Yesterday was fun right?

It was fun to watch a quarterback who is probably the most hyped recruit in a generation actually live up to the hype. For example, Dylan Raiola checked a play in and out of a run and back to a run three times as the UTEP defense made adjustments – which then resulted in a 42 yard run by Emmett Johnson.

That would be impressive for a seasoned veteran, but in this case it was the first game for a true freshman. Add the fact that Isaiah Neyor looks like a future NFL draft pick at wide receiver. You could probably say the same about Jahmal Banks as well.

The four running backs in the stable all played well as the offensive line continued to show development under Donovan Raiola’s tutelage.

I mean the Huskers scored 23 points in the second quarter which was the most points scored in a quarter by a Nebraska football team since 2018, which was against Bethune-Cookman.

On the other side of the ball the defense showed why Nebraska has a chance to make some noise this season. If you take away a beautifully thrown 38 yard touchdown pass by UTEP’s Skyler Locklear, the defense pitched a shutout and would have held UTEP to 167 yards of total offense.

Somebody on the outside would probably like to note that playing well against UTEP is not the same as playing well against — lets say — Colorado. However, most people on the inside (Nebraska football fans) would rightfully respond that Nebraska hasn’t been to a bowl game in seven years and games like these against the UTEPs of college football have been routinely competitive.

Now all of these feel good vibes are great and all but it really will not matter if Colorado shows up this Saturday night and beats Nebraska. At this juncture it appears that Nebraska is on the rise. Colorado is on the…well I’m not entirely sure.

I’m not sure they are on the rise. I’m not sure they are heading downhill either. Regardless, I know one thing about this upcoming game against Colorado on Saturday night.

They coming.

This Saturday is a gigantic opportunity for Nebraska football. While Colorado might not be a juggernaut, the country loves to watch this Deion Sanders led team. Last Thursday night in their matchup against North Dakota State the broadcast averaged 4.8 million views which was ESPN’s best Thursday night opener since 2017.

On the football field, the Colorado offense will be one of the best this Nebraska defense will see all year. They can score a ton of points and they can do it in a hurry. Shedeur Sanders is one of the best quarterbacks in the country and we should expect Travis Hunter to play almost every snap of the game. You can also add Jimmy Horn Jr. who might be one of the fastest players in the country at wide receiver.

Plus, Shedeur Sanders has his own Nike Billboard in Times Square in New York City. That has to mean something right?

It is going to be a 6:30 p.m. kick-off which should allow Husker fans to prepare to contribute to what I hope is one of the best atmospheres at Memorial Stadium in recent memory.

If Nebraska fans bring it and the football team does their part then we can keep this train rolling.

Colorado stands in the way.

A good friend of mine — let’s call him Formerly Enthusiastic Husker Fan — was a very young man when Nebraska football was at its peak, but has become quite guarded in his attitude after he experienced The Slide, NU’s depressing downturn of the past two decades. It had reached the point where he refused to get too excited about much of anything related to Cornhusker football, including the signing of five-star recruit Dylan Raiola. He responded with skepticism when the Huskers were declared 28-point favorites over UTEP and was bracing himself for a disappointing home opener.

Maybe you know someone, or maybe a half dozen, like him. It’s hard to find fault, but you could almost hear them collectively exhale a few minutes after 4 p.m., when Jahmal Banks made a spectacular leaping catch in the south end zone to give Nebraska a 30-7 lead at halftime.

Going into Saturday, Nebraska had lost four consecutive openers, although none were at home. You have to go back to 2019, when Scott Frost and the Huskers launched their season with a blah 35-21 win over a South Alabama team that eventually finished 2-10, to find the last time NU was 1-0.

Will a 40-7 season-opening thrashing of the UTEP Miners, a team that likely will prove to be at least a step above the 2019 South Alabama Jaguars, do the trick? Will Raiola’s 19-for-27 passing performance with two touchdowns and no interceptions in a little over half a game, cure someone like Formerly Enthusiastic Husker Fan? Probably not, and we shouldn’t expect it so quickly. There’s a lot of proving to do for Matt Rhule and the Big Red, but what used to be known as a typical Husker home opener just might create a foundation of optimism that simply hasn’t been available to a lot of recovering fans like my friend.

It apparently was therapeutic for the graybeards on the Husker roster, at least.

“Some of the older guys were really happy,” Rhule said after the game. “They said they had never really experienced a game that was over at halftime.”

Imagine that. A stress-free second half on a sunsplashed football afternoon in Lincoln.

Not to mention the benefits of getting your second-string offensive line on the field in the third quarter and piling up the reps in the fourth. That’s the sort of thing which pays dividends in 2025 and beyond.

Speaking of reps, Nebraska ran 83 offensive plays, after averaging only 60 per game last season. That’s a lot of film to dissect and learn from. Piling up 30 first downs and 507 total yards and going plus-one in turnovers will do wonders for a team with a young quarterback.

It would’ve been hard to expect a better debut for Raiola, who except for one lucky bounce on a deflected pass early in the second quarter was never close to throwing an interception. And that play certainly didn’t rattle the true freshman, who turned around and promptly tossed his first career touchdown pass on the next snap — a beautiful 59-yard bomb to Isaiah Neyor, who displayed tremendous balance as he stayed upright after contact and trotted triumphantly into the south end zone.

Neyor, who seems to have regained the form he had several years ago at Wyoming after an injury-plagued term in Austin, Texas, served notice that he will be a reliable third-down option for the young quarterback. Of Neyor’s team-high six catches, four went for a first down, including a pair of third down conversions, which helped NU to a an overall 11-for-17 performance on third down.

Raiola appeared to move smoothly through his progressions. On his first drive, he looked at two receivers before throwing to his third option, Janiran Bonner, for a seven-yard reception, setting up a 5-yard touchdown run by Dante Dowdell. He may have been fighting Texas-sized butterflies for all I know, but the youngster looked self-assured from the moment he led the team onto the field during his first regular-season Tunnel Walk.

It wasn’t a walk in the park, but it was the first time Nebraska has scored 40 points since the 56-7 thrashing of Northwestern in 2021. That has to count for something.

Raiola played only briefly in the second half. leading an 11-play, 73-yard scoring drive before Heinrich Haarberg and Jalyn Gramstad took over at quarterback.

He is Nebraska’s national story, for better or worse, taking attention away from the Blackshirts, who allowed just 205 total yards and recorded their eighth straight performance allowing 24 or fewer points and less than 400 yards. Those figures will be tested next by Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter and the Colorado Buffaloes, a game that Formerly Enthusiastic Husker Fan doubtless will use as a benchmark to judge the progress of Rhule’s rebuild. CU will need to score a lot of points to win if Raiola displays the same type of calm competence that he did in the opener, especially if the Husker offensive line can spring another 200-yard running game.

Rhule and assistant coach E.J. Barthel used all four of their leading running backs, although nobody got even a dozen carries. They started with Rahmir Johnson, and followed up Dowdell. The Oregon transfer looked superb, gaining 55 yards on eight carries with a combination of power and speed, and all was well until he fumbled while straining for extra yardage inside the UTEP 10-yard line with 10:48 left in the second quarter.

“It was a shame that Dante had that fumble, but he was really running well,” Rhule said. “Dante has done such a good job. At the end of the spring, I probably would have put him fourth. He was the second back in the game today. I thought he was really playing well, running the ball well, and then had that fumble.”

Despite the praise from Rhule after the fact, Dowdell never saw the field again after he fumbled. Maybe a silent message from the coach?

Emmett Johnson and Gabe Irvin both had their good moments, especially when the former blazed 47 yards on a draw play to set up a 3-yard touchdown run by Ervin to put Nebraska ahead 23-7 with nine minutes left in the second quarter.

“They all made plays,” Rhule said.

The Husker running game will be the key to the Colorado contest. Nebraska’s offensive line has more than 130 combined career starts, and it’s high time for it to shine in a contest that already is drawing a lot of national attention. Sanders will likely use a fast tempo to attack the Blackshirts after watching film of UTEP’s first-quarter scoring drive. Nebraska needs to counter with a gut-punch running game to steal the Buffs’ momentum.

If 1-0 seems foreign to some recovering fans, imagine what a 2-0 start could do for Husker Nation.

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

The Dylan Riola era of Nebraska football is officially here.

The true freshman led the Huskers on an opening drive touchdown to take an early lead against UTEP. The drive took nearly six minutes off of the clock.

Starting at the NU 28, the Huskers opened with a Rahmir Johnson run before the first completion of the game came by way of a short to Thomas Fidone. That set up the first of three third downs that Nebraska would convert on the drive.

The Huskers also had to battle penalties, including a false start and an offensive pass interference on consecutive snaps that turned into a second and 30, which was promptly converted in two plays on a pair of passes from Raiola.

Inside the UTEP 10, Raiola handed the ball off to Oregon transfer running back Dante Dowdell, who scored his first touchdown as a Husker.

Raiola was 5-of-7 passing for 54 yards to open the season, and his Husker career.

MORE: HuskerMax Predictions: Nebraska Football vs. UTEP

MORE: Watch: Husker Football Releases Hype Video Ahead of Season Opener

MORE: Stryker Pregame Perspective: One if by Land, Two if by Air

MORE: Availability Report: Nebraska Football vs. UTEP

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