Act I: The least-interesting, most-important stretch of the season
Previewing Nebraska's first four games: Ohio, Bowling Green, North Dakota and at Michigan State
It’s time for theater camp again. The past two summers, I’ve used a three-act structure as a way to offer quick previews of the teams on Nebraska’s schedule. I think it continues to work well because a 12-game regular season is divisible by three, but mostly because the Huskers keep playing the same character despite holding different scripts each season.
For the most part they’ve done fine in Act I, offering exciting-ish starts that get the narrative moving. Act IIs have been complicated, as they usually are, but not so difficult that a heroic Act III couldn’t deliver a happy ending for our main character. And that’s where things fell into tragedy territory in 2024 and 2025 with NU going 1-3 each year over the final four games.
On paper, the 2026 schedule differs a bit from the previous two in that there are serious challenges in Act II—Indiana and Oregon, plus the hinge for the entire season, a Halloween visit from Washington—while Act III seems custom built to find out just what this team is made of with back-to-back road trips followed by Ohio State and Iowa.
But before that, Act I: Ohio, Bowling Green, North Dakota, at Michigan State. At face value, this is the least alluring act. It might also be the most important in context. If our newest Nebraska football story is to come anywhere close to being satisfying, Act I has to play out by the book.
