Nebraska grinds down Rutgers, unseats undefeated team in one-score win
Brian Buschini, Ceyair Wright, and James Williams shine in win
LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) - It wasn’t pretty, but Nebraska is starting to find something resembling a groove in a rare one-score win.
The Blackshirts showed up when the lights shined the brightest, forcing two turnovers and a goal-line stand when the offense and special teams were lacking in some areas.
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Home again, home again are the Huskers, as they return to Memorial Stadium after a short trip east.
Nebraska (4-1, 1-1) hosts Rutgers (4-0, 1-0) in a pivotal Big Ten matchup Saturday — a game that figures to give each fanbase a clearer image of their season trajectory in 2024. It will be a scorcher both literally and figuratively, as the forecast is calling for record-high temperatures at kickoff time in Lincoln.
The Huskers were successful on their first road trip of the season, taking down Purdue 28-10 behind a dominant second half. It wasn’t perfect by any means, though, especially in the first half, when a lack of red zone execution led Nebraska to have two field goals blocked and another one missed wide left.
Fortunately for the Husker offense, the Blackshirts kept them in the game, and they turned it on in the second half, scoring on the first three drives of the third quarter to slam the door on the Boilermakers.
Nebraska QB Dylan Raiola turned in another solid performance, going 17-for-27 for 257 yards and a touchdown. Raiola has been efficient and steady through the first five games of his college career, completing 70 percent of his passes for 1,225 with 9 touchdowns to just two interceptions.
That sample size seems big enough now to say that he’s a good quarterback, full stop — and the Huskers are beginning to open up the playbook for him.
“I’ve said it from day one: However we want Dylan to play when he’s a junior, we’re just trying to coach him that way now,” said head coach Matt Rhule in his press conference Monday, raving about the young signal-caller’s preparation. “[The coaching staff] has put a system in that’s really high-level stuff because he can do high-level stuff. I think he’s rare.”
Now, Raiola and his stable of weapons like receivers Isaiah Neyor, Jahmal Banks and Jacory Barney, Jr. will look to carry their momentum from last week’s second half into a home bout with the Scarlet Knights on Saturday.
It’s been a season of “firsts since” for the Huskers in 2024, but this time it’s their opponent aiming for a long-awaited milestone.
Rutgers has been gradually improving over the past four years under head coach Greg Schiano — who took the program to its first bowl game in a decade last season — and now, the Scarlet Knights enter Saturday with a chance to get to 5-0 for the first time since 2006.
Who was their coach in 2006, you ask? None other than Schiano, who’s on his second stint as the frontman for the Scarlet Knights. He previously led Rutgers to six straight winning seasons from 2005-2009 before departing in 2011 and returning in 2019.
“There’s lots of coaches that are regarded as like ‘The best coaches in college football,’ but not many of them could do what [Schiano] has done,” Rhule said. “You go win at Rutgers, you know, before he got there, not a lot of people had won there. He won there at a high level, left and came back and he’s winning there again at a high level. He’s a great football coach. Just a great football coach.”
He has good players, too.
Athan Kaliakmanis is a name Big Red Nation may find familiar. The 6-foot-3 senior quarterbacked Minnesota for the past two seasons and went 2-0 against Nebraska. He led the game-winning drive to knock off the Huskers 13-10 in last year’s season opener — Rhule’s debut with Nebraska.
Sharing the backfield with Kaliakmanis is one of then nation’s best running backs: Kyle Monangai. Monangai — who was a 1,000-yard rusher last season — has put up monster numbers in the first four outings of his senior campaign, rushing for 589 yards and six touchdowns.
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