Nebraska has a chance to do something on Saturday it hasn’t done in quite some time: start the season 5-0. Saturday is also Nebraska’s homecoming game, so there’s a lot to look forward to in Lincoln.
How did we get to this point? Well, Nebraska won its Big Ten opener for the first time since 2019. The Huskers went to East Lansing, forced three turnovers, recorded six sacks and left with a 31-13 win without playing a perfect game. Now Nebraska comes home to face a Maryland team that arrives under considerably different circumstances.
The Terrapins are 2-2 after a 54-3 loss to UCLA, but there is enough talent on the roster—particularly at quarterback, receiver and along the defensive front—where you don’t want to look past this team.
As we head into October, the question remains: can the Huskers keep stacking good football?
Nebraska vs. Maryland
When: Saturday, Oct. 3 | 3 p.m. CT
Where: Memorial Stadium | Lincoln, Nebraska
TV: FS1
TV crew: Dan Hellie, Robert Smith
Radio: Huskers Radio Network
Radio crew: Kyle Crooks, Jay Moore, Jessica Coody
Records: Nebraska 4-0, 1-0 Big Ten; Maryland 2-2, 0-1 Big Ten
Last week: Nebraska def. Michigan State, 31-13; UCLA def. Maryland, 54-3
Series: Nebraska leads 3-1
In Lincoln: Series tied 1-1
Last meeting: Nebraska def. Maryland, 34-31, in 2025
Weather: Mainly sunny with a high near 75 degrees. Winds from the south at 10-20 mph.
Setting the scene
Let’s talk about the numbers a bit.
The Huskers rank in the top 20 nationally in scoring offense, total offense, rushing offense and third-down conversion percentage. They also rank in the top 10 in total defense, scoring defense, pass defense and third-down defense. Only four teams nationally rank in the top 20 in total offense, total defense, scoring offense and scoring defense.
Nebraska is one of them.
The Huskers are averaging 482.8 yards and 42.5 points per game while allowing 233.5 yards and 12 points. They have also outgained every opponent this season by at least 100 yards, making them the only FBS team to do that through four games.
Michigan State held the Huskers to fewer rushing yards than they had become accustomed to, pressured them differently and made Anthony Colandrea create outside the structure of the offense. Nebraska adjusted. The defense did too, even if coach Matt Rhule found plenty to correct afterward.
The Terrapins, on the other hand, average 431.3 yards and 32.3 points per game and have the best collection of pass-catching talent Nebraska has faced so far. Malik Washington can extend plays. Chris Durr already has 35 catches. Dorian Fleming gives Maryland production from tight end.
Defensively, Maryland has size up front and edge players capable of disrupting the pocket.
Ignore the UCLA score for a moment. There are individual matchups here that will make Nebraska work.
Rhule on what Nebraska showed (and what it put on film)
Rhule’s biggest defensive concern coming out of East Lansing was not difficult to identify. Michigan State sped things up, and Nebraska did not always handle it cleanly.
“I think anytime you put on tape the tempo bothers you, you are gonna get tempo,” he said.
Washington also presents the exact kind of quarterback who can turn a good pass rush into a problem if Nebraska loses contain.
“Malik Washington, he is elite at getting outside the pocket, he can pick the ball up and run for a first down, he is pretty elite at getting outside the pocket and throwing first then running so you have to make sure everyone is covered and that is something that showed up a little bit in every game so far,” Rhule said.
Nebraska wants pressure. It just needs the coverage behind that pressure to hold up once the play stops looking like the one drawn on the whiteboard. That should be one of the defining battles Saturday.
Storylines to remember
Nebraska does not need to prove it can run for 250 yards every week
Nebraska’s first three games established its rushing identity pretty quickly. Michigan State complicated it.
The Huskers finished with 157 rushing yards, and Colandrea’s 66 accounted for a sizable piece of that. Nebraska’s running backs had to grind more than they had in September, especially after Jamal Rule left early.
Maryland could create a similar problem. The Terrapins play with significant size inside, including 337-pound Eyan Thomas, and their defensive structure is built to make running directly through the middle difficult.
That doesn’t mean Nebraska should abandon the run. It does mean the Huskers shouldn’t become stubborn about proving they can win a specific kind of game.
Maryland has had more trouble when offenses make its defenders move laterally. Crossing routes, motion and play action have created problems. Mobile quarterbacks have too. That sounds fairly compatible with what Nebraska already does.
Rhule wants the rushing production to improve, but he also acknowledged the larger equation Monday.
“Offensively we had 92 yards rushing,” he said. “I know the quarterback gave us more yards and there are going to be games like that, where they’re gonna say they’re going to pressure you and not let you run the football but you have to hit them with deep balls, you have to hit them with play action and drop backs.”
If Maryland loads up to take away Nebraska’s backs, Colandrea needs to make that decision expensive.
Colandrea’s legs have officially become part of the scouting report
Four games into his Nebraska career, opposing defenses don’t need to wonder whether or not Colandrea can run anymore. Like we just established, they are instead figuring out what they want to sacrifice to account for it.
Against Michigan State, Colandrea rushed for 66 yards, the most by a Nebraska quarterback since Heinrich Haarberg had 72 against Northwestern in 2023. More important than the total was how his mobility changed broken plays. He can escape pressure, make the first defender miss and turn man coverage into open grass.
Nebraska is still negotiating the part where he occasionally needs to protect himself.
“I think for Anthony, when it’s clear, get down, but I don’t know how much of that kind of guy he really is, to be honest with you,” Rhule said. “Which I don’t love, but I really like, if that makes sense.”
Essentially, you don’t want to remove what makes Colandrea dangerous. You also don’t want your quarterback absorbing unnecessary hits in October. Maryland’s defense may give him more opportunities to make that decision.
If the Terrapins struggle to contain him when coverage stretches across the field, his running ability could again become one of Nebraska’s best answers.
Maryland has the receivers to test Nebraska differently
Nebraska’s defense has been excellent so far, but it has not yet faced a passing group quite like Maryland’s. Durr has 35 catches for 312 yards and three touchdowns, while Fleming gives Washington a reliable target underneath and in the middle of the field. Maryland has enough size and athleticism outside to make Nebraska’s defensive backs work for four quarters.
That puts some attention on Andrew Marshall. The Idaho transfer has quickly become an important piece of Nebraska’s defense, and Rhule did not undersell his assignment this week.
“Marshall went from a guy at Idaho who thought he was a good FCS player,” Rhule said. “He’s one of the better corners in the Big Ten right now, we will need him to be one of the best corners in the Big Ten this week, versus this past game.”
Nebraska’s secondary has benefited from the pass rush all season, but Saturday may require the relationship to work both ways. There will be snaps when Washington escapes so coverage has to stay connected. There will be snaps when Nebraska cannot immediately get home, which means the secondary has to buy another second.
This should be the most complete test yet for that group.
The pass rush is starting to look like an identity
Nebraska had five sacks against North Dakota. Then it had six at Michigan State. Two straight games with at least five sacks? That is something Nebraska had not done since 2013.
Williams Nwaneri had two of them in East Lansing and also blocked a field goal. Jahsear Whittington continues to emerge inside. Owen Chambliss has added another experienced piece to the front. Suddenly Nebraska is fourth nationally with 3.75 sacks per game.
Washington is talented enough to punish an undisciplined rush, but Maryland’s protection had significant problems against UCLA. Pressure helped turn an already bad afternoon into four interceptions for Washington.
The important part for Nebraska in this one is keeping the rush coordinated. If Nebraska’s ends fly too far upfield and create escape lanes, Washington is good enough to use them.
How Nebraska handles Maryland’s first punch may tell us a lot
Maryland desperately needs something good to happen. That makes the opening stretch interesting.
A team coming off a 51-point loss can respond in several ways. One of them is to play loose because there is suddenly very little left to lose. Nebraska should expect urgency.
The Terrapins came to Lincoln in 2023 and won 13-10. Last year’s game in College Park went to the final minutes before Nebraska escaped 34-31.
Whatever Maryland looked like against UCLA, toss it out the window. Nebraska can’t rest on what happened last week. An early takeaway, explosive pass or Nebraska special-teams mistake could give the Terrapins exactly the kind of belief they need.
The opposite is also true too. Nebraska has 26 offensive plays of at least 20 yards through four games. A couple more early could put Maryland right back into the situation it has spent a week trying to escape.
Good teams learn to recognize those moments. Nebraska has the opportunity to keep showing it’s a good team.
Turtles all the way down?
Happy October, month of the undead. Right on cue, Zombie Maryland travels to Lincoln. Last week, the Terrapins were savaged at home by Zombie UCLA, which, at 4-0, has already topped last season’s win total.
What the numbers say
1 — Nebraska has committed only one turnover through four games.
6 — Nebraska recorded six sacks at Michigan State, its most in two seasons.
10 — Nebraska’s 10 rushing plays of at least 20 yards rank sixth nationally.
12-1 — Nebraska’s record under Matt Rhule when winning the turnover margin.
25.5% — Opponents’ third-down conversion rate against Nebraska.
26 — Nebraska’s offensive plays of at least 20 yards.
42.5 — Nebraska’s points per game.
100 — Nebraska has outgained all four opponents by at least 100 yards.
Odds and ends
>> Nebraska has scored at least 30 points in each of its first four games. The last Nebraska team to do so in each of its first five games was the 2014 team.
>> The Huskers have produced both a rushing and passing touchdown in every game this season, something Nebraska had not done through the first four games since 1999.
>> Maryland won the only previous meeting in Lincoln, 13-10, in 2023.
>> The visiting team has won each of the past three games in this series.
>> The past two Nebraska-Maryland games have each been decided by three points.
>> Saturday is Nebraska’s 115th Homecoming game. The Huskers have won 14 of their past 16 on Homecoming.
>> Nebraska is 87-23-4 all-time on Homecoming.
October is here, and it’s certainly not bad to be 4-0 entering it. Even more, Nebraska has a quarterback creating problems, a pass rush gaining confidence and an offense that has shown it can win in more than one way.
Now, Nebraska needs to keep moving forward. Maryland arrives with plenty of problems, after all, but it also arrives with enough talent to create some for Nebraska.
Saturday doesn’t need to be complicated. Protect the football, keep Washington from turning broken plays into explosive ones, let Colandrea take what Maryland gives him and make the Terrapins deal with the pressure that comes with playing from behind.
Nebraska has spent a month building momentum. Now it gets a chance to protect it.