Nebraska

McMaster’s Keys to the Game: Nebraska Football vs. Northern Iowa

Published

4 months ago

September 14, 2024

McMaster’s Keys to the Game: Nebraska Football vs. Northern Iowa

The Nebraska Cornhuskers welcome the Northern Iowa Panthers in a game that can take the Huskers to 3-0 for the first time since 2016. While on paper this should be an easy victory for the Big Red, the Panthers bring a style of play and a backfield talented enough to crash the party at Memorial Stadium.

Here are Matt McMaster’s keys to the game.

After Nebraska’s dominant win over the Colorado Buffaloes last week, the Huskers enter Saturday’s contest ranked No. 23 (AP) in the country. While this is not the end goal for Big Red, it’s a step in the right direction and a distinction they haven’t received in five years.

The team’s early-season success has brought the nation’s attention and high expectations. With that comes pressure that can crumble a team.

But they also possess momentum that the program hasn’t had in ages. The positivity flowing around the buildings in Lincoln hasn’t been there since the Bo Pelini era. The easiest way to lose the positive stigma is to have a letdown week against an FCS opponent.

A loss against Northern Iowa would destroy the program’s momentum and perceived progress over the last few weeks. Even a close win deteriorates what NU has accomplished this season.

The Huskers need to take the momentum from the win over the Buffaloes and roll it into their performance against Northern Iowa. They need to take the confidence instilled from rewriting the biggest wrong of last season and turn it into another masterclass on both sides of the ball.

I’m always on the side of deferring to receive the ball in the second half if you win the coin toss, but not in this game. Nebraska needs to make this a boat race.

The Northern Iowa offense is a boa constrictor that gives opposing defenses a slow and painful death. This team likes to dominate up front.

Over their first two games, they’re averaging an astounding 298 rushing yards. The Panthers want to suffocate opponents on offense. They want to take the ball, pound it up the middle, tire you out, and drain the clock. They do this with two elite backs, Tye Edwards and Amauri Pesek-Henderson. Henderson and Edwards are elite FCS backs, averaging over 6 yards per carry. Nebraska’s gap integrity must be at its best, or the Huskers will get gashed all night by these two.

While UNI’s rushing game is elite, the passing game is far from it. The Panthers have 215 passing yards in two games. They simply don’t have the quarterback or outside weapons to compete on the outside against FBS opponents, let alone one of the better secondaries in the Big Ten.

While UNI’s style of play works for them, it’s not meant to get into shootouts. If the Huskers are aggressive early on offense, they can force the Panthers to veer away from their preferred style of play.

This is going to be a physical game on defense for the Cornhuskers. The Panthers’ goal is to play 130 snaps of smash-mouth football. They want to bring the fight and wear down this elite Nebraska defense.

NU must use its depth to its advantage and constantly rotate guys in and out on all three levels. This is crucial due to the nature of the UNI offense as the Panthers want to punish teams defensively, making every run easier and easier for their elite backs.

How UNI plays exposes teams that need more depth to ensure that the players on the field are always fresh. The Blackshirt coaching staff will play a significant role in ensuring they’re divvying up snaps correctly, not to make things easier on the Panther run game.

Failure at this will not only lead to a long day on defense but even injuries.

Kickoff at Memorial Stadium Saturday is slated for 6:30 p.m. CDT. The game will be televised on Big Ten Network, with Huskers Radio Network affiliates providing coverage across the state.

MORE: I-80 Club’s Saturday Morning Coffee: Nebraska Football Finishes the Non-Con

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MORE: McMaster’s Big Ten Football Power Rankings After Week 2

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Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, following HuskerMax on X, and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.

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Nebraska

Quotebook: Rhule, Raiola, Rahmir + Robinson post-Pinstripe Bowl

Published

6 minutes ago

December 29, 2024

Press Room

Quotebook: Rhule, Raiola, Rahmir + Robinson post-Pinstripe Bowl

NEW YORK – Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule and a few players were chosen for Saturday’s postgame interviews with the media following the Huskers’ 20-15 win over Boston College in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium.

Below, we dig into the Quotebook from the postgame podiums as the Huskers – who finished their season at 7-6 overall – didn’t just finally get over the hump by reaching a bowl game but also finished the job by winning the bowl game. They took care of the Eagles, who also end the year with a 7-6 mark.

Following a perfect non-conference slate – highlighted by a dominant win over ranked Colorado – and an overtime loss to ranked Illinois, the Huskers bounced back with wins over Purdue and Rutgers. Then, they fell on the road at Indiana and Ohio State in losses that felt drastically different in both vibes and the actual final score. Then, the UCLA game happened. Then, a hard-fought loss came – yet again – on the road at USC.

The Huskers finally broke through against Wisconsin, ending a four-game losing streak on the season, a 10-game losing streak to the Badgers – also a nine-game losing streak when bowl eligibility was on the line (including eight straight such losses under Rhule) – and finally returning to the postseason to end a seven-year bowl drought.

The Huskers followed that breakthrough win with an equally debilitating loss by the exact same final score (13-10) as the Nebraska-Iowa game the previous November. (And the exact same final score as two other losses during that same 2023 season.)

But…

All’s well that ends well, right?

The Huskers are now officially in offseason mode, moving into the winter with a slight shift in momentum sparked by the bowl game victory.

And with that, we present Saturday’s postgame Quotebook with thoughts from Rhule, quarterback Dylan Raiola, running back Rahmir Johnson and defensive lineman Ty Robinson – plus thoughts from Boston College head coach Bill O’Brien and the Eagles.

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Nebraska

Rhule wants “complete and total overhaul” of special teams

Published

9 hours ago

December 29, 2024

Press Room

Rhule wants “complete and total overhaul” of special teams

NEW YORK — The good?

Nebraska won enough football games to qualify for a bowl game for the first time since 2016. Even more good? The Huskers beat Boston College 20-15 on Saturday in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium in New York to mark the program’s first bowl win since 2015.

Clearly, there is positive momentum at Nebraska.

Now, the bad.

The bad was Nebraska’s poor special teams rearing its ugly head once again. Mistakes in the third phase of the game caused Nebraska to nearly lose its 20-2 lead late in the third quarter in stunning fashion.

First, BC blocked a John Hohl extra-point attempt after Nebraska’s second touchdown of the first half. The snap from Camden Witucki was fine, but holder Brian Buschini dropped the ball as Hohl was making his approach.

With the chaos in front of him, Hohl’s kick went low and was easily blocked by BC’s Max Tucker. Ashton McShane scooped it and scored 2 points from 87 yards.

Then in the fourth quarter, Buschini had a punt blocked after BC’s Victor Nelson split both Jason Maciejczak and Dylan Parrott, who were part of a three-man shield (Mason Goldman was the third member of the shield, but had his own Eagle to block).

And just like that, BC scored a touchdown one play later to make it a 20-15 Husker lead. The Eagles scored 13 points in under 2 minutes of game action.

The collective gulp from Husker fans was heard everywhere.

“It’s no secret. To be where we want to be next year, we have to be the same defensively, probably a little better in some areas,” Matt Rhule said after the game. “We have to really improve on offense, and I think we’re all seeing at times signs of what it’s going to look like. And then special teams, we need a complete and total overhaul of that. We have to be better at that. I always put those things on my shoulders, we’ll get it done. But it has not been good enough this year.”

There was also a moment where Nebraska tried a fake field goal, where Buschini, the holder, took the snap and tried running for a touchdown on BC’s 8-yard line. The play didn’t come close to working.

“The fake field goal, probably should have just dropped back and thrown it again,” Rhule said. “But we had the numbers there and the kid just made a good play.”

Ed Foley’s special teams haven’t performed up to the standard he and his boss, Rhule, constantly talk about. Both the field goal and punting units have struggled with snaps throughout the season.

Nebraska went to the transfer portal for help at long snapper and added New Hampshire’s Kevin Gallic.

“We’ve had snapping issues all year long. I think we’ve tried to already address that for next year,” Rhule said.

With Buschini playing his final season at Nebraska in 2024, the Huskers also added veteran transfer punter Jack McCallister, who started for Washington the past three seasons.

As Rhule always does, he tries to remember the positives, too.

In that regard, Rhule liked how the unit executed a fake punt pass vs. BC, where Buschini completed a pass to Isaac Gifford for a first down. That was Buschini’s second completion for a first down of the season.

“The fake punt was kind of a big call. A gutsy call that they’ve worked and executed,” Rhule said.

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Nebraska

Key stats of the game in Nebraska's win over Boston College

Published

17 hours ago

December 28, 2024

Press Room

Key stats of the game in Nebraska’s win over Boston College

NEW YORK — Nebraska held on and got the job done on Saturday.

The Huskers traveled to New York City to play in the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl against Boston College and will fly home with a 20-15 win.

It wasn’t pretty — is it ever with this program? — as NU led 20-2 with three minutes left in the third quarter but allowed BC to score two touchdowns in the final 6:11 of the game.

NU ends its 2024 season with a record of 7-6 (3-6 in Big Ten). That’s the most wins since the 2016 team went 9-4. It’s also the first bowl victory for the Huskers since the 2015 team beat UCLA 37-29 in the Foster Farms Bowl.

Here are three key statistics that stood out from NU’s win over the Eagles.

A good showing in the red zone from Nebraska’s offense

One of the top stats that usually equals winning football involves making the most of your trips to the red zone. On Saturday, the Husker offense was good enough once it entered BC’s 20-yard line.

NU finished the game by scoring points on three of its four red zone opportunities, and all of them were touchdowns. All three of NU’s scoring drives that entered the red area lasted at least seven plays, too, so the Huskers were going on some drives in Yankee Stadium.

The only red-zone appearance that didn’t end in a score was a fake field goal that had punter/holder Brian Buschini attempting to run the ball on a fourth-and-goal from the BC 8-yard line. That didn’t work as Buschini got 1 yard to seal a turnover on downs.

Nebraska turned the ball over twice, but John Butler’s defense put out the fires

NU’s offense turned the ball over twice in the game, both of which came in the first half thanks to a Dylan Raiola interception and an Emmett Johnson lost fumble.

Those could have been back-breaking mistakes, but they weren’t because defensive coordinator John Butler’s defense, which featured several young players getting opportunities, stood tall after each turnover.

The Huskers did not allow BC to score points off those turnovers. NU may have bent — the Huskers allowed BC to convert 5-of-10 third downs in the first half — but it never really broke until late in the game when the Eagles scored their first touchdown at the 6:11 mark of the fourth quarter.

On a wet and slippery field, yes, there were missed tackles and sloppy play at times. But the Huskers flew around like a team who had fun in the city for a week before flipping a switch and winning a football game, just like Matt Rhule wanted.

If BC was going to win this game, it needed to run the ball — that didn’t happen

Nothing against BC quarterback Grayson James. He played as well as he could and made some good throws while being pressured by NU’s defense all day.

But if BC was going to win this game, it needed to have an effective run game. That didn’t happen — BC would have liked to have its first-team All-ACC right tackle Ozzy Trapilo, who opted out — as the Husker defense limited the Eagles’ rushing attack to just 47 yards overall and 40 in the first half. That rushing total rises to 64 yards if you take away the 17 sack yards NU’s defense had.

BC entered the game with a top-50 rush offense nationally at 176 yards per game, good for 46th in the country.

The defensive front that played for NU today — guys like Ty Robinson, Nash Hutmacher, Cam Lenhardt, Elijah Jeudy, Keona Davis, MJ Sherman, Willis McGahee and Co. — held up well against BC’s offensive line and tight ends and allowed the linebackers behind them, like Javin Wright, Vincent Shavers Jr. and John Bullock, to clean up, which they did.

The Wright-Shavers-Bullock trio combined for 18 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and two sacks.