Nebraska 49, Ohio 21: The Hard First Half Was the Whole Point

Big Red Nation, that was not the afternoon anybody drew up — and the head coach will tell you that is exactly why it was worth having.

Nebraska beat Ohio 49-21 on Saturday at Memorial Stadium in front of 85,577 people, on a sunny 91-degree afternoon that had trainers working the sideline all day. It was the first meeting ever between the two schools, and the 100th season-opening win in 137 years of Nebraska football.

Get to the second half and it looks like a rout. Live, for about twenty-five minutes, it was nothing of the kind.

Ohio scored on the first drive and Nebraska could not get out of its own way

The Bobcats went 75 yards in three plays and 71 seconds, and Nebraska spent the rest of the first half tripping over itself. Nine penalties for 65 yards. A touchdown wiped off the board for a block in the back. Two false starts in a row to kill a drive.

Nebraska still led at the break, 14-13, on a 7-play, 92-yard march — the program’s longest scoring drive since a 93-yarder against Illinois in 2022.

Then it stopped being close. Nebraska outscored Ohio 35-8 after halftime and scored the game’s last 21 points.

Ask Matt Rhule what he adjusted and you get the least glamorous answer in coaching.

“There was really no adjustment. Same plays, same things. We just stopped shooting ourselves in the foot.”

The halftime message was not a schematic one either: “Hey guys, if you’re going to have seven penalties, it’s going to be a long day out here.”

Rhule wanted the fight

Here is the part that tells you something about where this program thinks it is. Rhule was not apologizing for the first half. He was grateful for it.

“I truly believe we needed some of those things to happen. I didn’t need this to be 70-to-whatever, like a glorified script. I needed to play a good team… this was great scheduling, to be quite honest.”

His quarterback said the same thing an hour later, without having heard it. Anthony Colandrea — who lost to Ohio in December with his last team — called it “good for us to get punched in the face and have adversity for a second.”

Colandrea went 18-of-32 for 275 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions in his Nebraska debut, added a 13-yard scoring run, and threw the 50th touchdown pass of his career. Asked how he played, he said: “I think it was okay. I got to go watch the tape before I say anything.”

The freshman

Jamal Rule is going to be a problem for people.

His third career carry went for a touchdown. He finished with 15 carries for 122 yards and two scores on the ground, caught two balls for 47 more and another touchdown, and walked off with 169 scrimmage yards and three total touchdowns on 17 touches — in his first college game.

No Nebraska freshman had run for 100 in an opener since Adrian Martinez in 2018. No Nebraska running back of any age had done it since Tierre Green in 2004.

He was not alone. Mekhi Nelson put up 129 all-purpose yards with a 29-yard touchdown run and a 51-yard touchdown catch — a career best, and the longest reception by a Husker back since Emmett Johnson at UCLA last season. Rhule said Nebraska’s last 21 carries went for 204 yards, and that Ohio’s coach found him afterward to say it plainly: you guys just wore us down.

The defense settled

Ohio put up 170 yards on its first three drives and 130 the rest of the day. Rex Guthrie — the corner his coordinator said all week was playing above expectation coming off a shoulder injury — picked off a pass and took it 35 yards. Dexter Foster got his 100th career tackle. Nebraska broke up eight passes, its most since nine against Rutgers in October 2024.

Nebraska finished with 523 yards to Ohio’s 303, went 4-for-4 in the red zone, and did not turn the ball over.

The nine penalties are the thing to fix, and Rhule knows it — “we have officials at practice every day, but it’s just poise, just poise.”

One more note worth keeping. Frank Solich handled the coin flip: six seasons as Nebraska’s head coach, sixteen as Ohio’s, standing at midfield for the first game these two schools ever played.

Husker Nation, you wanted to learn something about this team in week one. You did — just not in the first quarter.