HUSKERS FOOTBALL Recap – Put a Stake In Us: Utah 44 NEBRASKA 22

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So many leads come to mind. Wanna throw myself over the falls. It’s like a nightmare isn’t it? It just keeps getting worse. This is why we drink.

There was one last glimmer of hope, perhaps the Huskers could come back and cover? The Utes were up 38-14, punted it away and put the backups in. And here came the Huskers. Mekhi Nelson for 16. T.J. Lateef to Quinn Clark for 31. A few nice gains, then Lateef escaping for 16.

Then the Utah starters came scrambling back on the field between plays. Lateef dropped back, dipped a pass rusher and let fly deep to an open receiver…underthrown…and picked off at the Utah 5.

Sigh.

The Huskers offense gained 156 yards and scored two touchdowns on their first two drives. And then proceeded to go three & out on their next five.

The Utes?

They scored on six of their first seven drives, five of them touchdowns. A Nebraska 14-7 lead at the end of the 1st quarter turned into 38-14 Utah by the 5:56 mark of the 3rd quarter, about 25 minutes. Other than the mild threat above, the 4th quarter became a formality, although Lateef ran one in after a nice drive for a late garbage score.

Devin Dampier, though, treated the Huskers like the dissection frog in freshman biology that ended up with the weird kid. He had thrown for 210 yards and rushed for 62 by halftime and finished 19-31 for 310 yards and a pair of TD tosses – and also gained 148 yards on 19 carries and 3 more scores.

The Huskers?

Their defense was once again the thing of fans’ nightmares with 300 yards given up by halftime and 535 for the game. I was asked a few times if a few weeks under Matt Rhule, Mike Ekeler and Rob Aurich could really change anything. My answer – probably not but maybe there’ll be better effort? If there was ramped-up effort, it wasn’t readily visible. And no, it didn’t.

Lateef, if full speed, did not look like a quarterback ready to go against top competition, though, like Penn State, he kept his head in it and made some plays after the outcome had been settled. Mekhi Nelson gained 88 yards and had the opening drive 38-yard TD run. But after those first two drives, Utah brought more bodies into the box and the offense was stifled.

All that was really left to stay in the end was that the 2025 season which started off with so much hope after a 6-2 start, seemed to die on the vine after Dylan Raiola’s injury and a 1-4 finish (including the USC game which Raiola left with the lead). The off-season will be one of many questions and a hard following of transfer portal additions after Nebraska signed only 10 high schoolers with a young roster.

But for now? It’s one last whipping by a superior squad and a trip back home to recover physically. And mentally.

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