The Rain Never Came, and Neither Did the Scare: Nebraska 34, North Dakota 7

Husker fans, the storms stayed away, and so did the drama.

Nebraska beat North Dakota 34-7 on Saturday night in front of 86,217 at Memorial Stadium, finishing non-conference play 3-0 for the third straight season. It was 75 degrees and cloudy at kickoff, with an eight-mile-an-hour north wind. Not a drop.

Jamal Rule keeps doing this

The freshman running back carried 15 times for 119 yards and two touchdowns, the second of them a 55-yard run on the first snap of Nebraska’s opening drive of the second half. An 11-second touchdown turned a two-score game into a rout. He added two catches for 35 yards, which put him at 154 all-purpose yards.

That’s his second 100-yard game of the season, after 122 against Ohio. Per the postgame notes, no Nebraska freshman running back had done that since David Horne in 2002.

Anthony Colandrea was efficient: 15 of 21 for 195 yards, a 5-yard touchdown pass to Quinn Clark in the fourth quarter, and a 10-yard touchdown run that opened the scoring. Mekhi Nelson added 54 yards on nine carries, 44 of them on the opening drive.

Nebraska ran for 277 yards at 6.2 a carry and threw for 216. That is the third straight game over 200 in both, and the first such run since 2016.

The Blackshirts didn’t let it get interesting

This is the part that mattered, because it’s the part the coaching staff spent all week warning about.

North Dakota ran the ball 36 times for 99 yards, 2.8 a carry. It converted one third down in 13 tries. It finished with 205 total yards. And Jerry Kaminski, who threw for 801 yards and 11 touchdowns in the first three weeks, was sacked five times for 48 yards, Nebraska’s most since Purdue in 2024.

Riley Van Poppel had one for a loss of 10. Donovan Jones, Jahsear Whittington and Dawson Merritt each had one, with Owen Chambliss and Owen Stoudmire splitting the fifth. Williams Nwaneri didn’t record a tackle and still hurried Kaminski three times.

The Fighting Hawks’ only points came on a 12-play, 62-yard drive in the third quarter, when they were already down 24.

The little things

Nebraska was 4-for-4 in the red zone and held the ball for 35:45. Kyle Cunanan missed from 54 in the second quarter, then made a 32 and a 40. Tight end Luke Lindenmeyer had a career-long 33-yard catch to set up a touchdown. And Jacory Barney Jr. caught two more passes to reach 115 for his career, tying Quincy Enunwa for ninth on Nebraska’s all-time list. That is 29 games, with a catch in every one of them.

About that pick

I had it 45-13. The rain is why I landed on that number. The rain never showed up. What did hold was everything underneath it: the bigger line, the ground game, a North Dakota front with no answer for it. Nebraska also left points out there, a missed 54-yarder in the second quarter and a fourth-quarter drive that stalled at the North Dakota 43. Right about the game, wrong about the number.

Up next

Nebraska opens Big Ten play Saturday at Michigan State, and the record now says 3-0 with a 17-0 all-time mark against FCS opponents and 11 straight non-conference wins.

Husker Nation, the part of the schedule that answers questions starts now.