Nebraska rebuild under Matt Rhule looks stuck in neutral despite Ohio win

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Nebraska managed to avoid pulling a “Rutgers” to win the Frank Solich Bowl in the school's season-opening home tilt.

But as the Cornhuskers enter their fourth season under Matt Rhule, they didn’t appear much closer than Greg Schiano’s Rutgers program to even contending for a Big Ten title.

Scoring the game’s final 21 points, Nebraska pulled away after a scare from Ohio – which was paid $1.6 million for the game, per terms of the contract reviewed by USA TODAY Sports – in an 49-21 win. Solich, who served as head coach at both Nebraska and Ohio, was honored by the Cornhuskers with the Legends Award; he won 173 games as a head coach, 58 at Nebraska.

“I truly believe, and I’ll probably get fried for saying this; we needed some of those things to happen,” said Rhule, who was agreed to a lucrative contract extension last October amidst purported interest from Penn State. “We didn’t need 70-0. I didn’t want to give up a 75-yard touchdown play but I wanted a battle. This was great scheduling to be quite honest, the heat and cramping and all those things.”

The Cornhuskers lost four of their last six games in 2025 after Rhule's extension and are just 15-12 in their last 27 games under Rhule.

The final score Saturday was deceptive. It was 28-21 with less than 10 minutes left in the game when Nebraska uncorked its final flurry fueled by an Ohio turnover.

The Cornhuskers also kept in their new starting quarterback, Anthony Colandrea, late into the game, when Colandrea threw a touchdown pass inside the final two minutes while John Hauser’s Ohio squad already had inserted its backup quarterback.

“I’m not a run-the-score-up type of guy but we need to execute in the red zone,” Rhule said in his postgame press conference.

After buying out of its home-and-home series with Tennessee, Nebraska does not face any power conference competition before it enters Big Ten play Sept. 26 at Michigan State.

The Cornhuskers host another MAC team – Bowling Green – next week after Eddie George’s Falcons were dispatched Saturday by Championship Subdivision program Tarleton State. They then have a game against North Dakota.

But Rhule praised his team’s second-half execution after Nebraska had trailed by 10-7 and 13-7 scores in the first half. He also noted the heat, which was recorded as one of the hottest home games in Nebraska history with temperatures in the mid-90s and feels-like measurements around 105 degrees.

“My boy (Sean) Padden who’s with us still, Padden was like, ‘They’re 18 to 22 (years old); they’re not the ones who are going to die,’” said Rhule. “’It’s going to be one of us.’

“So, it all goes back to as simple as it is. It’s not like super-glamorous but it’s just execute routine plays.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Nebraska rebuild under Matt Rhule looks stuck in neutral despite Ohio win

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