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Those fans who were expecting an uneventful pre-bowl season, recently received a rude awakening including Husker fans.

First, what’s the news at Nebraska?

New Hires and Fires

First of all, NU head coach Matt Rhule fired his first year DC (John Butler), his O-line coach (Donovan Raiola) and first year D-line coach (Terry Bradden) over the past few days.. Two new coaches have already been hired: Rob Aurich (DC) and Geep Wade (O-line). Aurich comes to NU from San Diego State, while Wade comes from Georgia Tech,

Terry Bradden’s replacement has not yet been named.

We’ll talk more about the coaching changes in the days to come.

Dayton Says No to NU

Husker ’26 “commit” QB Dayton Raiola (younger brother of current Husker QB Dylan) has decommitted. Are the firing of his uncle Donovan and Dayton’s decommitment connected?

The next question is, will Dylan also leave NU? Or does Dylan’s mid season leg injury keep him from transferring? Will his portal stock diminish? Will Dylan’s love for Nebraska keep him in Lincoln?

Huskers and Utes in the Las Vegas Bowl

Good news is NU won’t be playing in Yankee Stadium in their bowl game later this month. The bad news is Nebraska will be facing #15 Utah on New Year’s Eve. More about the match-up in the days to come.

EJ Enters the NFL Draft

All Big Ten Conference running back Emmett Johnson won’t be playing for the Huskers in their bowl game. Instead, he’ll be trying to be an NFL draft pick in April. Smart move for Johnson, but not for the Huskers’ chances of beating Utah.

That’s one of the things I don’t like about the current state of college football.

1890 Gone

The Husker NIL collective will soon be disbanded, All further donations will be directed to the Nebraska Athletic Fund.

College Football in General

We’ll Be Home For Christmas

Notre Dame has turned down a bowl invitation. The reason? The Irish feel they’ve been snubbed by the CFP committee. Way to go Irish. If you don’t get your way, just take your football and go home. Great lesson for the ND players.

Sigh.

Lane Kiffin Saga

KIffin leaves Ole Miss to take the head coaching job at LSU.

So what’s the big deal? College coaches come and go all the time. The difference is that his Ole Miss Rebels are one of the 12 teams vying for a national championship.. But sadly for Ole Miss, Kiffin will not be on the sidelines coaching the Rebels. Crazy, no? Try to imagine Tom Osborne in early December of 1994 leaving NU to take the job at Oklahoma.

That’s what has happened at Ole Miss. You can’t make this stuff up.

Iowa State and Kansas State to Stay Home

Both Big 12 schools have turned down bowl invitations citing coaching changes and injuries as reasons for their decision. As a result of not playing in a bowl, each team will have to pay the Big 12 $500,000 for the revenue the conference would have made had the teams played in bowl games. Again, you can’t make this stuff up.

Matt Campbell Goes to Penn State

The Nittany Lions just hired former Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell as their new head coach. Smart move by Matt. He’s a very good coach. It’s doubtful he could ever win a national championship at Ames, Iowa.

But know this: Campbell is jumping into a boiling caldron. If he doesn’t win big in his first or second year, the water temp is going to get even hotter.

One good thing about Campbell’s move is that even if he’s fired, he’ll be set for life financially.

One possible benefit for Nebraska might be in the transfer portal. Why? Because of Cyclone tight end Benjamin Brahmen, who is from Pierce, Nebraska and plays for Iowa State. When Matt Rhule was hired at NU, he made a last hour attempt to lure the 6′ 7″ 255 lb tight end to Nebraska, At the time, he was a Cyclone commit. Brahmen is a small town young man. It wouldn’t surprise me that if he enters the portal he opts for Nebraska,.

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