Well, the vibes weren't good, but they made consecutive bowl games for the first time since Mike Riley back in 2016. That said: the Rhule and Raiola Show ended after a brutal leg injury, the wins weren't over impressive competition, and the rivalry losses were pretty one-sided. Let's check the results and remind ourselves what happened last year in Lincoln.
What were the expectations?
Transient Buckeye: Nebraska come into 2025 on the heels of its first bowl appearance since the Mike Riley era. There were signs that Matt Rhule was starting to wash away the ineptitude stink of Scott Frost's tenure. The hope was that the hilarious (to non-Nebraska fans) self-immolations that had been a regular feature of Nebraska's Frostian Bargain were a thing of the past. Nobody had the Huskers pegged as serious Big Ten title contenders, but there was hope that Patrick Mahomes Jr. Dylan Raiola could lead another season of gradual improvement, setting Nebraska up for bigger and better things in 2026.
Kind of...: The (optimistic) expectations were that it was year 3 for Rhule, which saw real leaps at Temple and Baylor, and it was year 2 for Raiola, who was a huge 5-star get. If they could beat Michigan in Lincoln, the schedule was really set up to have a gaudy record entering November when the Huskers--vs. USC, @PSU, vs. Iowa--would really show their true colors.
Biff: It‘s been 7 years since I said Scott Frost was Nebraska’s Joe Salem (the coach than finally brought Minnesota to its lowest point post-1960) and going into 2025 I was worried Nebraska had truly started to course-correct where 1980s Minnesota failed to do so. 6 years after rock-bottom the Gophers had clawed back to 6-5. I figured the law firm of Rhule & Raiola had at least an 8-4 season in the tank with a road win at Minnesota and picking off one of USC, PSU, or Iowa. Year 3 Rhule seemed sort of inevitable?
So, how'd it go?
Transient Buckeye: Since Nebraska went from 6-6 in 2024 to 7-5 in 2025, it's technically correct that there was improvement.
However...Nebraska benefitted from a very soft Big Ten schedule in 2025, missing Indiana, Ohio State, Oregon, and Illinois, four of the conference's best teams. Their four Big Ten wins came against Michigan State, October Maryland, Northwestern, and UCLA, none of whom were in the upper half of the conference. They crawled into the top 25 in the middle of the season, only to be immediately and definitively ejected from it--by Minnesota. Including their bowl game, they went 2-5 over the back half of the season.
Kind of...: Really no sugarcoating it, it was a disappointing season. In retrospect, the season-opening win over Cincy was the best win all year. And the victory over Northwestern was the only other victory worth taking any level of pride in. They no-showed against rivals Minnesota and Iowa. And the 27 point loss to PSU, while cathartic for the Nittany Lions, was still a 27 point loss against a team entering the game 4-6.
Biff: 7-5 (7-6 with the bowl game) is…fine? But given the expectations and hope it’s simply an underperformance against the schedule. And This time the losses weren’t all single-possession. After their game against UCLA got bumped to FS2 until MSU and Arkansas finished their basketball game, the final three losses were by a combined 48-121.
I’ll start working on a “Matt Rhule is John Gutekunst” post.
What were the highlights?
Transient Buckeye: They beat a pretty solid Cincinnati team in the season opener. I'm not sure how many people would've bet on Nebraska being able to pull that off.(*) They were 5-1 in mid-October, with their only loss to that point being a competitive effort against Michigan. They had USC on the ropes in Lincoln until Dylan Raiola broke his leg. In November, they....okay, I've got nothing.
(*) Aside from Brendan Sorsby, obviously.
Kind of...: The Cincy win looks a lot better in retrospect than it did at the time. And, really, the reason it looks good at all is because Cincy then ripped off 7 straight wins. If you switched October and November in their schedule last year, and they were 3-5 before closing with four straight wins, nobody looks back in that game in KC and gives Nebraska much credit at all. I was never a believer in Maryland last year (because I knew Wisconsin was shit, and beat Wisconsin in Madison meant nothing), but the 34-31 win for Nebraska when both teams were 4-1 was a pretty fun game (though also revealing).
Nebraska, you beat a Northwestern squad that entered the game 3-1 in B1G play. And you did it with a TD drive late in the 4th quarter to break a tie. This is not something you typically do. It may feel light as a season highlight, but, frankly, it was your season highlight. Hooray!
Biff: I hear Arrowhead Stadium is beautiful in August, and I’m never going to scoff at making a bowl game which surely the dedicated Cornhusker faithful traveled to in droves. I didn’t check that though, it’s been a busy week at work.
Jokes aside, the Michigan and Michigan State games did have things looking on the right track and the #25 ranking going into Minneapolis was earned.
And the lowlights?
Transient Buckeye: The Michigan game could've been a season-defining win for Nebraska. If there was one game where the Ghost of Scott Frost possessed the Nebraska sideline, that was the one. There were a lot of squandered opportunities early that came back to bite the Cornhuskers in the ass. After Raiola's injury against USC, the offense mostly flatlined. T.J. Lateef did what he could, but outside of a solid performance against UCLA, he wasn't terribly effective. The Huskers got walloped by Penn State and Iowa down the stretch in the regular season. Their bowl pairing with Utah looked like a horrific mismatch on paper. It was also a horrific mismatch during the actual game.
Kind of...: The Michigan loss was both a squandered opportunity, and a harbinger of sorts. The late season blowout losses were either expected (Utah), didn't get out of hand until late (Iowa), or terrible timing in being fodder for a cathartic Senior Day win for a team that had been through an awful lot (Penn State).
The lowlight--and it's not even close--was heading to the Twin Cities for a Friday night showdown as a ranked team and absolutely no-showing on offense. Despite not turning the ball over, the Huskers only managed 6 points on two FGs, and 213 yards of offense. Raiola was sacked NINE times, and the Gopher just man-balled Nebraska to death. Basically every positive claim Rhule had made about how he wanted Nebraska to play was revealed to be fiction in a way that this Wisconsin fan recognizes all too well.
It was impressive the Nebraska got off the mat to beat Northwestern the next week, but as November wore on, it was easy to look back at the Minnesota game and say, "Yeah, I'm not really that surprised."
Biff: The mistakes Rhule made in the Michigan game appeared fixable, and he said the right things. They were not fixed, and the words proved empty.
The Minnesota game has been covered, delightfully. Dishonorable mention goes to the Las Vegas Bowl where Nebraska won the first quarter, put up respectable numbers rushing and won time of possession, but spent the rest of the game inside The Device and their defense was simply embarrassed.
Any memorable and or absurd moments?
Transient Buckeye: This is my greatest beef with Matt Rhule. Prior to his arrival, Nebraska was reliably one of the most entertaining Big Ten teams to watch (provided you weren't a Nebraska fan). Now they're just a bog-standard middle-of-the-pack Big Ten team. They beat the dregs of the conference, they lose to the good teams. They're basically Minnesota West at this point.
Kind of...: The Huskers were :20 away from only being one score down to Utah at halftime of the bowl game, which, frankly is a bit absurd. The Michigan game felt winnable at times for Nebraska, but they never actually led it, and they surrendered 286 yards rushing (on only 33 carries...8.7 ypc), and only gained 43 (on 31 carries...1.4 ypc). To any Nebraska fan over 40, THAT is completely absurd.
Biff: I take issue with the statement that Nebraska is Minnesota West because Minnesota actually beats Minnesota.
