Year 4, a New Quarterback, and the Coach Who Already Beat Him
- The Gridiron Gunslinger
- 31 minutes ago
- 9 min read
Nebraska opens against Ohio at 11 a.m. The guy on the other sideline held Anthony Colandrea to 10 points nine months ago.
Lincoln, NE — I’ve covered this program through enough good Septembers and Octobers that turned into ugly Novembers to know the difference between a start and a season.
Last year Nebraska got to 6-2, cracked the Top 25, then beat UCLA to reach 7-3. What followed was not a slow fade. It was Penn State 37-10, Iowa 40-16, and Utah 44-22 in the Las Vegas Bowl on New Year’s Eve. Three straight, all blowouts, 7-6 for the second year in a row.
That’s the context for everything today. Matt Rhule has now matched or improved Nebraska’s win total in each of his three seasons, and back-to-back winning seasons is the program’s first such stretch since 2013-14. Fine. But look at his own history and the clock reads "late". At Temple, the jump came in Year 3, a 10-4 season in 2015. At Baylor it also came in Year 3, 1-11 to 7-6 to 11-3 before he left for the Carolina Panthers. This is Year 4 in Lincoln. The jump Rhule’s résumé says should have already happened hasn’t.
It starts at 11 a.m. today on FS1, the first meeting ever between these two schools.
First, the Frank Solich Game
Before anybody plays a snap, Nebraska honors the man who connects both sidelines. Frank Solich receives the Legends Award from the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame and serves as honorary coin toss captain. He went 58-19 at Nebraska, then 115-82 over 16 seasons at Ohio, where the Bobcats play on Frank Solich Field at Peden Stadium. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2024. Nebraska’s locker room carries his name.
He turns 82 on Tuesday, and he moved back to Lincoln last year to be closer to family. Twenty-three years after this program fired him coming off a nine-win season, he’ll be standing at midfield in Memorial Stadium getting an award from it. Whatever you think of how that ended, get to your seat early enough to stand up for it.
The Frisco Bowl Rematch Nobody’s Mentioning
Here’s the part of this game everyone is skipping past - Nebraska’s new quarterback has already lost to Ohio’s head coach.
Last December in Frisco, Texas, Ohio beat UNLV 17-10 to finish 9-4 and win its seventh straight bowl game, the second-longest active streak in the country. John Hauser was Ohio’s defensive coordinator and interim head coach that night, elevated after Brian Smith was placed on leave following an 8-4 regular season.
What Hauser’s defense did to Anthony Colandrea: 19-of-30 for 184 yards, no passing touchdowns, an interception in the end zone, a strip-sack on the opening drive, and 28 rushing yards. UNLV’s first five possessions went punt, lost fumble, punt, turnover on downs, interception. The Rebels didn’t reach the end zone until 4:43 remained in the game, and it took a Colandrea QB sneak from the two to do it. UNLV walked into that game with the nation’s longest active streak of scoring at least 20 points. Thirty-five games. Ohio ended it.
Hauser got the interim tag removed days later. He’s now in his first full season, and he had an entire offseason to think about this opener.
He’s also seen enough of the quarterback to be blunt about the tradeoff. Familiarity, Hauser said this week, cuts both ways.
The counterweight: this is not the Ohio team that won that bowl game. The Bobcats return one starter on offense and about five on defense. They were picked fourth in the MAC preseason poll with zero votes to win the league. Their starting quarterback, graduate Nick Poulos, was named Aug. 22 and has one career start, a 2024 game against Kentucky. He attempted eight passes all of last season.
So no, Ohio is not a veteran juggernaut. But it is a program with four straight nine-win seasons, a defensive-minded head coach, and a very specific piece of film on Nebraska’s quarterback.
Vegas has this at Nebraska -23.5.
Colandrea, and Why the Legs Matter More Than the Arm
Rhule named Colandrea QB1 on Aug. 22 as camp closed, calling him “very competitive, very fiery.” It surprised nobody, including me after watching his film from last season. He’d been the plan since he transferred in from UNLV on Jan. 6, and he beat out TJ Lateef and Danny Kaelin, who are still sorting out the backup job.
The résumé travels. Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year, 3,459 pass yards, 23 pass touchdowns vs nine interceptions, 65.9% passing, and a 10-4 record for the Rebels. Colandrea has thirty-one career starts across three seasons at Virginia and UNLV. He is the sixth starting quarterback of Rhule’s tenure in Lincoln, which tells you something all by itself.
But the number that actually explains the fit is 649. That’s what he ran for last year, on 5.1 yards a carry, with 10 rushing touchdowns.
Because Emmett Johnson is gone. Nebraska lost the Big Ten’s leading rusher to the NFL Draft — 1,451 yards, 15 total touchdowns, Big Ten Running Back of the Year, and 46 catches, most of any running back in the country. That’s not a hole you easily patch. Week 1’s depth chart doesn’t even pretend to: three co-starters at running back in Isaiah Mozee, Mekhi Nelson, and true freshman Jamal Rule.
Colandrea’s legs aren’t a bonus feature. They’re part of the replacement plan.
This is also Year 2 of the real Dana Holgorsen era, his second full season after taking over play-calling for the last four games of 2024. His first full year produced Nebraska’s best yards per-point figure in a decade, which is the stat Holgorsen was hired for. It also produced an offense that finished 80th nationally in total offense and gave up 33 sacks. He’s in the final year of his contract. Nobody around the program is calling it a hot seat... but nobody’s calling it comfortable, either.
The Line You Forgot About
The Week 1 offensive line is not what the preseason projections had: Elijah Pritchett at left tackle, Paul Mubenga at left guard, Justin Evans at center, Brendan Black at right guard, and Gunnar Gottula at right tackle.
Gottula is the story. The Lincoln Southeast kid was nearly a forgotten man after a knee injury cost him half of last season and all of spring ball. Most of us had South Carolina transfer Tree Babalade penciled in at right tackle. Instead Gottula is listed as the clear No. 1, no “OR” next to his name, after coaches spent all of August telling anyone who’d listen that he was the best of the group.
Around him is real experience. Evans has started Nebraska’s last 26 games and is on the Rimington watch list. Black arrives from Iowa State with 32 career starts. Mubenga comes from LSU. Geep Wade, in from Georgia Tech, is the new position coach, and it shows.
Outside, it’s Jacory Barney Jr. and Nyziah Hunter, plus Kwazi Gilmer, the UCLA transfer who led the Bruins with 50 catches for 535 yards. Carter Nelson and Luke Lindenmeyer give Holgorsen his two-tight-end looks. Nelson is a tight end, for the record, not a perimeter receiver, and how much 12 personnel Nebraska plays on Saturday will tell you a lot about how much they trust the run game.
One more number worth holding onto: ESPN’s Bill Connelly has Nebraska with the third most returning production in college football, behind only Notre Dame and Maryland. Whatever this team is, it isn’t young.
Why Rob Aurich Is Here
The 2025 defense is the whole explanation.
Nebraska finished third nationally in pass defense. It also finished 99th against the run. You can be excellent on one down and still lose in November if you can’t get a team off the field on third-and-two.
So Rhule fired John Butler and hired Rob Aurich, who scrapped the 3-3-5 and put a fourth hand in the dirt. The 4-2-5 sets hard edges and asks less of an interior line that got moved around all last season.
Aurich’s 2025 at San Diego State is the pitch: 12.6 points per game allowed, fifth nationally in scoring defense, seventh in total defense, three shutouts, and eight of 12 opponents held to 10 points or fewer. He was a Broyles Award nominee for it. And it was his first year as coordinator. The season before, with Aurich on staff coaching edges, the Aztecs gave up 29.6 a game and ranked 97th. Same roster, mostly. Different guy calling it.
Up front, watch Cameron Lenhardt and Anthony Jones Jr. off the edge, with Pitt transfer Jahsear Whittington and Owen Stoudmire inside. Vincent Shavers Jr. and San Diego State transfer Owen Chambliss are the linebackers. Andrew Marshall anchors the corner spot.
The caveat, and it’s a real one. Hauser said this week that Nebraska’s front seven “is basically back. They’re big, they’re physical.” That’s a generous read from an opposing coach. Nebraska has a new coordinator, six transfers in the projected starting defense, and its third system in four years. Eleven guys who’ve never played a snap together in this stadium are not “back.” They’re new.
The Schedule, Honestly
Five kickoffs are locked:
Sep 5 | Ohio | 11:00 a.m. CT, FS1 |
Sep 12 | Bowling Green | 6:00 p.m. CT, FS1 |
Sep 19 | North Dakota | 6:15 p.m. CT, BTN |
Nov 6 (Fri) | at Illinois | 7:00 p.m. CT, FOX |
Nov 27 (Fri) | at Iowa | 11:00 a.m. CT, CBS |
Homecoming against Maryland on Oct. 3 is capped at no later than 4 p.m. CT. Everything else gets assigned six to 12 days out.
The Other Sideline in Eugene
We should all be more honest about Oct. 17.
Dylan Raiola committed to Oregon on Jan. 12. He started 22 games for Nebraska, threw for 4,819 yards and 31 touchdowns, and had his 2025 season ended by a broken right fibula against USC on Nov. 1. He will be in a Ducks uniform at Autzen Stadium when Nebraska visits No. 2 Oregon.
He will also, in all likelihood, be holding a clipboard. Dante Moore passed on the NFL Draft and returned as Oregon’s clear-cut starter and a Heisman favorite. Raiola is QB2, on the same path Moore took behind Dillon Gabriel, expected to inherit the job in 2027.
That doesn’t make it less of a story. It arguably makes it a better one. Nebraska’s five-star quarterback left Lincoln to sit a year behind somebody else, and Nebraska replaced him with a Mountain West transfer who is starting Week 1. October 17 is the day both of those decisions get graded.
Screenshot it. Argue with it. Tag the friend who says “this is the year” every August.
Date | Opponent | Time / TV | Outcome | Score | Thoughts |
Sep 5 | Ohio | 11am, FS1 | WIN | 34-13 | Colandrea’s debut, but Hauser has the film. Closer early than the number suggests. |
Sep 12 | Bowling Green | 6pm, FS1 | WIN | 38-10 | First night game in Lincoln. The new line should move people. |
Sep 19 | North Dakota | 6:15pm, BTN | WIN | 42-7 | FCS tune-up. Second-team reps by the third quarter. |
Sep 26 | at Michigan State | TBA | WIN | 27-17 | First road test. Aurich’s pressure packages against a rebuilding front. |
Oct 3 | Maryland | Before 4PM | WIN | 31-21 | Classic trap spot. Barney, Hunter and Gilmer should win outside |
Oct 10 | Indiana | TBA | LOSS | 20-24 | Defending national champs. Closest Nebraska comes to a signature win. |
Oct 17 | at Oregon | TBA | LOSS | 21-31 | Autzen noise, Ducks’ perimeter speed, and Raiola on the far sideline. |
Oct 24 | BYE | ||||
Oct 31 | Washington | TBA | LOSS | 20-23 | My swing game. Post-bye at home. Genuine toss-up. |
Nov 6 | at Illinois | 7pm, FOX | WIN | 23-16 | Friday night trench fight decided in the fourth quarter. |
Nov 14 | at Rutgers | TBA | WIN | 20-13 | Ball control on the road. Not pretty, doesn’t need to be |
Nov 21 | Ohio State | TBD | LOSS | 17-28 | Buckeye depth on both lines wears the Blackshirts down late |
Nov 27 | at Iowa | 11am, CBS | WIN | 19-16 | Black Friday in Kinnick, decided by special teams and turnover margin. |
Baseline: 8-4, 5-4 Big Ten. That reconciles cleanly. Sweep the three non-conference games, win all five of the Big Ten games you’re supposed to win — Michigan State, Maryland, Illinois, Rutgers, Iowa — and drop the four ranked ones. Rankings check out: Ohio State 1, Oregon 2, Indiana 6, Washington 17, Iowa 22.
The Oct. 31 Washington game is where nine wins lives. Steal that one and 9-3 is real.
What I’m Watching at 11 a.m.
Third down, both directions. Can Nebraska stay ahead of the chains and convert third and-short? And can Aurich force Ohio into third-and-seven-plus? Last year’s run defense ranked 99th. That’s the number this whole hire is meant to fix, and you’ll see the first evidence of it before noon.
Explosive plays. Nebraska finished 80th in total offense in 2025. Barney, Hunter and Gilmore need to hit something over 20 yards early, or this becomes a grind against a team that would love a grind.
Pre-snap operation. New quarterback, new coordinator, new offensive line combination, and a heat index climbing into the 90s. Nobody’s asking for 52-0. Communication, clean snaps, no free yardage.
I’ve seen enough openers to know what a good one looks like here. It looks like the offensive line moving people and the Blackshirts tackling. That’s it. That’s the whole ask.
Two questions for you:
Vegas says Nebraska -23.5. Are you laying the points, or does the Frisco Bowl film keep this closer than anybody expects?
Washington on Halloween is my swing game. Which one are you flipping to get to nine wins?
Drop it in the comments. I’ll be in the press box reading them.
GBR.
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