Scout Team Tuesday, End Zone Twice on Saturday: Nebraska 31, Michigan State 13

Nebraska had not won a Big Ten opener since 2019, was 2-6 in them on the road, and had lost its last two trips to Spartan Stadium by three points each. The question this game answered was whether an unbeaten non-conference record meant anything once the league started.

It did. Nebraska took the opener 31-13 and is 4-0, 1-0 in the Big Ten for the first time since that 42-38 win at Illinois seven years ago.

The story is Vincent Genatone. The North Platte kid came in with three carries for five yards on the season and no touchdowns at all. Then he caught a 13-yard touchdown from Anthony Colandrea with two seconds left in the first half, and punched in a 1-yard score in the fourth to finish it.

“I was on scout team all week this week,” Genatone said. “I’ve just been praying a long time for this.”

He would not take it for himself. “It’s 11 guys, it takes 11 guys,” he said. “I didn’t do much.”

Head coach Matt Rhule gave him the game ball, and made a point of saying it was not sentimental. “He doesn’t ask me for a chance,” Rhule said. “When he gets a chance, he takes advantage of it.”

Ask Mekhi Nelson, who scored on a 4-yard run in the second quarter, what Genatone’s night meant. “I was probably more excited for his touchdowns than I ever was for any of my touchdowns,” Nelson said. “That’s my brother, and it felt like I scored.”

Colandrea found the one throw that mattered

Colandrea went 15 of 27 for 212 yards and two scores, and led the team in rushing on top of it with 66. The throw of the night went to Kwazi Gilmer for 44 yards and the game’s first touchdown, on a night Gilmer finished with 101 receiving yards on four catches.

“That was a hell of a grab by Kwazi,” Colandrea said.

Nebraska did all of this without Jamal Rule, who tried to warm up and go back in before he was ruled out, and without Jacory Barney Jr.. Next men up, all night, which is roughly what Rhule said would decide this one when he talked about knowing who his boss is during Michigan State week.

Make the quarterback see ghosts

The Blackshirts got home six times for 52 yards, took the ball away three times, and Nebraska did not turn it over once. Michigan State needed two quarterbacks to get through it, and both of them got sacked. Plus three in the turnover margin, on the road, against a Pat Fitzgerald team in his first year at Michigan State.

Andrew Marshall and Owen Chambliss each picked off a pass. Donovan Jones did the whole thing by himself on one play: the sack, the forced fumble and the recovery.

Williams Nwaneri was the worst of it: two sacks, 25 yards lost, a blocked kick. He explained the plan in about a dozen words. “Our D.C. said something like make the quarterback see ghosts,” he said.

Michigan State never got going on the ground. Jaziun Patterson carried 16 times for 54 yards, his longest run went nine, and the Spartans finished with 39 net rushing yards on 32 carries. Alessio Milivojevic completed 18 of 26 through the air for 208, which sounds fine until you count the five times he was sacked. One touchdown, all afternoon.

Jahsear Whittington, who had a sack and a forced fumble of his own, put a finer point on it. “We got a motto,” he said. “We don’t want any quarterback finishing in the game with us.”

Whittington, playing his first game in this conference, had one more thing on his mind. “Everybody said I was too small to be here, and I’m out there having a ball with my teammates,” he said. “We’re winning football games. We’re violent, and we’re causing havoc.”

The third quarter was the ugly stretch, and the defense refused to let it matter. Nebraska scored nothing. Michigan State got three points.

“I never felt our guys panic,” Rhule said. “They just kept attacking.”

The Spartans took the 2021 conference opener in this building in overtime. This one was over early.

Maryland is next, at home, and Rhule was on to it before the plane left. Husker Nation, Michigan State was the team Nebraska was supposed to beat once it stopped losing these. Saturday tells us whether 4-0 is a start or a ceiling.