage from Milt Tenopir’s book The Assembly Line. Tenopir wrote that most young players want to be the best, but “many don’t realize what it takes to get there.” His point was that older players set the standard, and their work habits rub off on the younger guys coming up behind them.
That’s the problem with the new era of college football. If you’re not growing up inside a program for four or five years, who teaches you to be excellent? Older players come and go every single year now. The 1990s teams talked constantly about how much it took to become a starter. The weight room, the concentration, the focus. I think that’s a big part of what’s missing in the sport right now.
So who wins the national title this year? Somebody with a healthy quarterback. And probably the team that focuses the hardest on what it’s doing on the field, which isn’t always the team with the best athletes or the best coaches.
Matt Rhule Is Going to Be Here Next Year
Let’s deal with reality. Unless something horrible happens, Matt Rhule is Nebraska’s coach in 2027.
I’m not going to do the “fire him for cause” routine, because that’s not happening. The useful question is what Rhule needs to fix to get better. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to watch or buy tickets.
I also don’t think Troy Dannen should be fired for extending Rhule. The rest of the athletic department is doing fine. And the stadium expansion people are mad about? Memorial Stadium is old, and something has to be done with it.
Think about who you’d hire if you fired Rhule. Jason Eck is the popular name right now because he’s winning at New Mexico. But a new coach could cost you half the roster on his way in. Look around the Big Ten at Penn State and Michigan going through their own coaching changes. This is a hard decision, and you can make things worse faster than you can make them better.
I’ve called for people to be fired before. I said somebody had to go after the fourth-and-one mess against Washington, and Holgorsen is gone. Two years ago I said the same thing, and Marcus Satterfield lost the offensive coordinator job. These decisions are not to be taken lightly.
Dannen’s job is probably riding on Rhule, too. If it were your job, you’d want to be successful at it. For most people that matters more than the paycheck.
Ohio State and Iowa Are Next
Ohio State beat Northwestern 28-19, with Northwestern scoring on the last play of the game. Nebraska has two ranked opponents left, and beating either one would get a big monkey off this program’s back.
Can Nebraska beat Ohio State or Iowa? I don’t know. The defense can play with anyone. The question is whether the offense can stay out of its own way. That means keeping the penalties down, making first downs, and doing what it did to Rutgers. Pound the run for three or four yards a carry, hit them with play action, and maybe Jacory Barney Jr. hangs onto the one in the end zone next time. Figure out third-and-two. Figure out fourth-and-one.
It’s easy to be negative about this team, and I’ve had plenty of negative days. This isn’t one of them. Nebraska played well, the streak is over, and the Huskers are going to a bowl.
31-0. Keep figuring it out. Go Big Red.
