Game Day Guide: Nebraska vs. Iowa

Nebraska gets one more chance to steady the ship before bowl season and bowl prep begins.

Photo courtesy Nebraska Athletics

Nebraska gets one more chance to steady the ship before bowl season and bowl prep begins. And there’s no opponent better built to test your nerve, your patience and your details than Iowa on Black Friday.

What happened in State College is in the past. Matt Rhule said the Huskers turned the page the moment they stepped on the plane back to Lincoln. They had to.

Iowa waits. Senior Day waits. An eight-win regular season is still sitting there, waiting too.

It won’t be easy, but it’s about the 19 seniors taking the field at Memorial Stadium for the last time. It’s also about the only team Nebraska has played every single year since joining the Big Ten and the one that has spent a decade dragging Nebraska into close games and then beating them in the margins.

How will Nebraska respond?

Nebraska vs. Iowa

When: Friday, Nov. 28 | 11 a.m. CT
Where: Memorial Stadium, Lincoln
TV: CBS (Rich Waltz, Ross Tucker, Tiffany Blackmon)
Radio: Huskers Radio Network (Kyle Crooks, Damon Benning, Jessica Coody)
Streaming audio: Huskers.com / Official Huskers App

Records: Nebraska 7-4 (4-4 B1G); Iowa 7-4 (5-3 B1G)
Series: Nebraska leads 30-22-3 (Iowa leads 10-4 in Big Ten era)
Last meeting: Iowa 13-10 (2024)

Setting the scene

So, about last week. For Nebraska, it was a story of missed fits, missed tackles and tension instead of freedom. Rhule called it “absolutely” surprising and he hated the feeling that his players were trying to win the game for him (versus just playing freely).

But the moment they boarded the plane home, the focus shifted. Black Friday is never small, and this one carries layers: a chance to hit eight wins for the first time since 2016, a chance to stop a 13-year drought against Iowa in Lincoln and a chance to send a veteran class out the right way on Senior Day.

Iowa arrives exactly as you’d expect: nasty front seven, solid special teams, a run game that forces discipline and a quarterback who can turn a small gain into a big one.

Nebraska has lived this script. Games with Iowa shrink. Someone blinks first. Someone makes a single mistake you can’t make. Someone makes the one play you absolutely need.

Nebraska wants to be that team for the first time in a long time.

Rhule on the moment

On the short week and the response:

“It’s been great. They all know the challenges ahead. They worked hard all week. Worked hard just now. They’ll come back in tomorrow morning and do it again. Proud of the group.”

On stopping Iowa’s run game:

“We have to get off blocks and tackle. As silly as that sounds there haven’t been very many times where runs popped against us where we haven’t had someone there. We’re going to have to get off blocks and tackle and do it relentlessly for four quarters. There is no secret. You have to read your keys, get off blocks, and tackle.”

On special teams against Iowa:

“When you play Iowa, you know it’s going to be a field position game. Special teams can really help you in two ways. You can hope it can help you with field position and then you hope it can help you in terms of creating explosive plays and eliminating them. If you go back to the last few years we’ve played them, we fumbled a punt against them, so we’ve given them the ball inside the ten yard line twice. Two years ago we were able to block the kid. Last year we held them to a field goal. The key to me is eliminating those negative plays and try to create some of those explosive plays. At the same time, just the field position battle. They do it as well as anybody. We’ve made tremendous improvement in that area. We’ll have to do that on Friday, against at the end of the day two of the best returners in college football. I think Jacory (Barney Jr) deserves to be in that conversation as well. Their returners are some of the best I’ve ever seen. It’ll be a great battle. We’ve made a lot of improvement in that area. We didn’t do that last week. Our special teams last week was not where they needed to be. I know the guys were fired up and excited to test themselves against who we feel is the best special teams unit over the last 20 some years. So, it’ll be a great battle.”

Storylines to remember

A rivalry that needs no embellishment

You already know what this game is (because you’ve heard about it all week). Iowa has beaten Nebraska nine times in the last 10 meetings. Of that, four were on walk-off field goals, including the last two years in games that finished 13-10.

Rhule isn’t adding fuel to it, but he hasn’t forgotten those moments either.

“Two years in a row I’ve watched them kick a field goal to win it and walk off the field…,” he said.

Whether you call it a rivalry or not, this is personal for both programs.

Senior Day with weight behind it

Nebraska will honor 19 seniors before kickoff. It’s a group that actually feels like a class with long careers, position changes, medical comebacks, transfer decisions and a lot of “stayed when it would’ve been easier to leave.”

Some — like Javin Wright — have done versions of this ceremony more than once. Others are first-timers in the tunnel. All lived through a coaching change, a cultural reset and a pretty fragile moment in the program’s history.

Rhule’s made it clear what they mean to him. Now he’s wanting a performance that reflects what they built.

Emmett Johnson keeps climbing

Emmett Johnson has become the identity piece of this Nebraska offense. The numbers are wild when you look at them:

• 1,234 rushing yards

• 348 receiving yards

• 1,582 yards from scrimmage

• Seven 100-yard rushing games and four straight heading into Friday

He’s the only FBS back with 1,200 rushing and 300 receiving yards. He accounts for more than a third of Nebraska’s entire offense.

Now he gets Iowa, a top-20 run defense that lives on staying gap sound and forcing you into third-and-forever. The Hawkeyes don’t give up explosives on the ground. Fourth-and-short is usually their party.

If Johnson can still put up numbers in this one, that Doak Walker omission is going to look even stranger.

TJ Lateef’s next lesson

Beaver Stadium was trial by fire. Iowa will be a different kind of test for Lateef: slower tempo, tighter windows, a defense that refuses to beat itself and a game that can suffocate young quarterbacks.

Lateef wasn’t sharp at Penn State but it was full of learning opportunities. Six days later, he has the opportunity to put those lessons in motion.

If he protects the ball, steals a few first downs with his legs and hits the singles Iowa dares you to hit, Nebraska has a fighting chance.

Nebraska’s run defense vs. Iowa’s run identity

Penn State exposed Nebraska’s edges and communication issues. Iowa lives in those gray areas.

Mark Gronowski has 13 rushing touchdowns. Kamari Moulton is a problem in space. Nebraska will have to win blocks and tackle for four straight quarters.

Rhule boiled it down to the basics again this week.

“We have to get off blocks and tackle…,” he said. “We’re going to have to get off blocks and tackle and do it relentlessly for four quarters. There is no secret. You have to read your keys, get off blocks, and tackle.”

Against Iowa, that’s everything.

Field position will decide the whole thing

This isn’t exactly breaking news but Nebraska and Iowa have lived in the special teams margins for a decade.

Muffed punts. Blocked kicks. Short fields. Walk-off field goals. Iowa has made a living off that third phase and this version is no different with Kaden Wetjen flipping games as a returner.

Nebraska counters with Jacory Barney Jr. and Kenneth Williams back in the mix. The Huskers have been better this season on special teams overall, but Rhule didn’t sugarcoat last week’s step back.

“Our special teams last week was not where they needed to be,” he said.

This week, it needs to be where Nebraska needs it to be. Against Iowa, after all, that’s usually the ballgame.

What the numbers say

267.9 — yards allowed per game by Iowa’s defense (8th nationally)
14.5 — points allowed per game by Iowa (8th nationally)
37.9% — percentage of Nebraska’s total offense that belongs to Emmett Johnson (No. 1 nationally)
112.2 — Johnson’s rushing yards per game (1st in the Big Ten)
0 — touchdown passes allowed by Iowa in three separate games this season
36 — consecutive years Nebraska has played on Black Friday
32 — points separating the last seven Nebraska-Iowa games combined

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Nebraska hasn’t beaten Iowa at home since 2011. It hasn’t finished with eight regular-season wins in nearly a decade. On top of it all, Friday is Senior Day.

Iowa will make Nebraska earn every inch. The Hawkeyes always do.

But the Huskers have a shot. They always do.

What will they do with the moment?