For the better part of 25 years, we've heard national pundits proclaim that college football is better when the Nebraska Cornhuskers are nationally relevant.
The Huskers enjoyed a nice run under Bo Pelini, but couldn't make the transition from a good program to championship contenders.
The decade-plus since Pelini was fired has seen a pair of bad hires precede the arrival of renowned program builder Matt Rhule. Now four years into his tenure in Lincoln, Rhule is still searching for a signature win that announces Nebraska's return to national prominence.
The Huskers squandered back-to-back opportunities that would have done so in a major way.
Two weeks ago, Nebraska hosted the reigning national champions. The Indiana Hoosiers were ranked No. 7 and brought a 21-game winning streak to Lincoln. Very few people gave the Huskers much of a chance to pull off an upset. Indiana was an 8½-point favorite, and ESPN gave the Hoosiers a 69.2% chance of winning.
That didn't come as a surprise. After all, Nebraska had lost 30 straight games to ranked opponents and had often been boat-raced by teams ranked in the top 10.
Well, Nebraska had other plans — for three quarters, anyway.
The Hoosiers came into Lincoln that afternoon with the nation's ninth-ranked rushing offense (252.6 ypg). They rolled in with the top two leading rushers in the Big Ten: Turbo Richard and Lee Beebe Jr., who ranked ninth and 12th nationally, respectively, in that category at the time as well.
Rob Aurich's unit held them to a combined 41 yards on 17 carries and Indiana as a team to just 65 total rushing yards — their lowest output since Curt Cignetti arrived in Bloomington. They'd been averaging 6.4 yards per attempt (fourth nationally), but were held to 3.0 ypc by the Huskers.
Nebraska thoroughly outplayed the Hoosiers for 80% of the game, and truth be told, I had a different article all but written after Anthony Colandrea broke off that 39-yard run and pointed at Will Compton as he extended Nebraska's lead to 17-6 with 12:01 to play.
But two explosive plays in the fourth quarter gave the Hoosiers their first lead with 7:13 remaining, and they never looked back.
Even though Nebraska ultimately lost to Indiana in what was the biggest fourth-quarter comeback win for the Hoosiers under Cignetti, I came out of that game more resolute in my belief that Matt Rhule had turned the program around to resemble something "old timers" could be proud of in a lot of ways.
Yeah, they fell short and that stung, but Nebraska went toe-to-toe with a program that is a championship contender led by the best coach in college football.
Nebraska outgained Indiana 391 to 328 and ran 83 plays compared to the Hoosiers' 44. The Huskers held Indiana to 1-of-10 on third downs, had 25 first downs to Indiana's 13 and held a decisive 39:33 to 20:27 advantage in time of possession.
Of Indiana's 263 passing yards, 199 came on just four plays.
Conversely, heading into their game against Nebraska, the Hoosiers ranked fourth nationally in total defense and seventh in rushing defense. Nebraska's 128 official rushing yards were the most Indiana has surrendered to a Big Ten opponent during Cignetti's tenure. The Huskers actually produced 155 sack-adjusted rushing yards if we're looking at the big picture here.
The moment wasn't too big for Nebraska, which has often been the case dating back to even their better teams under former head coach Bo Pelini. In the end, they let a game slip away that they win nine out of ten times given the circumstances.
Despite that, national pundits were sold on Nebraska after its performance against the Hoosiers and gave the Huskers a ton of credit and recognition. Rightfully so.
Heading into last Saturday night's showdown with Oregon, I wanted to see how the Huskers would bounce back after such an emotional, heartbreaking loss.
And it wasn't just about the players. I wanted to see how the coaching staff would respond after such a huge missed opportunity.
You don't think getting a program-defining win against a Curt Cignetti-coached team wouldn't have been icing on the cake? All every coach in the country has heard for the past two years has been, "If Indiana can do it, why can't we?"
Matt Rhule has discussed that mindset from not just Husker fans, but fans of any school with a team trying to rebuild. Don't think those kinds of unrealistic expectations and forced comparisons don't grate on coaches behind the scenes.
Teams take on the personality of their head coach, and it's the head coach who sets the standard for his staff. So how would this staff have the team prepared?
Nebraska traveled to Eugene, Oregon, for an 8 p.m. PT kickoff — one of the latest body-clock kick times Nebraska has ever been part of — to face a program that had won 46 straight games at Autzen Stadium against unranked opponents, and where Dan Lanning had never lost two games in a row.
While the Ducks' season hasn't gone how anyone expected — including yours truly, who picked them to win it all this year — that team was still ranked No. 2 in the preseason and was described by several national media members as the most talented team in program history heading into the season.
Oregon took on Nebraska in a must-win game with the goal of making the playoffs still intact.
Despite being unranked and 3-2 at the time, the Ducks were a 6½-point favorite and, according to ESPN, had a 66% chance of winning the game.
For the second straight week, somebody forgot to tell Nebraska. And for the second straight week, the Huskers largely outplayed a perceived superior opponent — for three quarters, anyway.
There's an old adage in football that says a good defense will travel. And boy did Rob Aurich's Blackshirts come to play.
This was an ugly game for both offenses and a classic defensive battle, but despite going up against one of the five most expensive rosters in college football, it was Nebraska — not Oregon — who looked like the more aggressive, and for large stretches, the more talented team on Saturday.
Question any NFL personnel department and they'll tell you there isn't a more talented defense in the country than Oregon's. There are a lot of draft picks on their two-deep.
But for three quarters, you could easily argue it was the Blackshirts who looked like the better defense.
The Ducks ran 40 plays for just 91 total yards with Brock Thomas in the game at quarterback. Oregon went scoreless in the first half, even after an interception thrown by Anthony Colandrea gave the Ducks the ball on Nebraska's 14-yard line early in the second quarter thanks to a miscommunication with Jacory Barney.
In what became the theme through the first three quarters, the defense answered the bell and forced a fumble on Oregon's first play as the Ducks looked to capitalize.
When Dylan Raiola replaced Brock Thomas to start the fourth quarter after the Ducks fell behind 14-6, I might have been the only person who thought it played right into Nebraska's hands.
Husker coaches should have known exactly what to do on defense.
As a Husker in 2025, Raiola ranked dead last nationally in completion percentage when under pressure. With him coming off the bench cold, how do you not test him?
Send pressure up the A-gap and see how he handles it.
I'm not the only one who knows how he (didn't) handle it through 22 games as a Husker starter.
Nebraska's coaches have a better scouting report on Raiola than his current coaches at Oregon. They know he would routinely bail out of the pocket and turn his back to coverages when pressured. He's shown vulnerability when defenses bring pressure directly in his face, disrupting his rhythm.
Not only that, but we also know about Raiola's struggles against man coverage.
I wrote about the disparity in August 2025, citing Pro Football Focus data showing that Raiola finished his freshman season with an 82.3 passing grade against zone coverage, ranking among the top 20 nationally, compared with what I described as "a humbling 55.7" against man coverage, which ranked in the bottom 15 nationally.
He also recorded eight turnover-worthy plays against man coverage, the fourth-most in the country.
Dana Holgorsen dismissed the idea of giving Rob Aurich a scouting report on Raiola when asked by a reporter the week before the game.
But we know that isn't accurate.
Ahead of the matchup with Oregon, Rob Aurich was asked about the possibility of facing Raiola.
"There's certain opinions around the building as to what he does really well," Aurich said, acknowledging the Nebraska coaching staff's familiarity with its former starting quarterback.
So why didn't Matt Rhule instruct Aurich to pressure him?
Rhule is a staunch believer in analytics and has a team that helps him collate them. He references them in key decisions he makes on a regular basis to justify why he makes certain decisions.
These aren't just analytics on a piece of paper. This is 22 games as your starting quarterback. Twenty-two games you've watched what he does well and what cost you games with him under center.
Why was he often seeing Nebraska in three- and four-man pressures with zone coverage behind it?
Did you think he corrected his bad habits after playing eight total quarters for Drew Mehringer, Oregon's first-year, publicly maligned offensive coordinator who's primarily coached receivers and tight ends throughout his career?
Did you not scout the UCLA tape to confirm what you already know about him?
Raiola went 6-of-19 for 43 yards with a pair of interceptions and a lost fumble before getting benched. The Bruins played press-man coverage and regularly forced Raiola to scramble outside the pocket, contributing to poor decisions and inaccurate throws.
Sound familiar?
Raiola took the reins under center right when Nebraska players' internal clocks were registering about 1 a.m. CT. He promptly marched the Ducks down the field on a 69-yard drive that got them within one score after a 37-yard field goal.
Nebraska — and I'll get to the offense's culpability — swiftly went three-and-out and gave the ball right back.
Under normal circumstances, maybe you could point to the offense quickly ceding possession as to why the coaches didn't adjust their strategy defending Raiola.
But that doesn't hold water with their background on him.
Either way, we know how the story ended.
Raiola led the Ducks on a game-winning 20-play, 82-yard drive. On two fourth-quarter possessions, he helped Oregon hold the ball for a ridiculous 12:45 while running 36 offensive plays for 151 yards and scoring 11 points.
The Blackshirts' dominant effort was wasted by what I believe was a decision to play it safe instead of going for the win and finishing off the Ducks with aggression.
Ironically, it was the opposite of how they finished the Indiana game, when they lost because of aggression rather than making Indiana drive the length of the field — something the Hoosiers hadn't been able to do all game long.
It makes you wonder if second-guessing how they initially chose to defend Indiana after taking that 17-6 lead, only to have it evaporate and watch momentum swing 180 degrees permanently after one play, affected their psyche against the Ducks.
Especially when a scouting report on Raiola clearly called for the opposite of what they did.
I can sit here and nitpick the handful of plays or decisions that may have cost Nebraska defensively in those games, but that comes with the benefit of hindsight.
I was a huge fan of Rob Aurich's hire, and he's coaching himself toward an immediate raise. There's no question schools will try to poach him off Rhule's staff this offseason.
The bottom line is Nebraska's defense did more than enough to make sure the Huskers won both of these games. The Blackshirts delivered two remarkable performances in consecutive weeks, holding both Indiana and Oregon to just six points through the first three quarters .
For Indiana, it marked the first time the Hoosiers had been held to six points or fewer through three quarters since their December 20, 2024, College Football Playoff loss to Notre Dame, when they managed just three points through the first three quarters.
That ended a streak of 21 consecutive games, spanning Indiana's entire undefeated 2025 national championship season and its first five games of 2026.
The accomplishment against Oregon was equally noteworthy.
Before UCLA held the Ducks to six points through three quarters the previous week, Oregon had gone 22 consecutive games without being held to six points or fewer through three quarters, dating back to its Nov. 16, 2024, matchup with Wisconsin — making Nebraska just the second team in Oregon's last 24 games to accomplish that feat.
Rob Aurich's defense is seemingly getting better by the week as players get more comfortable in his system. They're flying around to the ball and embodying his mantra of "simple, fast, violent."
The numbers back it up.
Nebraska is currently ranked 11th nationally in total defense (271.3 ypg), 16th in scoring defense (15.4 ppg) and 14th in yards allowed per play (4.55).
The Blackshirts rank 16th in pass efficiency defense, 10th in completion percentage allowed (53.8%) and 18th in yards per attempt (6.0).
Against the run, they're 23rd nationally (99.57 ypg) and 26th in yards per rush allowed (3.20). They've surrendered just three rushing touchdowns, which ranks sixth, while sitting 23rd in tackles for loss (6.71 per game) and 21st in sacks (2.71 per game).
They're No. 1 in the country in third-down defense (17-of-88, 19.32%), seventh in first downs allowed (15 per game) and have given up just seven touchdowns in 17 opponent red-zone trips, which ranks ninth nationally.
That's a remarkable first seven games for a first-year defensive coordinator who had a substantial rebuild on his hands when he arrived.
I've been pretty critical of Dana Holgorsen, and despite the Blackshirts getting the brunt of the blame for these two losses, the overwhelming responsibility belongs on the shoulders of Holgorsen and the offense.
I've written it before: There is too much talent on offense to be scoring just two touchdowns in each of these games.
Yes, Indiana has one of the best defenses in the country and Oregon's is probably the most talented, but you've got NFL guys on the O-line and at the skill positions, too.
You're not completely outmatched, even though they've gone long stretches looking like it thanks to Holgorsen.
With over two decades of play-calling under his belt, Holgorsen has to scheme up answers.
His play-calling — particularly against Oregon — was reminiscent of the Frost era, when plays were called without structure or meaning behind them.
His unit looked good against inferior nonconference foes, along with Michigan State and Maryland — teams that rank 82nd and 127th, respectively, in scoring defense.
But what happens when you can't simply out-talent the team across from you?
Holgorsen isn't doing his part to ensure Nebraska wins these marquee matchups, and he has too much talent to work with for that to be happening.
His lack of creativity and schematic counterpunch has been sorely lacking all year.
You might be able to get away with that when you out-talent your opponents like Nebraska did in its first five games, but Indiana and Oregon were talented enough to expose that deficiency.
Ohio State and Iowa aren't the only teams left on the schedule who can do the same thing, so coaches better use this bye week to do some serious self-scouting to address the issue.
Normally, I like having a game the following week after a tough loss. That included this past week.
However, I think the bye week turned out to be well-timed.
Nebraska's banged up at some key spots, and this week off will allow the Huskers to heal up a bit. It also gives the coaches time to evaluate themselves and regroup for the second half of the season, where they can still play themselves into the playoffs.
Yes, really.
There isn't a team on their schedule they can't beat on any given Saturday, and that's something that hasn't been true since probably the 2012 season.
It's normal as fans to move the goalposts — pun intended — on expectations, particularly when your team is better than you expected.
But it's also important to keep things in perspective.
There were local media members picking Nebraska to win just five games this season. Even the most optimistic Husker fan probably looked at this schedule during the offseason and was bracing for 20-plus-point losses to Indiana and Oregon.
If I told you in August that Nebraska would be playing in the ReliaQuest or Citrus Bowl at the end of the season, I'm comfortable saying that would have been viewed as a resounding success by the vast majority of fans this year.
Well, that's the current trajectory, with a realistic path toward a playoff berth that can still be earned by this team.
And there are reasons to believe Nebraska can take advantage of the schedule in front of it.
For starters, the Huskers have the two most important elements of any good team: a really good defense and a really good quarterback. Both are among the best in the Big Ten, and that promises to keep Nebraska in every game it plays.
Nebraska is also likely to face a backup quarterback in three of its last five regular-season games.
Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. suffered a significant rib injury Oct. 9 against Iowa and hasn't played since. Nebraska will likely see third-year player Elijah Brown in his place after the Stanford transfer stepped in to start last Friday against Purdue and threw for 302 yards and three touchdowns.
Illinois lost Katin Houser on Oct. 10 to a broken hand that will likely keep him sidelined through the Illini's game against the Huskers on Nov. 6. Stepping into his place is true freshman Michael Clayton II, who will make his first career start Saturday against Oregon.
Ohio State standout Julian Sayin injured his right elbow late in the fourth quarter against Indiana last Saturday and is expected to miss the remainder of the regular season.
Luke Fahey and Tavien St. Clair are competing during the Buckeyes' bye week to determine who starts on Halloween at USC. Fahey is a true freshman, while St. Clair has appeared in just two games after arriving in Columbus as one of the highest-rated quarterbacks in the 2025 class.
None of that guarantees anything, obviously, but Nebraska has a legitimate opportunity to accomplish a lot over the final five games.
I'm not saying don't be disappointed or even angry by these two missed opportunities. But I think Matt Rhule said it best during the opening of his Monday press conference.
“I've always believed that two things can be true," he began. "First of all, you can be really, really disappointed right now as a player, as a coach, as a head coach, as a fan and also be really, really encouraged and push forward.”
He added, "We're a team that's lost the last two weeks, and that's unacceptable; that's not OK. I also think we're a team that's probably two plays away from being a top-10 program, a top-10 team. Both of those can be true."
I agree with him.
These past two games were a good litmus test for where this program is currently at, and despite coming up short, you can't help but be encouraged.
Nebraska's headed in the right direction. I think they've turned a corner. Their resolve and culture are strong.
Being an emotionally uninvolved admirer of the program might give me a unique perspective.
Perhaps it makes me naïve?
Your opinion probably depends on whether or not you agree with me.
This football team still has a lot of improving to do, no doubt, but I can also point to areas of clear improvement and the undeniable fact that the program is trending up.
I get it. Most fans don't want to hear it.
They're tired of being close and having the rug pulled out from under them. They can recount all the ways this team has lost in heartbreaking fashion over the past two decades, having clutched defeat from the jaws of victory countless times and resigned themselves to being cursed as a program and fanbase.
That's astrology logic.
Fans look at this past Saturday and see that five of the top seven teams in the AP poll took losses and that eight different ranked teams fell in total.
They see the parity NIL and the transfer portal have created everywhere and want to be on the right side of history after showdowns like these.
I believe those days are coming.
I know it stings, how these last two weeks ended. It's hard to get over knowing how easily the narratives could be different if minuscule things had gone differently in either game.
What if a staffer didn't give the wrong personnel grouping on that fourth down that led to a pair of receivers being wide open on their go-ahead score?
What if Anthony Jones — playing on a broken foot, by the way — was half a step closer to Raiola on that second-and-goal play? Instead of the go-ahead touchdown, that's a strip-sack and the game is over.
The margins are so thin in college football, especially in a league like the Big Ten where you're playing teams with $40 million rosters.
And those margins are exactly what separate Nebraska from where it is today and where it wants to be.
The players and coaches will use this bye week to shake off the disappointment and get back to work. I think fans should try to do the same, or at least their version of moving past it.
The season is not over.
On the contrary, Nebraska still has the exact same goals intact that teams like Miami, Ohio State, Notre Dame and Georgia have.
They just have to earn it on the field.
What more could you ask?
Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, following us on Twitter/X, and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.
Add us as a preferred source on Google