CFB: Nebraska Cornhuskers – Season So Far
By Peter Mann
So close, yet so far, is what the outcome of the Nebraska Cornhuskers hosting and ultimately losing to the Michigan Wolverines was this past weekend at the Lincoln Memorial Stadium. We’re now a third of the way into the 2025 season, and Matt Rhule’s Big Red program has started with a 3-1 record, so it’s time to take a look at the first part of what supporters had hoped would be a successful outing.
In Coach Rhule, former HC of NFL franchise, Carolina Panthers, between 2020 and 2022 (11-27 record), the Cornhuskers have bettered themselves in each of the past couple of seasons; in 2022, Scott Frost’s final few games at the helm before Mickey Johnson saw out the season, the Cornhuskers finished 4-8.
The following year, under Rhule’s leadership, saw them go 5-7, while last time around, a 7-6 finish resulted. Their first winning season since Mike Riley’s second campaign in 2016, and a far cry from Bo Pelini’s reign from 2008 to 2014.
The offseason would see an overhaul of outgoings and incomings in the program, with nearly forty players departing, and less than half that number replacing them, among them a pair of WRs in Nyziah Hunter and Dane Key, the latter being named as one of Coach Rhule’s five team captains.
WR Key, a Senior, transferred at the start of this year from Kentucky, was named alongside the Cornhuskers’ franchise and Sophomore QB Dylan Raiola, Senior OL Henry Lutovsky Jnr, Senior CB Ceyair Wright who transferred from USC Trojans (2023), and safeties Marques Buford Jnr and DeShon Singleton, as Cornhuskers Captains, with Raiola certainly leading from the front in the opening contests.
Raiola arrived in Nebraska having flipped his commitment from Georgia at the end of 2023, leading them to bowl eligibility for the first time since 2016, winning the Pinstripe Bowl over Boston College Eagles, 20-15, in December ’24, posting 23/31, 228yds and 1TD (pass); that score, a third quarter, 13yd pass to RB Emmett Johnson, who’s now a Junior in his fourth year in Nebraska.
Both Raiola and Johnson have started 2025 hopefully as they mean to go on, the Cornhuskers having, including the narrow loss to the Wolverines, run in seventeen TDs in their first four outings.
The first three games, all victories, would see the Cornhuskers edge Cincinnati Bearcats 20-17 in a game that was played at the Arrowhead Stadium, thanks mainly to a 13-0 second quarter which consisted of a TD and a pair of PK Kyle Cunanan FGs, 52yds and 22yds respectively, whilst Raiola connected with Hunter in the second, and Key in the fourth.
Dylan Raiola 33/42, 243yds, 2TDs; Nyziah Hunter 65yds, 1TD, Dane Key 51yds, 1TD; Kyle Cunanan 2/2, 52lng, 2/2 PATs.
The next two games would see the Cornhuskers post back-to-back 50+ scores at home for the first time in nearly two decades (2006 season vs. Nicholls State Colonels 56-7, and Troy Trojans 56-0) under Bill Callahan’s guidance.
This time around, it would be Akron Zips and Houston Christian Huskies who were put to the sword, and in emphatic fashion in front of the Sea of Red, the first of the two being a 69-0 shut-out of Akron, the Cornhuskers running in six scores, Raiola throwing for four of them, and Johnson rushing for a pair himself.
It would be Johnson who’d get the ball rolling in the first quarter, whilst the second and third quarters would see the Cornhuskers run riot and put some forty-five points on the board, 24-0 and 21-0 respectively; Cunanan kicked a 35yd FG to start the second quarter scoring before Raiola connected with Johnson, WR Quinn Clark, and TE Luke Lindenmeyer for a 33-0, half-time lead.
The second half carried on as the first had ended, with the Cornhuskers’ dominance continuing with three more TD scores. Johnson added a 6-yard rushing score, and RB Kwinten Ives contributed one from 28 yards. Meanwhile, Raiola connected with Key from 12 yards.
Scoring would be completed in the fourth quarter with further TDs from RB Mekhi Nelson and QB TJ Lateef, both rushing scores from close range, resulting in an impressive shutout success.
Dylan Raiola 24/31, 364yds, 4TDs (pass); Emmett Johnson 14 carries, 140yds, 2TDs (rush) 7yds, 1 TD (rec) Kwinten Ives 4 carries, 34yds, 1TD (rush), TJ Lateef 2 carries, 17yds, 1TD (rush), Mekhi Nelson 5 carries, 11yds, 1TD (rush); Luke Lindenmeyer 44yds, 1TD (rec), Quinn Clark 37yds, 1TD (rec), Dane Key 35yds, 1TD (rec); Kyle Cunanan 1/1, 35lng, 9/9PATs.
Before the shut-out blast of the Akron Zips, Cornhuskers QB, Dylan Raiola spoke of the freedom in which the Big Red coaching team are affording on-field, saying that:
“I love it.
It gives us the best ability to make plays happen.
For that to happen, all our guys have to be focused and know what we’re doing so kudos to them.
It doesn’t mean anything if I know it all and they don’t, but they know everything I’m thinking.
It’s pretty cool to have that much freedom.”
That shut-out of Akron was followed up a week later with a 59-7 dismantling of Houston, the Cornhuskers promptly posting a thirty-eight point, shut-out first half, Cunanan’s boot getting them underway with a 24yd FG before Raiola connected with WR Jacory Barney Jnr from close range, then a 39yd pass to Key to close out the first.
A pair of Johnson scores featured in the third quarter, whilst sandwiched between was a 29yd fumble return from DL Williams Nwaneri, the flow from the Akron success running through Houston in an impressive manner.
The rushing scores continued for the Cornhuskers in the third quarter as Lateef and Ives both registered, Houston snagging a consolation score between those when their RB Xai’Shaun Edwards bagged from a 45yd dash; the scoring being wrapped up in the fourth when Lateef connected with Cortez Mills over an impressive, 62yd throw, with eight minutes remaining.
Dylan Raiola 15/21, 222yds, 2TDs (pass), TJ Lateef 5/5, 126yds, 1TD (pass), 3 carries, 15yds, 1TD (rush); Emmett Johnson 12 carries, 78yds, 2TDs (rush), Kwinten Ives 12 carries, 85yds, 1TD (rush); Dane Key 104yds, 1TD (rec), Cortez Mills 98yds, 1TD (rec), Jacory Barney Jnr 22yds, 1TD (rec); Kyle Cunanan 1/1, 25lng, 8/8PATs
After the win over the Huskies, Cornhuskers WR, Dane Key, said of the team’s readiness for conference gameplay that:
“I feel like this team is really ready and really confident.
Today, we’ll enjoy the win, but tomorrow, we’ll come in and break down what we need to fix, because there were a lot of things today that just weren’t what they needed to be.
We’ll fix a lot of things, and I feel like this team will have a great week of preparation and we’ll come out really confident next week.”
And then came the visit of #21 Michigan Wolverines, a first big test of the current campaign for Rhule’s Huskers, and one in which, ultimately, Big Red came up short in.
The Wolverines took the scoring plaudits in the first quarter, with a 46yd FG from PK Dominic Zvada and QB Bryce Underwood’s 37yd rushing score, both in the closing minutes of the opening fifteen.
The Cornhuskers finally got in on the action in the second quarter when Cunanan kicked home a 39-yard FG, before two TD scores saw the sides go in level at seventeen at the halfway stage.
Two TDs from the Cornhuskers came via the same route, Raiola to Barney Jnr, the first over 26yds just before the two-minute warning, and the second, a 52yd Hail Mary on the buzzer to tie up the scores; in-between those Raiola-Barney Jnr scores, the Wolverines registered a TD of their own, Justice Haynes with a stunning, 75yd dash for the end zone.
The second half, third quarter began as the first half, first quarter had, much to the frustration of the Sea of Red. The Wolverines’ Zvada kicked through from 56 yards, before a 54-yard rushing score by RB Jordan Marshall sent the Wolverines into the final quarter with a 10-point advantage.
Cunana and Zvada then exchanged FGs at opposite ends of the fourth quarter, the former doing so from 38yds, and the latter from 21yds, with Zvada keeping the visitors’ advantage going in to the closing minutes of the contest; the Huskers though, they weren’t quite done and moved within a score of victory with a TE Heinrich Haarberg score, from a close-range Raiola toss, with ninety-four seconds left on the game clock.
The Cornhuskers, though, were unable to pull out another score, which, in theory, would have afforded them a perfect 4-0 start; even a field goal would have sent the game to at least overtime, but instead, the more-fancied Wolverines took the three-point victory back to Michigan.
Dylan Raiola 30/41, 308yds, 3TDs (pass); Jacory Barney Jnr 120yds, 2TDs (rec), Heinrich Haarberg 18yds, 1TD (rec); Kyle Cunanan 2/3 39lng, 3/3PATs
Following the loss to the Wolverines, Cornhuskers HC Matt Rhule said,
“Obviously, a disappointing loss for us.
The field was tilted against us in the second half.
They made a 56-yard field goal, which ended up being the difference in the game.
We battled back, and that second-to-last third down, we had several chances to get them off the field and couldn’t make the play.
So, there were long stretches of the game where we couldn’t protect.
Number one for them, I thought, was magnificent, and he was a handful.
I thought we settled down, and I thought we settled down as it went along.
We protected better for a while, but there were still some key moments where it wasn’t good enough and then obviously the run game for them.
Two plays in the first half. But just too many big plays to win a football game like that.
We battled, and I appreciate that for the guys, but it just wasn’t good enough.”
The loss to the Michigan Wolverines now sees the Nebraska Cornhuskers head into their trip to the Michigan State Spartans in early October, with both teams aiming for a 3-1 start to the season.
The middle third, the next four games for Rhule’s Cornhuskers, sees them opposing the following programs – Michigan State Spartans (@Lincoln Memorial, 4 October), Maryland Terrapins (@Byrd Stadium, 11 October), Minnesota Golden Gophers (@TCF Bank Stadium, 18 October), and Northwestern Wildcats (@Lincoln Memorial, 25 October).
PETER MANN
NFL ANALYST
PETER IS A LIFELONG SPORTS FAN, JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR BASED IN COUNTY DURHAM. HE HAS FOLLOWED THE NFL AND THE RAIDERS SINCE THE 1980s, AND LOVES BOTH SPORTS AND FAMILY HISTORY. PETER HAS A DEGREE IN SPORT & EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY, AND CAN BE FOUND ON TWITTER @petermannwriter