What is Nebraska saying about UND?

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Sep. 16—LINCOLN, Neb. — One of Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule's early stops in his coaching career was at Western Carolina, an FCS program.

Rhule was Temple's offensive coordinator when the program suffered a 27-24 loss to Villanova, an FCS program, in 2009.

Andrew Marshall and Jamir Conn, two starting defensive backs for Nebraska, began their careers in the FCS.

The Cornhuskers head coach knows better than to take an FCS opponent lightly.

UND will take on the Huskers in Memorial Stadium Saturday at 6:15 p.m. It's the first meeting between the programs since 2022, when Nebraska pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 38-17 win.

"I think the football team we're playing against is as well-coached and disciplined and well-playing, executing of a team as I've seen in a while," Rhule said at a press conference Monday. "Coach (Eric) Schmidt has done a great job."

Nebraska is 2-0 with wins over two Mid-American Conference programs: Ohio and Bowling Green. Saturday's game against the Hawks will be its last nonconference game before Big 10 play starts.

"I think it's a really, really good opportunity for us," Rhule said. "To go out and battle for a win, and to play a team that knows how to win. I remember in my formational years as a head coach, sitting there talking scheduling with Chip Kelly. When he was head coach of the Eagles, he came to our pro day. I remember him telling me, 'I'd rather play this Power 4 team than this team that knows how to win.'

"I experienced it myself as the offensive coordinator at Temple. We lost to Villanova one year, and those kids at Villanova, (Matt) Szczur and all those great players, they just know how to win. You see it every year. That's not spoken in fear, that's spoken in great respect for the North Dakota football program — the way they do things, their coaches and their players."

Rhule was quick to heap praise on a Fighting Hawks' offense that has scored 50.3 points per game, good for third in the FCS.

"The offensive line is probably one of the best, well-coached offensive lines I've seen," Rhule said. "They've got good players, and they play really well together. Their quarterback, (Jerry) Kaminski, makes the whole thing go. They've got wideouts who can get open. Their first two games, they had 42 points at halftime. I know that's hard to do — we couldn't do it (last) Saturday."

Nebraska defensive coordinator Rob Aurich, who coached at San Diego State with Schmidt, also spoke highly of the job Kaminski has done running the offense.

"I think he does a tremendous job of getting the ball to the playmakers on the perimeter," Aurich said. "He doesn't take a lot of sacks. … They don't ask him to do anything outside of operating their scheme. Coach Danny (Freund) does a great job over there. I think we're going to see a guy that has control of his offense, and our job is we have to find ways to make him uncomfortable, where it's not just a black and white picture all the time."

Huskers' fifth-year defensive back Dwayne McDougle III said a key on Saturday will be containing Kaminski.

"Really, we've just got to keep him in the pocket," McDougle said. "We can't let him roll out. We let him roll out, then he can extend plays, and that's where the big plays happen. We've just got to tell our d-line, 'keep the quarterback inside the pocket.'"

Defensively, Rhule touched on the absence of senior Lance Rucker, who is a native of Omaha, Neb.

Even without the star edge rusher, Rhule focused on UND's pass-rush ability.

"They'll bring pressure," Rhule said. "(Mike) Devereaux, their linebacker, is an excellent player. He shows up a ton. … I've gone back and watched (Schmidt) at San Diego State, at North Dakota. He can be multiple with what he's doing, so you have to recognize not just pre-snap, but also post-snap. They show you two-high, then all of a sudden bring a linebacker and drop an end. It's a really well put together defense."

McDougle is another Nebraska player whose career began in the FCS. In fact, he was a redshirt freshman on the Northern Arizona team that suffered a 27-24 loss to the Hawks in 2022.

"We can't look at it like, 'Oh, this is just an FCS team, we're going to come in and just whoop 'em 50-0,'" McDougle said. "This is not a rollover team. This is a North Dakota team, and all North Dakota teams are elite. I just tell our group, 'we've got to come in like this is a Big 10 game.' We've just got to come in and execute at an elite level, because you never know what could happen."

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