LINCOLN, Neb. — Two years ago last week, Matt Rhule and his wife, Julie, watched on television as Nebraska played Wisconsin. A gut feeling told both of them that Matt was meant to coach the Huskers. But the Rhules did not believe they’d make the deal work after weeks of talking about the job with Trev Alberts, then the Nebraska athletic director.
The Badgers on that day at Memorial Stadium fought back from a double-digit deficit in the second half to win by one point. They took control in the trenches and scored the winning touchdown with less than a minute to play.
It marked a ninth consecutive win in the series for Wisconsin. The streak grew to 10 last year in Rhule’s first meeting on the Nebraska sideline against the Badgers in an overtime heartbreaker in Madison.
But that streak ended Saturday in Lincoln. Nebraska thumped Wisconsin 44-25, the Huskers’ first win in this series since 2012. The offense jumped to life behind new coordinator Dana Holgorsen, in his second game as a November replacement. And the seven-year bowl drought is over.
“It’s a surreal moment today,” senior defensive lineman Ty Robinson said. “It’s awesome.”
Nebraska, at 6-5 before its regular-season finale on Black Friday at Iowa, will return to the college football postseason this year. It snapped a four-game losing streak this season and won under Rhule for the first time in 23 games when it allowed more than 14 points.
This win felt like a full-circle moment for the head coach, he said.
“There’s something really important about us playing Wisconsin,” Rhule said.
The Huskers rushed for 180 yards and held the Badgers’ ground game more than 50 yards under its average.
“It’s for the guys who stuck here and went through hell,” senior safety Isaac Gifford said. “We finally got that monkey off our back.”
Saturday in Lincoln marked one of the most cathartic occasions of the past 50 years for Nebraska football.
Ahead of it? Only the Oklahoma win in 1978, the first for coach Tom Osborne in six games against the Sooners, and the 1995 Orange Bowl win against Miami to clinch Osborne’s first national championship.
Rhule’s Huskers will never again celebrate a sixth win of the season, Rhule said. But Saturday warranted a party.
It’s always more difficult, he said, as the first group to accomplish something big. Rhule’s message before kickoff on Saturday to the Huskers was simple.
“I would give anything to go do this for you,” Rhule said. “But I can’t. You have to go do it.”
And finally, the Huskers did it.
“All the things we went through to finally be able to show everyone that, yes, we are capable of doing this,” Robinson said, “it’s always been there. This is a great team and a great program. We can do great things and go on and win a lot more games.”
When Nebraska went up by three scores with three minutes left on Dante Dowdell’s third rushing touchdown, a 1-yard plunge, seemingly all of Memorial Stadium exhaled in the warm November air. Students poured onto the turf after the clock expired.
It never got rowdy. They all just wanted to be there to soak it in.
Freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola ran to find his mother, Yvonne, near the north end zone. He hugged her after his 28-for-38 passing performance accounted for 293 yards and one touchdown. Raiola embraced his brother Dayton, a Nebraska QB commit, and his sister Taylor, a recruiting staffer for the Huskers.
Dylan tossed his kid cousin in the air.
This is just the start, according to the QB.
“Playoffs next year,” he said with a sheepish grin.
Just to make a move in the direction of the College Football Playoff, the Huskers must lock down Holgorsen. He’s signed through this month. And after taking charge of the Nebraska offense days before a 27-20 loss on Nov. 16 at USC, Holgorsen appeared firmly in command during his home debut with the Huskers.
Nebraska produced its first 100-yard rusher of the season in Emmett Johnson, who churned for 113 on 16 carries. Johnson also caught six balls for 85 yards. The Huskers scored more points than in any other game under Rhule. Their 473 total yards rated as the second-highest figure of the season.
When Holgorsen got into a rhythm, he hit the gas. He kept Nebraska unpredictable and on schedule.
“I think the biggest thing he’s brought in is a little bit of a swagger,” Rhule said.
When a replay review wiped away a Raiola-to-Isaiah Neyor touchdown late in the first half, Holgorsen shrugged it off.
“Let’s do it again,” he told the offensive players, according to Rhule.
Two plays later, Raiola hit Jahmal Banks in the back of the end zone.
“He made things simple,” Raiola said. “He gets in a groove and he gets going. We feed off that energy.”
Johnson said he’s grown fast to enjoy the Holgorsen system. Jacory Barney, the record-setting freshman receiver, said he’s invigorated to grow in this system with Raiola, fellow freshman Carter Nelson and the Huskers’ incoming recruits. Holgorsen’s aggressiveness got Wisconsin’s defense out of balance late in the first half. The Badgers did not recover.
Part of the postmortem on this season will examine a simple question: Why did it take so long to move on from Marcus Satterfield? The former OC demoted to tight ends coach, Satterfield called his offense like a kid in a sandbox. He looked for shiny toys, but his finished products lacked definition.
Holgorsen operates like a surgeon on the sideline.
With a heavy weight lifted from their backs, the Huskers can move on against Iowa and think about the chance for a seventh victory. They can re-organize December plans around a bowl trip.
What a feeling.
What bowl do you want to go to, Nebraska fans?
Final score: Nebraska 44, Wisconsin 25. pic.twitter.com/KXW1hq3IO6
— Mitch Sherman (@mitchsherman) November 23, 2024
This means another 15 practice sessions. It means that Nebraska can keep its football facility abuzz with players and coaches on the move for another month.
With AD Troy Dannen, football administrator Haven Fields and the governor of the state of Nebraska watching his news conference after the game, Rhule said, for him, it means relief — if just for a few moments.
“Yes,” Rhule said, “100 percent, It’s relief in that I’ve had the benefit of doing this before. I look at the weight room. I look at the training room. I look at sports science. I look at sports psychology. I look at player development. I look at recruiting. I look at all the things we’re doing, and I think it’s, ‘All right, it’s going to pay off in a big way.’”
The Huskers, though, have struggled to eliminate doubts. The outcome of Saturday ought to help.
“I hope as we come in tomorrow,” Rhule said, “our players have a much better picture of what’s possible.”
(Photo: Dylan Widger / Imagn Images)
