Nebraska
Huskers at Halfway Point of Promising Season
This is Part One of looking back at Nebraska’s first half of the 2025 season. Coming Monday: Five coolest plays of 2025, plus honorable mentions.
Back in the summer, the weather was warm and preseason expectations were running hot for Nebraska football.
This is the year, Husker fans thought. For once in recent times, there was actual evidence to back up the feelings and the faith. Look out Big Ten, here come the Huskers, many thought, back to where they belong.
The roster was experienced with increased talent. Coach Matt Rhule’s system seemed to work. He went 7-6 the year before — the first winning season in seven years — and the Huskers won their first bowl game since 2015.
The all-important quarterback position was in good hands. Sophomore Dylan Raiola was another year experienced and had shown promise and poise the previous year to instill hope of a big 2025 season. The reasonable hope was he would overcome the inconsistencies he showed in 2024.
Even the schedule cooperated. The non-conference schedule was soft with two FCS teams and a challenging game with FBS Cincinnati.
Missing from the schedule: Big Ten monsters Ohio State and Oregon, and late-blooming monster Indiana. Michigan was a home game for the Huskers, and they played Penn State so late in the season that the game either would have little bearing on the season, or it could mean everything. Penn State would be dealt with when the time came, and not something to worry about in the summer.
Recruiting picked up. Nebraska wasn’t a favorite of those internet recruiting sites, but it was attracting football players and athletes with whom Rhule could win over.
Reports from summer camp were positive. There was talk of team unity. In the summer, all was good.
Armed those good vibes and that empirical evidence, all the football team had to do was, you know, win football games.
Nebraska proved something to itself in its 34-31 win at Maryland on Saturday. The Huskers twice had 10-point leads but were down 31-24 in the fourth quarter.
Raiola, who threw three interceptions, including a pick-six, led the Huskers on two fourth-quarter scoring drives to pull out a game they could have lost.
Maryland was an uncertainty because of talented freshman quarterback Malik Washington and a program that seems headed in the right direction. Normally, in Big Ten hierarchy, this wouldn’t be a big sweat for Nebraska. But, as the Husker faithful know, everything these days can be a big sweat.
But Nebraska showed it could win on the road, and that it could win when it didn’t bring its best and brightest game. Teams accustomed to winning tend to do that — they win.
Nebraska’s opening game, against Cincinnati at neutral-site Kansas City, was a contest that could go either way and experts thought so weeks before the game was played.
The Huskers survived, 20-17, on a last-minute interception by Malcolm Hartzog Jr., in the end zone. Husker fans took a deep breath. Hey, the season wasn’t ruined! Onward!
Nebraska’s next two games were against overmatched opponents and that’s what the results revealed — 68-0 over Akron; 59-7 over FCS Houston Christian.
Now, with the Huskers sitting at 3-0, the 2025 season was ready to being in earnest.
Michigan came to town on Sept. 20 as a 2.5-point favorite. But what Michigan represented was more than a potential victory and a continued undefeated season for the Huskers. Michigan was a monster, too. The Wolverines haven’t been great every season but they were a standard for every opponent. Beat Michigan, and your season meant something.
It’s the way lower-tier Big Ten teams look up to Nebraska.
Nebraska had every chance to defeat Michigan on that beautiful Saturday afternoon. That the Huskers didn’t says more about the Huskers than the Wolverines. As in many football games, the Huskers needed to make a play, or a couple of plays, and today they would be undefeated, ranked probably in the high-teens in the AP Top 25.
Nebraska couldn’t allow Michigan, leading 27-20 in the fourth quarter, to keep the ball for 8 minutes, 46 seconds, and drive 77 yards in 16 plays for a killer field goal and a 30-20 lead. Make a play somewhere in those 16 plays.
Three times on that drive, Nebraska had Michigan in third downs and couldn’t make a stop.
The Huskers couldn’t allow Michigan to score on three excruciatingly long touchdown runs — the Wolverines’ only touchdowns of the game. Shed a block, make a tackle, have a better scheme.
Make a play.
On offense, the Huskers made an amazing play — the 52-yard Hail Mary from Raiola to Jacory Barney Jr. at the end of the first half. It wasn’t enough.
Next, Nebraska handled Michigan State — well, the Huskers won, 38-27, in a mistake-filled game. That was like a March Madness game — win and survive. The Huskers won. Aesthetics, step aside.
Nebraska is 5-1. The Huskers were 5-1 in 2024 and lost their next four games.
There are clear strengths on this year’s team (nation’s No. 1 pass defense going into the Maryland game; passing game; running back Emmett Johnson) and weaknesses (rushing defense). There is inconsistent play and some brilliant play. It feels as if Nebraska is trying to find out what kind of football team it is.
The Huskers have six regular-season games to play. Optimists might have thought the Huskers would be undefeated at this point. A measured look in August at Nebraska and its schedule might predict a 5-1 start without being accused of frenzied fandom.
Five-and-one. That’s about right.
Nebraska’s remaining schedule is fascinating — as most future Big Ten schedules will be. Can the Huskers win out? How about 5-1, or 4-2?
There are season-making or season-breaking games ahead. Let’s be optimistic and say Nebraska will defeat Minnesota — that’s going to be a dogfight. Next is Northwestern, which just won at Penn State. UCLA has joined the party with two consecutive victories after starting the season 0-4. Nebraska travels to UCLA in November.
But think about this: Nebraska still has USC, Penn State and Iowa on the schedule. USC looked unstoppable in beating Michigan on Saturday. Penn State’s wheels have fallen off with three consecutive losses and quarterback Drew Allar reportedly out for the season, but it’s still Penn State on the road. Think about what a win over one of those teams will mean to the Huskers. Or more than one win.
Nebraska met expectations in the first half of a season when much was expected. It was rarely pretty, but it didn’t have to be.
Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, subscribing to HuskerMax on YouTube, and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.
The face of the Nebraska program went through a metamorphosis of nearly biblical proportions as the hours melted away on beautiful Maryland Saturday in October.
Dylan Raiola, who Matt Rhule famously proclaimed had “blood in his eye” against Michigan State a week earlier, lost his flinty-faced look and acquired the visage of jolly old Saint Nick as he almost singlehandedly gave away a 10-point lead.
But as the sunny afternoon faded to darkness, Raiola forsook his Santa Claus role, and reassumed the role of a coldhearted assassin when he absolutely had to, leading the Huskers on a pair of long scoring drives in the fourth quarter to rescue a 34-31 win for the Big Red.
Nebraska is 5-1 overall and 2-1 in the Big Ten at the midway point of the season, just as it was last season, and Raiola, who threw for four touchdowns in one of the most up-and-down-and-up games you’ll ever see, careened from extremely hot to disturbingly cold, with hardly enough time for anxious TV executives to fit in a station break in between.
Ahh, but those execs love the drama that the 6-foot-3, 230-pound sophomore can provide — for example, somehow delivering a win for Nebraska despite going minus-three in turnovers.
Drama was there in spades on Saturday, with Raiola covering both the highs (a prolonged rollout and 7-yard touchdown laser to Luke Lindenmeyer in the back corner of the end zone midway through the second quarter, or a clutch 33-yard pass to Nyziah Hunter which was delivered as he stumbled and fell backward) and the lows (which culminated in a hideous “cover-your-children’s-eyes” 64-yard pick-six by Dontay Joyner, giving the Terrapins a go-ahead touchdown with 6:40 remaining in the third quarter).
But eventually, Raiola got the blood back in his own eye. He completed six passes for 50 yards which, along with a jaw-dropping 50-yard run by junior Emmett Johnson, overcame a pair of holding penalties and set up Kyle Cunanan for his second field goal of the day, a 27-yarder, that cut Maryland’s lead to 31-27 with 7:47 left in the game.
And after forcing a Maryland punt, Nebraska took over at its own 19-yard line with 3:42 remaining. Then came Raiola’s unlikely B-film toss to Hunter, and a surgical 13-yard strike to Heinrich Haarberg to set up his game-winning 3-yard pass to Dane Key with 1:08 remaining.
And yet there was more — much more. Before delivering rapturous celebration, Raiola provided his share of wailing and gnashing of teeth to Husker Nation, as well. He doled out interceptions like candy at an Independence Day parade, eventually finishing with three for the day, including two in the second quarter where the Huskers led 24-14 and had the Terrapins on the ropes, ready for an early knockout.
Raiola was moving the Huskers downfield late in the first half with a chance to take a three-score lead, but he not only failed to deliver the knockout blow, he downright invited the Terrapins (4-2, 1-2) back into the game when he lapsed into his disconcerting habit of throwing off his back foot, not infrequently lowering his arm angle for good measure, even when he’s not under pressure, something he did twice against Maryland. The first only resulted in an incompletion, but the second — a lazy wounded duck that wobbled far from any Husker receiver and directly into the arms of Maryland defensive back Jamare Glasker along the sideline.
Part of the charm and drama that is Dylan Raiola is that he gets some unlikely completions when he drops his arm angle to deliver throws under pressure. This one was nothing but bad news, and totally avoidable if he had simply set his back foot and thrown the ball with normal mechanics. And it ended a promising drive, allowing the Terps to move from their own 15-yard line to the Husker 19, kicking a 37-yard field goal made it a one-score game at the half.
That’s part of what you get with Raiola. But you also get leadership that can transform a team from almost winning games against beatable teams, to actually winning those games on the regular.
After the game, Matt Rhule summarized the change in his team since last season when he said, “They love each other, they play for each other, they don’t panic and they fight the whole way. No one was panicked on the sidelines. Our guys are very, very comfortable in the fourth quarter.”
A year ago at the midway point, Raiola had nine touchdown passes and three interceptions. This year he has 16 TDs and five picks. Last year, Raiola added only four more touchdowns and threw six more interceptions in the back half of the season. What does Raiola have in store over the remainder of 2025?
It will no doubt be packed with adversity. Wise Husker fans have learned not to look beyond the next game. But it could also be prodigious if Raiola can count on a Nebraska running game that perked up against Maryland. Johnson carried the ball 21 times for 176 yards, the most for a Nebraska player in a Big Ten game in five seasons. Freshman Isaiah Mozee added 24 yards on five carries and the Huskers as a team netted 193 yards on the ground, by far their best showing of the season.
That goes double if the Blackshirts can hold up as they did late in the game. Led by freshman quarterback Malik Washington, who gave the Husker pass defense its biggest test of the season so far, Maryland piled up 379 total yards. But after the pick-six, the Blackshirts held firm, giving up only 89 yards and no points over the final 21 minutes.
As they head to Minnesota Friday to play P.J. Fleck’s Gophers on a short week, the Huskers have a new face to show the world, one replacing the narrative that said the Huskers are fated to lose every one-score game they come up against. That’s just what Raiola came to Lincoln to do.
Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, subscribing to HuskerMax on YouTube, and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.
The Nebraska football team is looking to start the season 5-1 for the second year in a row. To do that, they’ll need to beat a Maryland Terrapins team that can put up quite a fight and is one second-half collapse away from being undefeated coming into Saturday afternoon.
There’s also the added degree of difficulty in that the Huskers haven’t played an actual road game all season. The farthest they’ve traveled away from Lincoln is Kansas City this year. Now they’re more than 1,200 miles away in College Station.
Despite all of that, Nebraska is a solid favorite, especially considering they’re on the road and playing another team that is 4-1. The College Football world knows that if the Cornhuskers are really taking the next step, they’ll need to find a way to win these games. Last week’s game against Michigan State was a step in the right direction. NU needs to take another step this afternoon.
Nebraska vs Maryland final odds
The Huskers opened the week as 5.5-point favorites against Maryland and that spread has gone up just a little bit.
Nebraska is now -6.5 in their first road game of the season. It would appear for now that Vegas believes in NU as they’re a touchdown favorite against a decent team on the road.
The total for the game, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, is relatively low. The 47.5 point total is likely relatively low thanks to both teams showing real defensive prowess and predictions of rainy, less than great weather in Maryland this afternoon.
Nebraska football vs Maryland final prediction
The Huskers showed the kind of fight in the fourth quarter that fans have been looking forward to seeing for more than a decade. Now they need to build on it.
Nebraska football wins 24-17 to improve to 5-1.
There are 126 games scheduled across Nebraska on Friday, October 10. You can follow every game live on our Nebraska High School Football Scoreboard.
Some marquee matchups of the night will include Omaha Westside going to Elkhorn South and Elkhorn North going to Skutt Catholic.
There are 14 games scheduled in the NSAA A classification on Friday, October 10. You can follow every game on our NSAA Class A High School Football Scoreboard.
Omaha South (0-6) at Papillion-LaVista South (5-1), 7:00 PM
South Sioux City (1-5) at Omaha North (4-2), 7:00 PM
Papillion-LaVista (3-3) at Omaha Central (4-2), 7:00 PM
Omaha Northwest (0-6) at Millard West (3-3), 7:00 PM
Lincoln Southeast (3-3) at North Platte (2-4), 7:00 PM
Millard South (5-1) at Lincoln (4-2), 7:00 PM
Millard North (2-4) at Kearney (3-3), 7:00 PM
North Star (3-3) at Grand Island (0-6), 7:00 PM
Fremont (4-2) at Creighton Prep (6-0), 7:00 PM
Omaha Westside (5-1) at Elkhorn South (6-0), 7:00 PM
Burke (2-4) at Norfolk (4-2), 7:00 PM
Benson (2-4) at Bryan (0-6), 7:00 PM
Bellevue West (3-3) at Lincoln Southwest (2-4), 7:00 PM
Bellevue East (1-5) at Omaha Westview (4-2), 7:00 PM
There are 12 games scheduled in the NSAA B classification on Friday, October 10. You can follow every game on our NSAA Class B High School Football Scoreboard.
Standing Bear (2-4) at Pius X (2-4), 7:00 PM
Waverly (6-0) at Plattsmouth (3-3), 7:00 PM
York (4-2) at Northwest (2-4), 7:00 PM
McCook (5-1) at Ogallala (1-5), 7:00 PM
Hastings (1-5) at Scottsbluff (5-1), 7:00 PM
Gretna East (5-1) at Ralston (3-3), 7:00 PM
Gretna (3-3) at Platteview (3-3), 7:00 PM
Gering (4-2) at Lexington (2-4), 7:00 PM
Elkhorn North (6-0) at Skutt Catholic (5-1), 7:00 PM
Crete (1-5) at Lincoln Northwest (1-5), 7:00 PM
Seward (4-2) at Blair (0-6), 7:00 PM
Beatrice (0-6) at Norris (6-0), 7:00 PM
There are 19 games scheduled in the NSAA C1 classification on Friday, October 10. You can follow every game on our NSAA Class C1 High School Football Scoreboard.
Pierce (4-2) at Wayne (1-5), 7:00 PM
Schuyler (0-6) at O’Neill (6-0), 7:00 PM
Nebraska City (1-5) at Wilber-Clatonia (2-4), 7:00 PM
Wahoo (6-0) at Logan View/Scribner-Snyder (2-4), 7:00 PM
Gross Catholic (4-2) at Brownell Talbot (3-3), 7:00 PM
Gothenburg (5-1) at Holdrege (0-6), 7:00 PM
Concordia (4-2) at Fort Calhoun (5-1), 7:00 PM
Falls City (1-5) at Syracuse (6-0), 7:00 PM
Mount Michael Benedictine (4-2) at Douglas County West (2-4), 7:00 PM
Scotus (2-4) at Lakeview (6-0), 7:00 PM
Chase County (1-5) at Sidney (6-0), 7:00 PM
Broken Bow (2-4) at Minden (2-4), 7:00 PM
Louisville (2-4) at Boys Town (1-4), 7:00 PM
Lincoln Christian (2-4) at Aurora (3-3), 7:00 PM
Auburn (2-4) at Fairbury (0-6), 7:00 PM
Ashland-Greenwood (5-1) at Roncalli Catholic (3-3), 7:00 PM
Alliance (3-3) at Chadron (5-1), 7:00 PM
Adams Central (1-5) at Cozad (3-3), 7:00 PM
McCook (5-1) at Ogallala (1-5), 7:00 PM
There are 18 games scheduled in the NSAA C2 classification on Friday, October 10. You can follow every game on our NSAA Class C2 High School Football Scoreboard.
Tekamah-Herman (2-4) at Archbishop Bergan (5-0), 7:00 PM
Superior (2-4) at St. Cecilia (1-5), 7:00 PM
Ponca (2-4) at Cedar Catholic (5-0), 7:00 PM
Lincoln Lutheran (5-0) at Palmyra (2-4), 7:00 PM
Norfolk Catholic (5-0) at Oakland-Craig (0-5), 7:00 PM
Raymond Central (4-2) at Malcolm (4-2), 7:00 PM
Kearney Catholic (6-0) at Mitchell (2-4), 7:00 PM
Hershey (4-2) at Gordon-Rushville (0-6), 7:00 PM
Wood River (5-1) at Gibbon (1-5), 7:00 PM
Doniphan-Trumbull (4-2) at Fillmore Central (2-4), 7:00 PM
Grand Island Central Catholic (5-1) at Cross County (2-4), 7:00 PM
Conestoga (1-5) at Bishop Neumann (3-1), 7:00 PM
Ord (3-3) at Centura (2-4), 7:00 PM
St. Paul (1-5) at Boone Central (4-2), 7:00 PM
Battle Creek (2-4) at West Point-Beemer (4-2), 7:00 PM
Yutan (4-2) at Arlington (4-2), 7:00 PM
North Bend Central (2-4) at Aquinas (0-6), 7:00 PM
Amherst (3-3) at Valentine (2-4), 7:00 PM
There are 28 games scheduled in the NSAA D1 classification on Friday, October 10. You can follow every game on our NSAA Class D1 High School Football Scoreboard.
Hemingford (6-0) at Bridgeport (5-1), 6:00 PM
Guardian Angels Central Catholic (4-2) at Wisner-Pilger (5-1), 7:00 PM
Tri County (2-4) at Thayer Central (5-1), 7:00 PM
Southern Valley (0-6) at St. Patrick’s (4-2), 7:00 PM
Ravenna (5-0) at South Loup (2-4), 7:00 PM
Pleasanton (1-5) at West Holt (2-4), 7:00 PM
Stanton (2-4) at Plainview (5-1), 7:00 PM
Pender (5-1) at Wakefield (0-6), 7:00 PM
Morrill (0-6) at Perkins County (4-2), 7:00 PM
Shelby-Rising City (6-0) at Mead (3-3), 7:00 PM
Twin River (3-3) at Madison (0-6), 7:00 PM
Summerland (4-2) at Laurel-Concord-Coleridge (2-4), 7:00 PM
Sutherland (1-5) at Kimball (2-4), 7:00 PM
Johnson-Brock (4-2) at Omaha Christian Academy (2-3), 7:00 PM
Johnson County Central (5-1) at Lourdes Central Catholic (4-1), 7:00 PM
Tri County (Northeast Wakefield) (1-5) at Homer (0-6), 7:00 PM
Exeter-Milligan/Friend (3-3) at Sandy Creek (5-1), 7:00 PM
Lutheran-Northeast (1-5) at Elkhorn Valley (3-3), 7:00 PM
Heartland (1-5) at East Butler (4-2), 7:00 PM
David City (4-2) at Humphrey (3-3), 7:00 PM
Crofton (4-2) at Wausa (6-0), 7:00 PM
Newman Grove (0-6) at Clarkson/Leigh (3-3), 7:00 PM
Centennial (0-6) at McCool Junction (5-1), 7:00 PM
Hartington-Newcastle (3-3) at Boyd County (3-3), 7:00 PM
Freeman (1-5) at Sacred Heart (1-5), 7:00 PM
Niobrara/Verdigre (1-5) at Bloomfield (5-1), 7:00 PM
Arapahoe (1-5) at Hi-Line [Eustis-Farnam/Elwood] (2-4), 7:00 PM
Dundy County-Stratton (6-0) at Alma (3-2), 7:00 PM
There are 25 games scheduled in the NSAA D2 classification on Friday, October 10. You can follow every game on our NSAA Class D2 High School Football Scoreboard.
Winside (4-2) at Wynot (5-1), 7:00 PM
Riverside (1-5) at Nebraska Christian (0-6), 7:00 PM
Walthill (0-6) at Randolph (1-5), 7:00 PM
St. Mary’s (6-0) at North Central (0-6), 7:00 PM
Wilcox-Hildreth (3-3) at Kenesaw (2-4), 7:00 PM
Weeping Water (4-2) at Humboldt-Table Rock-Steinauer (1-5), 7:00 PM
Osceola (3-3) at Howells-Dodge (6-0), 7:00 PM
Hitchcock County (6-0) at Maywood/Hayes Center (0-6), 7:00 PM
High Plains (3-3) at Lawrence-Nelson (5-1), 7:00 PM
Freeman (1-5) at Sacred Heart (1-5), 7:00 PM
Neligh-Oakdale (7-0) at Elgin/Pope John (4-2), 7:00 PM
Nebraska Lutheran (0-6) at Deshler (4-2), 7:00 PM
Central Valley (6-0) at Palmer (2-4), 7:00 PM
Cedar Bluffs (2-4) at Elmwood-Murdock (5-1), 7:00 PM
Overton (4-2) at Cambridge (5-1), 7:00 PM
Burwell (3-3) at Chambers/Wheeler Central (3-3), 7:00 PM
Bruning-Davenport/Shickley (4-2) at Giltner (1-5), 7:00 PM
Blue Hill (2-4) at Franklin (2-4), 7:00 PM
Bertrand (3-3) at Loomis (4-2), 7:00 PM
Bayard (1-5) at Maxwell (3-3), 7:00 PM
Bancroft-Rosalie (5-1) at Lyons-Decatur Northeast (2-4), 7:00 PM
Elm Creek (4-2) at Axtell (0-6), 7:00 PM
Archangels Catholic (6-0) at Fullerton (4-2), 7:00 PM
Anselmo-Merna (5-1) at Twin Loup (4-2), 7:00 PM
Ainsworth (2-4) at Creighton (2-4), 7:00 PM
There are 12 games scheduled in the NSAA D6 classification on Friday, October 10. You can follow every game on our NSAA Class D6 High School Football Scoreboard.
Wauneta-Palisade (4-1) at Southwest (5-0), 7:00 PM
Shelton (2-3) at Santee (0-5), 7:00 PM
Red Cloud (5-0) at Silver Lake (4-1), 7:00 PM
Sumner-Eddyville-Miller (4-1) at Paxton (1-4), 7:00 PM
Sterling (2-3) at Pawnee City (4-1), 7:00 PM
Lewiston (2-3) at Parkview Christian (1-4), 7:00 PM
Harvard (0-5) at Meridian (3-2), 7:00 PM
Hampton (5-0) at Stuart (4-1), 7:00 PM
Dorchester (2-3) at Diller-Odell (1-4), 7:00 PM
Cody-Kilgore (1-4) at Hay Springs (3-2), 7:00 PM
Sioux County (2-3) at Arthur County (3-2), 7:00 PM
Ansley/Litchfield (1-4) at Heartland Lutheran (0-2), 7:00 PM
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