Nebraska gets one more nonconference game before turning the schedule toward conference play.
The Huskers are 2-0, coming off a 56-7 win over Bowling Green. Nebraska scored on five straight first-half possessions, led 35-0 at halftime and held Bowling Green under 50 yards before the break.
Now comes North Dakota.
Yes, an FCS opponent. That said, it’s also an unbeaten, sixth-ranked FCS team averaging more than 50 points and 500 yards per game. The Fighting Hawks have enough offense, experience and confidence to make this useful for Nebraska before Big Ten play begins.
It’s also another night game at Memorial Stadium, Tom Osborne will be recognized following the game and there might be a little weather to watch.
Let’s get into it.
Nebraska vs. North Dakota
When: Saturday, Sept. 19 | 6:15 p.m. CT
Where: Memorial Stadium, Lincoln, Nebraska
TV: Big Ten Network
TV crew: Jason Ross Jr., Anthony Herron, Bridget Howard
Radio: Huskers Radio Network
Radio crew: Kyle Crooks, Jay Moore, Jessica Coody
Streaming audio: Huskers.com / Official Huskers App
Records: Nebraska 2-0; North Dakota 3-0
Rankings: Nebraska receiving votes in the Coaches Poll; North Dakota No. 6 in the FCS Coaches Poll
Series: Nebraska leads 2-0
Last meeting: Nebraska 38, North Dakota 17 in 2022
Weather: More clouds than sun during the day with a high around 77. There is a chance of showers or thunderstorms, with scattered storms possible during the evening. Winds are expected from the north at 10-15 mph, and stronger gusts could accompany storms.
Setting the scene
Nebraska’s first two games have not looked exactly alike. Ohio gave the Huskers some early problems before Nebraska pulled away. Bowling Green barely got the chance.
The Huskers piled up 546 yards last week, their second straight game above 500. Nebraska has also rushed and passed for at least 200 yards in both games, something the program had not done in consecutive games since 2021.
Anthony Colandrea followed a solid debut with an even cleaner second start. He completed 20 of 24 passes for 222 yards and four touchdowns against Bowling Green, all four scores coming before halftime. Jacory Barney Jr. had eight catches for 115 yards and two touchdowns. Kwazi Gilmer caught two touchdown passes. The offense scored 35 points before halftime.
The defense was just as impressive. Bowling Green managed only 169 total yards, and Nebraska has now gone seven straight quarters without allowing a play of 20 yards or more.
North Dakota presents something different though. The Fighting Hawks are 3-0 and averaging 540 yards per game, second in the FCS. They are scoring 50.3 points per game, rushing for 251.3 yards and throwing for another 288.7. Quarterback Jerry Kaminski has completed 77% of his passes for 801 yards, 11 touchdowns and two interceptions.
So while Nebraska should have the personnel advantage Saturday, this is not a team arriving in Lincoln wondering whether it knows how to win. That distinction has come up a lot this week.
Rhule on the matchup
Rhule spent a good portion of Monday making sure everyone understood how he views North Dakota.
“It’s not spoken in fear, it’s spoken in great respect for the North Dakota football program. What I’m seeing on film. I don’t get caught up on too many other things, I look at the tape. It’s there, they’re a team that executes, they make a great plan.”
He was especially complimentary of North Dakota’s offensive line.
“I think their offensive line is as good as I have seen in terms of technique.”
And there was plenty of respect for Kaminski, too.
“When you watch Kaminski he is a tremendous facilitator of getting the ball to the open guy, he goes to many different people.”
For Nebraska itself, Rhule liked the jump from Week 1 to Week 2.
“I’m really pleased with the tape. I thought we showed a lot of improvement from game one to game two.”
The challenge now is doing it again.
Storylines to remember
Can Nebraska make the fast start a habit?
This might be the simplest thing to watch Saturday. Nebraska did not really take control against Ohio until after halftime. Against Bowling Green, the Huskers didn’t wait.
They scored touchdowns on five straight first-half possessions and went into the locker room up 35-0. Colandrea had already thrown four touchdown passes. The defense had barely allowed Bowling Green to move. That is what Nebraska wants games like this to look like.
North Dakota has been excellent early though. The Fighting Hawks have outscored their first three opponents 56-0 in the first quarter. With that in mind, Nebraska cannot give an unbeaten team that is used to playing from ahead an easy reason to believe.
North Dakota’s offense deserves Nebraska’s attention
There is a tendency to get to “FCS opponent” and stop reading.1 That would miss the interesting part of this matchup.
North Dakota is averaging 540 yards. Kaminski has 11 touchdown passes through three games. The Fighting Hawks can run with power, use play action off it and spread teams out when they want to.
Nebraska safety Dwayne McDougle offered his scouting report on the run game earlier this week.
“They run downhill. A gap to A gap. They want to bulldoze people,” McDougle said. “They’re gritty up front. Good O-line. Always. Every North Dakota team has a good O-line. Our defensive line has to come ready to play.”
That makes Nebraska’s interior worth watching. Jahsear Whittington, Owen Stoudmire and Anthony Jones Jr. have helped the Huskers become difficult to run against early. Nebraska is allowing 236 total yards per game and has been especially good at eliminating explosive plays since Ohio’s first quarter.
North Dakota would love to make Saturday a possession game, stay ahead of the chains and keep its entire offense available. Nebraska can make that difficult by winning first down.
Colandrea has made efficiency look pretty fun
There were always going to be explosive plays with quarterback Anthony Colandrea. We knew that coming into this season. The more important development through two games might be how efficiently he is producing them.
He has accounted for four touchdowns in each of his first two starts at Nebraska. He threw for 275 yards against Ohio and completed 20 of 24 passes against Bowling Green. He now has seven touchdown passes on the season and has thrown at least three in consecutive games for the first time in his college career.
The offense around him has certainly helped too.
Nebraska has 15 plays of at least 20 yards through two games, which ranked 12th nationally entering the week. Barney Jr. has already produced a 100-yard receiving game, Gilmer got into the end zone twice last week and the running game has given defenses plenty to deal with so far.
The area to watch Saturday might be what happens around Colandrea rather than with him.
Rhule said Nebraska still needs to improve in pass protection after its quarterback took too many hits last week. North Dakota’s defense also has some schematic familiarity with Nebraska because Fighting Hawks coach Eric Schmidt has worked with defensive coordinator Rob Aurich in the past.
Does that mean North Dakota knows Nebraska’s offense? Not necessarily, but it does mean the Huskers should get a useful test against a defensive structure they understand well.
Nebraska’s run defense gets a better test than you might think
Bowling Green did almost nothing on the ground last week. North Dakota will try something very different (or at least we assume so). The Fighting Hawks average 251.3 rushing yards per game and have a veteran offensive line that Rhule spent a lot of time praising Monday. Trace Thaden, a Nebraska native, is part of that group.
This is a good matchup for Nebraska’s defensive front because it asks a fairly straightforward question: Can the Huskers hold up when a team actually commits to running at them?
The answer through two weeks has been encouraging.
Nebraska has allowed only two plays of 20-plus yards all season, both against Ohio. Over the last seven quarters, opponents have gained 336 yards on 101 snaps. That works out to 3.3 yards per play. North Dakota should test the patience of that defense more than Bowling Green did.
If Nebraska consistently forces second-and-long and third-and-long, the Fighting Hawks become a much easier offense to defend.
There are still jobs to win before Big Ten play
Nebraska got into the defensive line depth against Bowling Green, and there are still snaps to be earned behind the top group. Malcolm Simpson, David Hoffken, Sua Lefotu and Tyson Terry are among the players who could get opportunities depending on how the game develops.
The same applies elsewhere.
Nebraska has already shown it wants multiple running backs involved. The receiver room has enough options that targets can change considerably from week to week. The defensive rotations are still developing.
And special teams remain unfinished business.
Nebraska blocked a punt last week and Nyziah Hunter provided a big kick return, but the Huskers also had three holding penalties in the return game.
Rhule thinks Barney Jr. can be one of the country’s best returners.
“I feel like we have a guy in Jacory that should be up for the Jet Award and can lead the country, but we have to have better play around him,” Rhule said.
Michigan State is next. This is Nebraska’s last chance to work through some of those details before the stakes change.
Didn’t need to go far
Six power-conference teams have lost to an FCS opponent over the past five seasons of college football, and none of those losses has happened since September of 2023. The five top-level teams that suffered such a loss had at least one thing in common—they weren’t very good. Collectively, Stanford, Northwestern, Washington, Vanderbilt, Florida State and Arizona went 16-56 in the seasons when each lost to a Championship Subdivision program. None of those teams won more than five games
What the numbers say
3-0 — North Dakota’s start after victories that have moved the Fighting Hawks to No. 6 in the FCS Coaches Poll.
7 — Colandrea’s touchdown passes through two games.
15 — Nebraska’s offensive plays of 20 yards or more through two games.
50.3 — North Dakota’s scoring average through three games.
54-12 — Nebraska’s all-time record in home night games at Memorial Stadium.
540.0 — North Dakota’s average total offense, second in the FCS.
Odds and ends
>> Nebraska is 16-0 all-time against FCS opponents.
>> The Huskers are going for an 11th consecutive regular-season nonconference win.
>> A win would give Nebraska three straight undefeated nonconference regular seasons for the first time since the program did it five years in a row from 1997 through 2001.
>> North Dakota has eight Nebraska natives on its roster.
>> The Fighting Hawks’ only win in 16 games against FBS opponents came against Wyoming in 2015.
>> North Dakota converts 55% of its third downs, fifth-best in the FCS.
>> Tom Osborne will be recognized on the field following the game after being inducted Friday into the Nebraska Hall of Fame. He is the first living person voted into the state historical society’s Hall of Fame.
Osborne finished his Nebraska coaching career 255-49-3 with three national championships in his final four seasons.
Nebraska has done what it was supposed to do through two weeks. More importantly, the Huskers looked better in Game 2 than they did in Game 1.
Saturday is one more chance to keep that progression moving before Big Ten football arrives. North Dakota has enough offense to demand Nebraska’s attention, enough confidence to make a slow start uncomfortable and enough experience to punish sloppy football.
Nebraska has the advantage, but now it has to play like it.
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