The Huskers are going into game five of the 2025 season and fans are still asking themselves who or what this team is. So far this season we’ve gotten as many questions as we have answers. Let’s start with, is this a must-win game for the Huskers?
I said the opening game against Cincinnati was a must-win and of course, both Akron and Houston Christian were must-wins as a loss to either of those teams would have been a season killer. Michigan wasn’t a must win, but it would have gone a long way with Husker fans who are trying to determine if Matt Rhule’s year three myth is real or not.
I’ll go ahead and say it, if you are Matt Rhule in your year three at Nebraska, this is a must-win game. A second Big Ten loss with a trip to Happy Valley still on the schedule firmly places you in the mid-tier group of six within the Big Ten. If there is one good thing about an 18-team conference, it’s that it’s easy to divide into three. There’s a top six: Oregon, Ohio State, Penn State, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois. A mid-tier six: Nebraska, USC, Washington, Iowa, Minnesota, and Maryland. And the bottom six: Michigan State, Rutgers, Purdue, Wisconsin, Northwestern, and UCLA. You can mix those teams up however you want, but as of right now that’s how I would rank them. Regardless of how you spin it, Nebraska needs to be in the top six if this program wants to stay on the right trajectory.
The next question is, should it take a bye week and game five of the season before being able to determine who your number two running back is and who will be starting in the tackle spots?
Theres also still the question of playing a four-man defensive front or sticking with the 3-3-5. And if switching fronts, who are the best fits at the linebacker spots and the safety positions.
OC Dana Holgorsen indicated this week in his press conference that there would be something we haven’t seen before at running back. Is that something as simple as Isaiah Mozee getting true running back carries, or is it someone like Jamarion Parker, who we haven’t seen all season being in the lineup? Perhaps it’s something like Jacory Barney lining up at running back. Holgorsen has confidence in Barney, and he seems to be one of his favorites. It could be something even further outside the box, say Carter Nelson or a Jerimiah Jones lining up at running back. Both guys are big athletic players who have experience carrying the ball from their high school days. Nelson is 6’5” 240lbs and Jones is 6’4” 225lbs, tell me that isn’t intriguing. I’m guessing it isn’t Nelson or Jones, but Holgorsen made it easy to imagine it being something crazy.
As for the offensive tackles, one would have to think the objective would be to get your two best guys on the field. Right now, I would say that’s Elijiah Pritchett and Gunner Gottula. Both can play either side, so wherever they play, left or right, I think that is who you’ll see Saturday.
On defense it’ll be interesting to see how DC John Butler defends the running game and still maintains the secondary play we’ve been seeing. My feeling is Butler is partial to a four-man front, and with the Blackshirts struggles against the run it makes sense. The question now is will Butler run a 4-2 or a 4-3? My thought is we’ll see both, and down and distance will play a role of when we see it.
When running a four-man front look for two big bodies like Riley Van Poppel and Gabe Moore to play inside while Desean McCullough and Williams Nwaneri play defensive ends. If using three linebackers, it would make sense to use Vincent Shavers, Dawson Merritt, and Javin Wright. That leaves four in the secondary, Ceyair Wright and Andrew Marshall will play the corners while DeShon Singleton and Marques Buford fill the safety spots.
However, MSU is a better passing team than a running team, so I think Butler will want to keep five guys in the secondary most of the time. When running the 4-2, the front will stay the same, and Wright will drop out at linebacker. Shaver’s is better in run support and Merritt has the wheels to go from sideline to sideline. On the back end Ceyair Wright, Marshall and Buford will stay in, and Caleb Benning or Rex Guthrie will come in to play the second safety spot while Singleton sets up at Rover.
The defense has rotated several players throughout the first four games and that will continue. You’ll see Elijah Jeudy, Cam Lenhardt, Keona Davis, Kade Pietrzak, Willis McGahee, Marques Watson-Trent, Donavan Jones, and Caleb Benning getti9ng their share of playing time.
Michigan State at Nebraska will be a strength versus strength game. Michigan State’s biggest asset is their quarterback and wide receivers. Aiden Childs is a dual threat QB who can give you problems with his legs, but when his passing game is on, he is as dangerous as any QB in the Big Ten. Childs has thrown for 868 yards, 9 TDs and 1 INT, while rushing 39 times for 154 yards and 2 TDs. He’s has been sacked 10 times, so the fact he has 154 rushing yards tells you something. Childs also has two of the better receivers in the conference in WR’s Omari Kelly who has 21 receptions for 317 yards and 1 TD and Nick Marsh who has 18 receptions for 222 yards and 3 TDs. Overall, the Spartans receivers average 12.4 yards per reception.
The Blackshirts are number one in the country in pass defense and are the only power four team who are allowing less than 100 yards receiving per game. Take those numbers with a grain of salt, it’s hard to get too excited about those stats when teams like can put up 280 yards rushing on you in a game. Why pass if you don’t have to.
As we’ve seen already the best part of Nebraska’s game is their passing game, and they match up well against MSU. In the Big Ten the Spartans are 17th in total defense, 18th in passing yards allowed per game, 12th in rushing yards allowed per game and 17th in scoring defense. Their weaknesses, no pass rush and a secondary that struggles to cover. To put their pass rush in perspective, they have a total of 6 sacks and 46 QB pressures on the season. Michigan alone had 7 sacks and 36 pressures against the Huskers.
Offensively in the Big Ten, Nebraska is 4th in points per game, 11th in rushing yards per game, 2nd in passing yards per game, and 5th in total yards per game. As you can see, Nebraska needs to improve in running the ball and stopping the run.
We’ll see if Rhule and his staff got things figured out during the bye week. I don’t know that we’ll see significant improvement, but I do think we will see a better version of the Blackshirts. As of now Nebraska is a ten to elven point favorite at home, I’m not sure they cover, but they do get the win.
Stats gathered from ESPN – Serving Sports Fans. Anytime. Anywhere.
Stay on top of Husker football at CarrikerChronicles.com
Also be sure to catch the Adam Carriker Show on 93.7 The Ticket