Nebraska fans obviously were happy with the 20-17 victory in the season-opening game over Cincinnati. They might not have been as ecstatic about the margin of victory.
Nebraska coach Matt Rhule, philosophically perhaps, had a different take. The sport has changed dramatically. Today’s trends aren’t the trends of 2020. Probably won’t be the trends of 2030.
Rhule is a realist. He knows limitations. He knows what it takes to win Power 4 football games in 2025. He knows it isn’t always easy. It’s not supposed to be.
He knows that no matter how hard fans and players want a 30-point win against another Power 4 school, pulling it off is another story, a more complicated one.
The Huskers came into the Cincinnati game as a 6.5-point favorite at most sportsbooks. We’re not oddsmakers, nor do we pretend to be. But the spread sounded reasonable for an early-season game when a team’s identity hasn’t been established and no one really knows what to reliably expect.
“That was a must-win game and the game got closer than you probably wanted it to,” Rhule said at a Monday news conference.
“I felt like it was going to go one way and then it didn’t. Credit to Cincinnati. As I said to our guys, ‘This is Power 4 football.’ Everyone has to get adjusted to it.”
College football recently has changed in oh so many ways. With teams allowed to pay players, the sport has undergone — and continues to undergo — seismic modifications.
“They have $20.5 million dollars to pay their players,” Rhule said. “The days of old are over. Power 4 teams all have, every team has $20.5 million to spend on their athletes, so they’re going to have good guys.
“The last couple of years, the really good players on teams like that [Cincinnati] would just leave [transfer] for money and NIL money. But now that you can pay them, you’re going to face a lot of good players.”
The Huskers led 13-3 at halftime and by 20-10 with 7:02 to play. Nebraska’s margin nearly wasn’t enough.
“They came roaring back,” Rhule said. “And if I’m being honest, I think [it] probably was good for our team to have that kind of game. We had to play 60 minutes. We had to look at ourselves and see what we didn’t do well … and try to fix them.”
Rhule expects every Power 4 game the rest of the season — which now means Big Ten games for the Huskers — to be closely contested.
“I think they’re all must-wins. I expect every game to be 17-16, so I’m never disappointed,” Rhule said. “People that think every game is going to be easy then they get into a fistfight.
“They get surprised and they’re like, ‘Oh, shoot.’ I expect every game to be hard because I respect my opponent. It’s respect without fear. I was preparing for it to be a battle. It just was a weird flow to the game, if that makes sense.
“Watching a lot of college football … this week, and a lot of games came down, there’s a lot of games that are 50-0 but when you watch Power 4-on-Power 4, most of them came down to a play here and a play there.”
Nebraska was one of three Big Ten teams — Ohio State and UCLA were the others — to play a Power 4 team in Week One. The Buckeyes defeated Texas; UCLA lost to Utah. The rest of the Big Ten went 14-1, with Northwestern losing at Tulane, for a 16-2 B1G opening week.
Does a tough game help the Huskers moving forward? Does it toughen the resolve, teach the players to perform under pressure? Teach some intangible lessons?
Nebraska’s next two games are competitive creampuffs — Akron and Houston Christian. Neither is a Power 4 school. Neither is expected to provide the kind of test that Cincinnati administered.
Back to reality begins on Sept. 20, when Michigan comes to Lincoln. Speaking of “fistfights.”
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