Four Observations from Nebraska Football’s 59-7 Win Over Houston Christian

LINCOLN—Nebraska football improved to 3-0 with a 59-7 win over Houston Christian on Saturday.

The Huskers dominated from start to finish, pulling the starters at halftime. Here are my four observations from the Houston Christian win.

Getting to the backups and then some

After an opening drive stalled in the red zone and a field goal was necessary, Nebraska’s first-team offense rolled with touchdowns on the next four drives. That gave the Huskers a 38-0 lead at halftime, and allowed the coaches to dip even more into the backups.

“It was good to get a lot of guys rep, like real reps,” Nebraska coach Matt Rhule said.

In total, 101 different Huskers saw the field against Houston Christian.

Defensively, Blackshirt Williams Nwaneri was able to get a scoop and score touchdown in the second quarter after Riley Van Poppel notched a strip sack. In the fourth quarter, Derek Wacker forced a fumble that was picked up by Kahmir Prescott.

Dylan Raiola threw for 222 yards, increasing his career total to 3,648 yards. He is now ahead of Tommie Frazier (3,521 yards) and in ninth place on the NU career passing list.

Backup TJ Lateef was able to get some extended run through the second half, leading multiple touchdown drives. He finished 5-for-5 passing for 126 yards and a touchdown, adding 15 yards and another score on the ground.

As for the running back position…

Running back order

Emmett Johnson rushed for 78 yards and two touchdowns. He added two catches for seven yards.

Behind Johnson, Kwinten Ives was the main ball carrier. Ives, who spent most of fall camp banged up, had a game-high 85 yards rushing with a touchdown.

“I thought you saw a lot of production out of him,” Rhule said. “I thought he caught the ball really well, and Kwitnten, unfortunately, he hurt his hamstring in the summer, came back, and then he hurt it again in camp. So he was stuck behind a bunch of really good players.”

Besides the quarterbacks, Kenneth Williams was the only other Husker to get more than a single carry. He finished with four runs for seven yards.

The other running backs listed on the four-deep include Isaiah Mozee and Mekhi Nelson. Mozee played in the slot against HCU, making three receptions for 26 yards. Nelson did not play in the game, something that was a Rhule decision.

“He was available to play,” Rhule said. “Mekhi’s a wonderful young man, but we have some standards. I had him available. I didn’t pull him out. If we had a couple injuries, he was going to play, but I wanted those other guys to play in front of him, and once the game was out of hand, there was no use putting him in there, but I would have played him if needed.”

Blackshirts

Outside of one big play, the Blackshirts put together another dominant effort. That one play was a 45-yard touchdown run by Xai-Shaun Edwards midway through the third quarter.

“I thought, for the most part, a lot of those things looked good,” Rhule said. “You hate the one long run. We had him tackled in the back field, and he reversed out. We didn’t track the near hip, and so we got burned on it, and so that’ll teach us something.

“I’m sure there’ll be lots of things when you pick the film apart, but for where we were and for the opponent we played, I thought they played pretty well. Thought we tackled pretty well, and we got to the quarterback today, which is good.”

Including that run, the Huskies totaled 160 yards of offense. Through the air, Jake Weir managed just 67 yards on 11-of-18 passing. That’s the third game in a row that Nebraska has kept opposing pass games below 70 yards.

Prepared for the Big Ten?

Nebraska is 3-0 heading into the Big Ten Conference slate. This includes a season-opening 20-17 victory over Cincinnati in Kansas City, followed by blowouts against MAC program Akron and FCS team Houston Christian.

Rhule knows the level of competition coming up will be higher than the last couple of weeks.

“I think you take everything with a grain of salt, right? We haven’t played the caliber teams we’re going to play, but all you can do is measure yourself against where you are and the standards that you have,” Rhule said.

“I thought we played an excellent game the first game in a lot of areas. Some of those things are still showing up, like the field goal on the first drive and our ability to push the ball through the go red zone and all that. So, we’re going to continue to have to get better.”

Nebraska jumps into Big Ten play next week, hosting No. 23 Michigan. The Wolverines handled Central Michigan on Saturday, 63-3.

Have a question or comment for Kaleb? Send an email to kalebhenry.huskermax@gmail.com.

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