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

Seven years. That is how long Nebraska had gone without winning a Big Ten opener, and the man who ended it had five rushing yards to his name all season.

Husker fans, this is the kind of road night you have been asking for. Nebraska went into East Lansing and took the conference opener 31-13. The Huskers are 4-0, and 1-0 in the Big Ten for the first time since 2019, when they won 42-38 at Illinois. Nebraska had been 2-6 in road conference openers since joining the league.

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. He spent this week running the scout team so the starters had a look to beat. Then he caught a 13-yard touchdown from Anthony Colandrea with the clock running out on the first half, and punched in a 1-yard score in the fourth quarter 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 a sentimental gesture. “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.

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 afternoon of all for Michigan State. Two sacks, 25 yards lost, and 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.

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. That was the whole threat.

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

Nebraska’s last two trips to Spartan Stadium both ended in three-point losses, and the Spartans took the 2021 conference opener in this building in overtime. This one was over early.

Maryland is next, and Rhule was already there before the plane left. Husker Nation, this team is 4-0 and it just won the kind of game it used to lose. Buckle up.