Are the Cornhuskers Five and Done?

By Peter Mann

Are the 2026 Nebraska Cornhuskers ‘Five and (D)One’ or was the week six loss to defending national champions, Indiana Hoosiers just, one of those things – it happens, we move on….

After a great, non-conference 3-0 start to the season, Matt Rhule’s Big Red motored through their next two outings, seeing off the challenges of Michigan State Spartans, and Maryland Terrapins, to start the Halloween month with a perfect, 5-0 record.

Huskers quarterback, Anthony Colandrea, was firing on all cylinders, taking his tally in the Terrapins game to fifteen in five, whilst running backs Jamal Rule, Mekhi Nelson and Vincent Genatone, and wide receiver Kwazi Gilmer, all registered scores.

Somehow though, after putting up 218 points over the opening five, with an average of 43.6 per game, Big Red deflated somewhat against the Hoosiers, not only registering just seventeen-points in a 17-20 defeat, but endured second and third quarter shutouts, eventually coming up agonisingly short.

That being said, the Cornhuskers’ 5-0 start was a record achieved for the first time in a decade…

SPARTANS AND TERRAPINS TASTE RED AS THE UNBEATEN START CONTINUES

Following the season opening trio of successes over Ohio Bobcats (49-21), Bowling Green Falcons (56-7) and North Dakota Fighting Hawks (34-7), Coach Rhule and the Cornhuskers continued their fine form in their next two games as well.

Late September saw them travel to the Spartan Stadium, East Lansing, to face up against the then, 2-1 Michigan State Spartans, with Big Red quarterback, Anthony Colandrea, landing another couple of touchdown scores in the 31-13 success.

Alongside Colandrea’s brace was one apiece for both Mekhi Nelson and Kwazi Gilmer, whilst Nelson’s fellow RB, Vincent Genatone, had two to his name also; Colandrea connected first with Gilmer over 44yds late in the first quarter, then with Genatone over 13yds in the dying seconds of the second.

Although the hosts registered with six minutes remaining in the first half, Jazium Patterson with a close-range rushing touchdown, and kicker Liam Boyd added a couple of field goals, the Spartans failed to trouble the Huskers defense much throughout.

Nelson, who posted 61yds, 1TD (rush), took the ball into the end zone early in the second quarter, whilst Genatone, who himself posted 4yds 1TD (rush), 13yds 1TD (rec), rushed through with the only score of the fourth quarter.

In addition to Nelson and Genatone, Colandrea finished with 212yds, 2TDs (pass), Gilmer registered 101yds 1TD (rec), and kicker Kyle Cunanan had 1/1FG 4/4XPs, the output from the Huskers continuing a week later when the Terrapins crawled into the Memorial Stadium.

The Terrapins put up a much tougher challenge than the previous four opponents in the Cornhuskers’ seasonal beginnings, coming to Nebraska with a 2-2 record in early October; they took the first quarter, and were just five points shy come half-time, but that was that as the Huskers defense again dominated and put up a second half shut-out in a 48-23 home win.

Once again on fire, Colandrea posted 238yds 3TDs (pass), connecting twice with Gilmer, 147yds, 2TDs (rec), and tight end Luke Lindenmeyer, 20yds, 1TD (rec), the latter with his first score of the season – for Colandrea, the MVP quarterback took his tally to fifteen for the season, in just five outings.

A highlight though, safety Dwayne McDougle IIIs pick-6, 81yds TD return, following an interception of visiting quarterback, Malik Washington, at the Nebraska 19; McDougle’s score was the longest of its kind in near two decades, not since Bo Rudd returned for 93yds against Iowa State back in 2007.

Terrapins QB, Washington, was restricted to 254yds 1TD (pass), along with running back DeJuan Williams’ 78yds 1TD (rush), and wide receiver Chris Durr Jnr’s 149yds 1TD (rec), Nebraska moving to an impressive, 5-0 start.

The highlight though, McDougle’s 81yd dash, a score that shows the all-roundedness that Coach Rhule’s program brings to the football field this season.

In addition to McDougle, credit needs affording to the Cornhuskers defense, and the put up against Michigan State in late September – in registering six sacks and two interceptions, it was the first game that had occurred since the 2015 match-up with Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

COLANDREA SHINING BRIGHTLY IN NEBRASKA

Only just turning 22-years-old (16 October), Nebraska quarterback, Anthony Colandrea, a child, youth, and family studies major at the University of Nebraska, is, after a handful of games for the program, a breakout star this season.

Previously with Virginia Mountaineers (2023-24) and UNLV Rebels (2025), the Florida-native, who last year was the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year, and named in the First Team All-Mountain West, posted (overall) thirteen in his first and fifteen in his second season with the Mountaineers, and thirty-three last time around with the Rebels.

The Nebraska senior has already surpassed that in which he registered in each of his two seasons in Virginia, whilst his rushing score in the loss to the defending champions was his sixteenth for Big Red – halfway to last season’s tally, at the midway point of the season.  

With games to play against Oregon Ducks, and his predecessor Dylan Raiola, Washington Huskies, Illinois Fighting Illini, Rutgers Scarlet Knights, Ohio State Buckeyes, and the rivalry game with Iowa Hawkeyes, still to come, as well as a potential Bowl game, last season’s tally of 33TDs doesn’t really seem that far off.

The loss to the defending Hoosiers was, we hope, just one of things, a flash in the pan.

DEFEAT TO THE DEFENDING CHAMPIONS AS HUSKERS COME UP SHORT WHEN IT MATTERED MOST

After a perfect, 5-0 start, the Cornhuskers welcomed defending champions Indiana Hoosiers to the Memorial Stadium last time out, and, despite leading for most of the contest, eventually came up short.

With the two programs trading field goals in the first quarter, Kyle Cunanan with 28yd attempt for Nebraska, and Nico Radicic replying from 42yds, before wide receiver, Nyziah Hunter, rushed from 10yds for a 10-3 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Radicic moved the Hoosiers within four with a 35yd field goal before home quarterback, Colandrea, rushed through from 39yds, for an eleven-point advantage, with a dozen minutes left in the contest.

Then came the fightback from the defending champions, first their quarterback Josh Hoover (replacing Fernando Mendoza who was drafted to the Las Vegas Raiders) connected wide receiver Nick Marsh, with a 75yd rocket (Radicic converting) to cut the deficit to four with plenty still on the game-clock.  

Hoover then connected with Marsh again, this from 44yds (Radicic extra), with a little over seven minutes remaining to both complete the comeback, and take a three-point lead in the game (17-20).  

Huskers kicker, Kyle Cunanan, did endure a rare missed kick this season, during the Hoosiers loss, putting a 40yd attempt wide right with less than twenty seconds remaining of the first half – had that gone through, the Huskers would have led 13-3 at the half instead of the 10-3 which they did.

After the defeat to the Hoosiers, Cornhuskers head coach, Matt Rhule, told the media that; “….obviously a disappointing day for us in terms of not being able to find a way to win that game.

“My credit goes to Indiana. I thought they made the plays they had to make to win a battle like that.

“I thought our guys were ready to play; they answered the call time and time again. But when we watch the tape from Saturday on Sunday, I think you have a team that’s angry and knows they let one get away.

“We were certainly disappointed, but not discouraged. We also understand that’s what it looks like.

“You have to not play really well for 55 minutes; you have to play well for 60. Each and every one of us, coaches, staff, players – know we have to be one or two plays better.

“I encourage the guys to be one or two plays better. Every one of us, so we can win that game when it comes back in the future.”

The defeat to the Hoosiers means that it’s now been a decade since Nebraska last beat a ranked opponent, that being the 35-32 success over Oregon Ducks on 17 September 2016, a streak that has now been extended to some 31 losses.

PUTTING SOME LOVE ON HUSKERS KICKER, KYLE CUNANAN

Nebraska’s Arizona-native placekicker, Kyle Cunanan, in his senior year of a management major at the University of Nebraska, has been pretty much ‘Mr Reliable’ with the boot for Big Red.

Cunanan transferred to Nebraska in the spring of 2025, following two years with Charlotte 49ers, where he played fifteen games, kicking fourteen field goals and twenty-one extras, whilst last season in Nebraska he made 16-of-19 field goals, and 45-of-45 extras – his extras record over three seasons, combining Charlotte and Nebraska, totalled 66-of-66.

A career best last season, Cunanan also kicked a career-long, 52yd field goal, on his Nebraska debut against Cincinnati Bearcats, in the season opening, 20-17 win (28 August 2025); this season meanwhile, his impressive has, on the main, continued.

With an overall kicking average since he began playing of 99%, 2026 has seen the mark drop off slightly, although he is 4-of-6 on field goal attempts, and 31-of-32 on extras, punching the latter to an impressive enough 97-of-98 extras.

Like Colandrea chasing his career best at quarterback, Cunanan could well look at punching his career best at placekicker also – time will tell.

COMING UP FOR COACH RHULE AND BIG RED

Going into the second half of the season with a 5-1 record (could just as easily have been an unbeaten, 6-0), the Cornhuskers have two road games in their next three, with a home showdown sandwiched between.

At the time of writing, a trip to Dylan Raiola’s 3-2 Oregon Ducks is next (17 October), before hosting the 3-3 Washington Huskies, on Halloween at the Memorial, then it’s a trip to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, and the Illinois Fighting Illini early next month (6 November), by which we’ll know how things look where Bowl season is concerned.

Right now, though, it’s a case of dusting oneself off from the Hoosiers loss, and getting ready to go again against Raiola and the Ducks.

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

 
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