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.

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