Nebraska hosts Maryland at Memorial Stadium this Saturday for the 2026 Homecoming Game. The Huskers are coming off a 31-13 victory over Michigan State in their Big Ten opener.
Maryland is 2-2 on the season following a 54-3 loss to the UCLA Bruins. Saturday's game is only the fifth game between these two schools. Nebraska leads the all-time series 3-1.
Saturday's game is the 115th Homecoming game in program history. The Huskers are 87-23-4 in Homecoming games and are 11-2 against Big Ten teams.
The Huskers have one of the top offenses in the country. Nebraska ranks in the top 20 in scoring offense (42.5 ppg - 16th), total offense (482.8 ypg - 19th), rushing offense (236.5 YPG - 18th) and third-down offense (54% - 10th).
Nebraska's defense has been
equally impressive under the direction of first-year coordinator Rob Aurich. The Blackshirts rank in the top 10 nationally in total defense (233.5 ypg - 5th), scoring defense (12.0 ppg - 10th), passing yards allowed (143.0 ypg - 7th) and third-down defense (25.5% - 9th).
While meeting with the media, head coach Matt Rhule talked about some of the improvements he'd like to see his team make heading into this Saturday's game.
“I think anytime you put on tape the tempo bothers you, you are gonna get tempo. If you look at a lot of it, we gave up four plays of 20 yards or more, one was an amazing catch by the kid, we weren’t in the right pass fit, we should be all over that route, one was a screen pass with a couple missed tackles, we have to understand that when we are rushing the way we are rushing that you are going to get screens and we have seen a lot of them but we have to rally to each and every one of them. I think some of those things kind of showed up but if you go back and look at a lot of our third down conversions, they're not happening from within the pocket, the quarterbacks are getting in up and out, the one was third and whatever, found a guy in scramble and found another guy in scramble. Just this week, I think when you talk about our team to improve, no matter what the opponent does schematically we have to be better at. When you are bringing that much pressure, you have to rally, you have to plaster in coverage and make sure that there arent guys open as he starts to run and you know not let guys outside the pocket."
Kickoff between Nebraska and Maryland is scheduled for 3 p.m. CT and will air on FS1. Dan Hellie and Robert Smith will call the action at Memorial Stadium.
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This article originally appeared on Cornhuskers Wire: Nebraska coach Matt Rhule talks about improvement before Homecoming
