Profizer’s Pigskin Preview: Nebraska vs. Minnesota

Each week, the Profizer sits down to read the tarot cards. Dip his toes into the Sea of Red. And put his fingers on the pulse of college football. Though his glasses may be dangerously rose colored and he continues to drive with an open container of Rhule-aid, he can see clearly what must be done each week. This is the Profizer’s Pigskin Preview: Nebraska vs. Minnesota.

One score games. The kryptonite to all things Husker Football. The recurring nightmare that seemed to play out each and every Saturday in the fall for Husker Football fans around the world. When things got tight, buttholes puckered, and games were lost. New ways to lose were invented right before our very eyes. Heart break after heart break. Was it a curse? Was it penance for the near four decades of winning football before? It is unexplainable that, no matter the coach, no matter the players, good ole Nebraska U kept ending up on the wrong side of one score games.

Nebraska vs. Minnesota

Everyone saw the stats. When the ballgame started getting close late in the 4^th quarter, the broadcast team would be sure to remind everyone tuning in. Husker Football, 11-37 in one score games since 2018. Matt Rhule 3-10 since taking over (make that 4-11 through the Michigan game this season). Probabilities tell us that this would have to even out at some point. That the wins would start to come eventually. But it was hard to keep the faith as the losses continued to stack up.

A come from behind win against Michigan State at home felt good. It felt really good. Another one score victory in the 2025 campaign. And while we held one to win against Cincinnati to kick the season off, the Michigan State win felt different. Like a shift in the cosmos. This team showed us a little something. A little toughness to come back from being down. To win a game when their best football wasn’t played. To snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. But…a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while. Cue Saturday evening in College Park. Another come from behind win, and this time on the road. The first game winning drive put together by Dylan Raiola in a Husker uniform. The star QB leading us 81 yards to victory, utilizing weapons around him. 23 yards to Luke Lindenmeyer. Tough runs from Emmett Johnson. Huge completions to Nyziah Hunter and Heinrich Haarberg down the stretch. And it all capped off with a one-handed touchdown grab by none other than the Great Dane himself. Five plays later and we were in the best formation in football.

Was the win over Maryland a turning point? Have the winds shifted? Have the sands of time begun falling in the opposite direction? It’s too soon to tell, but something about this team is feeling different. What once seemed to be a program destined only to find ways to lose, has started to find ways to win. A swagger seems to have fallen upon this team that hasn’t been around these parts in quite some time. But is it real? Or is it just another mirage? For the second straight season, we find ourselves sitting at 5-1. In 2024, we managed to roll off four straight losses, three of which were one score games, and one a blowout loss to Indiana. In 2025, we again hit the road at this point in the season. Now we aren’t going into the hornet’s nest that Indiana has turned into, but we are going to Minnesota on a short week. A team Nebraska has lost to five straight times. Matt Rhule is rumored to be a front-runner for the Penn State job. PJ Fleck continues to smell his own farts. Potential adversity swirls around the program. Can the Huskers pop the pimple that is PJ Fleck and take another step forward? Go down the other fork in the road and away from the darkness of the past decade? Well, the plums have never been riper. They were as sweet a harvest as ever last week, and the Profizer is back! (Profizer’s Pigskin Preview: Nebraska vs. Maryland)

He has seen what needs to happen in Minneapolis and here are his three readings. This is the Profizer’s Pigskin Preview. Nebraska vs Minnesota.

1.      Smoke and Mirrors – This is not necessarily the Gopher teams of years’ past. So far this year, they have not been a line it up and bludgeon you to death team that have caused us Huskers a great deal of pain. Rather, they have what they believe to be their QB of the future in redshirt freshman Drake Lindsey. He can sling it around a little bit, and Minnesota appears like they are adapting their offense to his skillset. Luckily for us, this can play into a strength of the Blackshirt defense. If John Butler can scheme up a plan that shows the young QB one thing pre-snap and another post snap, we can attempt to confuse Lindsey and cause unforced mistakes. Could we see Andrew Marshall’s first INT as a Husker…some are saying it is true. Play some games with the young QB up front as well. A little now you see me, now you don’t. Bring some disguised pressures. Make him uncomfortable in a variety of different ways and make sure to put him on his ass often. Happy feet and a shortened timer lead to big plays for a defense, and that is what we need out of the Blackshirts Friday night.

2.      Without a Paddle – It’s hard to row a boat without a paddle. Nebraska needs to go into Minneapolis and take their damn paddle. Minnesota football has been built on the lines of scrimmage. Big men controlling the lines on both sides of the ball. The Gophers will want to control the game by holding the ball, creating long sustained drives and keeping their QB clean. The Blackshirts will have to find ways to get off the field on third downs. Force their offense off schedule and behind the chains. Get off blocks and make plays in the backfield. We know Butler is capable of the smoke and mirrors discussed, but the big men up front will have to hold their own again, much like they did against Michigan State. On the offensive side of the ball, the Huskers need to move Minnesota’s front line off the ball. This Husker offense is at its best when it stays in rhythm and ahead of the chains. It allows Holgerson to be more creative and eliminates whatever need Raiola may have to want to force the ball downfield. Control the lines, control the game. Watch the boat go down without a paddle.

3.      Home Cooking – This Friday night trip to Minneapolis marks a return trip home for Emmett Johnson. There were times during the Maryland game that EJ put this team on his back and carried them down the field. The second leading rusher in the B1G, he is a man on fire and there is no better way to stoke that fire than a road trip back home. A game against the team that didn’t want him and by all accounts, EJ wanted to go to Minnesota. Wanted that offer. But was scorned by PJ Fleck. Now the scorned son returns home. And he wants his vengeance. We all thought we saw a motivated E-Money last week. But now, he is out for blood. And I say we feed him. A steady diet of native son, straight down good ole PJ Fleck’s suckhole. There is no better way to drain life out of a team and a stadium than a continued battering ram approach. Now, Emmett may not be your typical battering ram, but he will leave you tackling air. He will leave you breathless with his relentless effort and his refusal to go down on first contact. He will put you in a spin cycle and leave you clutching your pearls on his way out the back door. There will be no stopping Emmett Johnson on Friday night. He will have his revenge, and he will serve it cold!

At the beginning of this year, I thought any distraction caused by James Franklin would come on the Husker’s visit to Happy Valley in November. Little did I know Penn State would lose three straight games, and he would be out of a job, thrusting Nebraska and head coach Matt Rhule to the forefront of a lot of national attention. Speculation of Rhule’s coaching future at Nebraska will run rampant in the coming weeks, just as it has done all this week. Distractions are swirling around the program. But Rhule has always said that he is a culture builder. And there has been no greater test to the culture that has been built in Lincoln than what they are facing on Friday night in Huntington Bank Stadium. Can this team come together, block out the outside noise and handle business? Can this team continue on its trek to an undefeated October? Can this team show the promise that so many see in them, the promise that burns so bright that Coach Rhule would be a fool to leave behind?

The Profizer has burned all the sage. Interpreted all signs of the moon and stars and meditated on the high plains. He has laid the breadcrumbs to follow, and the answer couldn’t be clearer.

We’re feeling it deep down in the plums this week -- and the plums, they don’t lie, baby! Boats will be capsized. Oars will be snapped and the pimple on our ass that is PJ Fleck will be popped. Huskers win. Rhule makes his statement. Nebraska 40 – Minnesota 20.