Preview
I Know Who My Boss Is: Nebraska Takes Its Identity to East Lansing
Husker fans, Nebraska is 3-0 and nobody in the building is acting like it.
Saturday is the first game that asks a real question. Michigan State is 2-1, coming off a 27-10 loss at No. 3 Notre Dame, and it is built precisely to find out whether the things Nebraska says about itself are true.
The quote of the week, and the argument under it
Dana Holgorsen spent his career throwing it. He got asked Tuesday about Nebraska’s balance and answered like a man who has read the comments.
“And everybody wants me to open it up and throw it all the time, but then there’s the other half there saying run the damn ball, so to speak. And I know who I work for, and Matt Rhule’s an old school downhill run-based coach, and that’s Big Ten style.”
That is the whole season in one answer. Nebraska has thrown for 200 and rushed for 200 in all three games, the first Husker team to open that way since 2016, and it is about to meet a team that would happily play the game in a phone booth.
Janiran Bonner put the players’ version more simply.
“If we want to run the ball, we’re going to run it. We going to do what we want to do.”
Last year against Michigan State wasn’t a pleasant day
Holgorsen has faced Michigan State’s defensive coordinator, Joe Rossi, exactly once.
“That was last year. And so as my interaction with him, it wasn’t a pleasant day for us. I don’t know what we ended up scoring. It was quite a bit, but we had good field position the whole day. We started the game good, but then we were in a rut for three quarters or whatever it was.”
Here’s the part that makes this week more than a rematch. Matt Rhule rebuilt his defense partly because of games like that one.
“I think you go back to last year and look at some of the games we struggled in, like Minnesota, and that’s the Joe Rossi blueprint. Michigan State we struggled in. And so I’m not saying that was the only reason, but as I watched it, I was like, man, I love the way Iowa plays defense.”
So Nebraska hired a coordinator to answer a problem, and the problem is standing in the other coaching box on Saturday.
Michigan State’s edges, and Nebraska’s right side
Rhule was blunt about what Michigan State brings off the edge.
“I think their edge rush and their edge players are as good as we’ll see all year.”
Eli Coenen, No. 96, leads the Spartans with three sacks. Nebraska’s answer on that side is Gunnar Gottula at right tackle with Tree Babalade rotating, both on the roster at 315 pounds or better, and Holgorsen is not pretending everything there is settled.
“Michigan State’s got some guys that can come off the edge, right? And so they need to be fresh. They get wore down and that’s not good for us.”
He also said the quiet part out loud about Babalade: “Tree needs to practice better. He’ll play better and he’ll play more.” Same session, he said Luke Lindenmeyer did not bring “the thump that he has.” Rhule, a day earlier, called Lindenmeyer maybe the best tight end in the country. Both of those can be true, and the gap between them is the tension inside this offense.
Gottula’s own plan sounds like a man who has watched the film.
“It’s always a tough physical team. They’re not going to beat themselves. So it’s just going to come down to us versus them, just being technically sound and being physical.”
The special teams problem has a name
Michigan State’s assistant head coach and special teams coordinator is LeVar Woods, in from Iowa. Rhule interviewed him once, in the NFL.
“LeVar’s a great coach. I thought he was one of the best that there is in college.”
Then the admission.
“We’ve had too many penalties on the special teams. Some I thought were a good call. Some I didn’t think they were, but it doesn’t really matter what you think. They’re going to call what they call.”
And the twist. Michigan State’s kick returner is Kenneth Williams, No. 32, whose last school the Spartans list as Lincoln. He returned a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown for Nebraska against Northwestern last October.
“We’re always rooting for Kenneth. He’s from Detroit and Lincoln, so he’s had some great returns for them, so always rooting for him.”
Nebraska knows exactly how fast he is. That is not usually a comfort.
Worth remembering: the last time these teams met, special teams decided things the other way. Per the game notes, Nebraska blocked a punt against Michigan State on Oct. 4, 2025, and Carter Nelson returned it for a touchdown. Jamir Conn says he was the one who got a hand on it, and that they had practiced the rugby punt block all week.
Nobody gets to say “execution”
The most revealing exchange of the week didn’t involve Michigan State at all. Rhule, asked about physicality, refused the coach’s standard escape hatch.
“I feel like times we haven’t executed in the right moments. And I can’t stand when coaches say we just didn’t execute. To me, that’s our job as coaches.”
Five days earlier, after North Dakota, Anthony Colandrea had said Nebraska “honestly didn’t execute at a high level tonight.” He is the same quarterback Holgorsen has been building the offense around.
So the quarterback reached for the word and the head coach took it off the table.
Rhule also said Michigan State has half as many penalties through three games as Nebraska does, which is his count rather than one I’ve checked, and that Fitzgerald’s team will not beat itself. Rob Aurich says his defense hasn’t hit its takeaway goal yet. Conn says taking the ball away is the thing this defense still has to prove.
Put all of it together and you get the line Rhule keeps repeating, the one that sounds like a warning and a standard at the same time.
“It’s never good enough. I’m never good enough. We’re never good enough.”
How to watch Nebraska at Michigan State
Saturday, Sept. 26, 4 p.m. CT (5 p.m. local) at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, on BTN. It’s Nebraska’s Big Ten opener, and the rest of the season is on the 2026 schedule.
The model’s Week 4 board has Nebraska 31-20, five points more than the betting line.
What Saturday actually asks
Not whether Nebraska is good. Three games have answered that as well as three games can.
It asks whether the identity survives contact with a team that runs it, doesn’t foul, doesn’t turn it over, and has a special teams coach who will hunt every mistake. Rhule already told you what it will feel like.
“This won’t be a game where you remain fresh. This will be a battle, a four quarter war.”
Husker Nation, kickoff is 4 p.m. CT Saturday at Spartan Stadium, on BTN. Big Ten play starts with the exact test this team has spent all September saying it wants.