Nebraska’s 5-1 start is where it needs to be. Now it must break the mold

LINCOLN, Neb. — In the auditorium at Nebraska's Osborne Legacy Complex on the Monday after its only loss in the first half of this football season, coach Matt Rhule told the Huskers if they had pulled out a victory against Illinois on a late score, another game like it later in the fall would have ended in defeat.

His point? Some lessons can only be taught in a loss.

We might have seen that other game on Saturday. Against like-minded opponents in physical Big Ten contests decided on defensive stops and special teams play in the fourth quarter, Nebraska won one and lost one.

Without the 31-24 loss against Illinois, there likely was no 14-7 win against Rutgers .

Before a tantalizing second half starts Oct. 19 at unbeaten Indiana , the task is this: build on the progress against improved competition. You thought Saturday afternoon was hot at Memorial Stadium? Just wait until Nebraska gets inside the figurative frying pans at the Horseshoe and the Coliseum.

A year ago for Nebraska, there was no victory like it enjoyed in Week 6. The Huskers lost four such games by a total of 16 points in November and another in Rhule's Nebraska debut — against Minnesota and the same quarterback, Athan Kaliakmanis , who was harassed by the Blackshirts into four consecutive incompletions at the end on Saturday.

So as the Huskers enter a bye week, forget the blocked kicks and punts that keep happening. Remove the noise around Dylan Raiola , who struggled late for the Huskers against Illinois and Rutgers .

Strip away the style points. Nebraska is 5-1. It has a top-performing freshman quarterback in Raiola. It has a defense that's yet to allow a rushing touchdown and ranks statistically as a top-15 unit.

And the Huskers have a shot to do something special in the next six games.

"Man, it feels great," Nebraska safety DeShon Singleton said Saturday night, reflecting on the first half of this year. "It's been a minute since we've been 5-1."

? Result against Rutgers showed progress

It's been since 2016, in fact, when the Huskers last started this well or better. They also did it in 2014, 2013, 2011 and 2010, which reinforces how far Nebraska has fallen from its perch in recent times.

Eight years ago, Nebraska started 7-0 but lost four times in a six-game closing stretch that began with a pair of road games against ranked opponents — the second of which was a gory, 62-3 momentum killer at Ohio State .

History doesn't have to repeat itself for these Huskers under a second-year coach.

Nebraska in 2024 can break the mold in how it builds for more than simply the closing stretch of this season.

That energy, seemingly, is already at work. Cornerback Marques Buford Jr. said he saw the start of a turn last winter.

"Seeing how guys didn't back off any of the tests or trials that the coaches gave to us," Buford said, "I feel like this isn't something that happened in the past six weeks. This is something that we've been working on for months and months and months, trying to assure ourselves that we don't let stuff that is in our hands beat us anymore."

Since the Big Ten schedule release last November , the book on this lineup of opponents for Nebraska was clear. It would turn decisively more difficult against the final five opponents. The narrative emerged before Indiana hired coach Curt Cignetti. His 6-0 start with the Hoosiers rates as a first-half surprise in the sport this year.

UCLA is down from preseason expectations. Ohio State looks as dangerous as advertised. And the Huskers' finishing trio, USC , Wisconsin and Iowa , have all lost twice among their first five. But two of those three games come on the road.

None will be easy.

To finish strong, Nebraska must play better in the second half of the season than in the first. Reason exists to believe it will, starting with the most important player.

Raiola will learn from Saturday. The QB completed one pass for positive yardage in the second half against Rutgers. Punter Brian Buschini threw for more yardage than Raiola after halftime.

-defining stretch

Three of the Huskers' final four possessions before the kneel-down finish ended in three-and-out fashion. The other stalled when Nebraska failed to capitalize on Buschini's 30-yard, fake-punt connection with Jaylen Lloyd .

The sluggish second half extended a trend for the offense. Against Colorado , Purdue and Rutgers, it's played efficiently for one half and scored zero in the other 30 minutes.

Nebraska is sure to focus this week on maintaining its focus for four quarters.

"It's huge to have this bye week and reflect on the games we've played so far," Raiola said, "understand what teams are trying to do and (how they) get after us. I think the team will respond."

Two more positives to take from Rutgers involve Rhule and his staff.

First, Tony White worked over Rutgers offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca. The Scarlet Knights gouged Nebraska on the ground for 70 yards in the first quarter. Running back Kyle Monangai asserted control. That is, until White, the second-year Nebraska defensive coordinator, began to rotate three personnel groupings.

-emergence of Javin Wright and Ceyair Wright is boosting Nebraska's defense

The Huskers got big up front. Riley Van Poppel , slated to redshirt, entered to lend a hand. Nebraska played two jack linebackers at once, showing a five-man front.

"Tony's a 3-3-5 guy," Rhule said. "I was really proud of him. That was like him leaving the family almost. But he did what he needed to do."

Rutgers deserted its ground game. Monangai added only 14 yards to his first-quarter total. Rutgers finished as a team with 78 rushing yards. Kaliakmanis threw 37 passes. The Huskers intercepted him twice.

And maybe the most important coaching move came before kickoff. Credit Susan Elza, Rhule's chief of staff, with an assist for delivering word of the forecasted wind change after warm-ups, when it was gusting out of the south at 30 mph.

Nebraska won the pregame coin toss and took the ball — because Rhule deemed it more important to benefit from the wind in the fourth quarter than to start the second half with possession.

It was a great decision. The south breeze shifted to the west and then to the north. Buschini's 69-yard punt, wind at his back on a 90-degree late afternoon, pinned Rutgers at the 11 to start its last drive with 2:17 to play.

The Huskers will need more of the same kind of chess moves from Rhule and White against its finishing gantlet. When Nebraska's execution in the fourth quarter connects with its vision and strategy for the second half of this season, then it's got something.

"We want to be a fourth-quarter team," safety Isaac Gifford said. "I don't really care how we win, as long as we are up at the end of the fourth quarter. It comes down to trusting each other."

(Top photo: Dylan Widger / Imagn Images)