Fleck Looks to Crack Nebraska's 'NFL-Style' Defense Ahead of Friday Clash

When Minnesota takes the field against Nebraska Friday night, Golden Gophers coach P.J. Fleck knows he will have his hands full trying to crack a defense not many teams have this season.

Even with Maryland hanging 31 points on the Blackshirts last weekend, Nebraska still has the top-ranked passing defense in the country, allowing an average of 118 yards through the air per game. The stingy pass defense has helped the Huskers crack the AP Top-25 polls as well, with NU coming in at No. 25 ahead of their game in Minneapolis.

Fleck and his coaching staff have now spent the good part of a week honing in on why Nebraska’s been so successful on defense, and he has been able to decipher some of the more recognizable traits.

The Blackshirts have found success this season thanks to its various blitz packages. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

"They blitz an awful lot," Fleck said. "They do a lot in different fronts. They’re a new front all the time. They can do a lot of things out of different packages. They’re long, they’re big, they’re physical, so this is the 2025 version of Nebraska, which is the only one I’m really concerned about. We’re 0-0 against Nebraska in my mind."

The end of that comment was to the fact that Minnesota has dominated its series with Nebraska lately. The Gophers are 8-2 against the Big Red in their last ten meetings, but this is only Fleck’s second crack at Nebraska coach Matt Rhule and his coaching staff, and his first with John Butler leading the defense.

“I think that you’re seeing more and more college defenses do a lot more NFL systems,” Fleck said after watching tape on Nebraska. “Their coordinator came over from the NFL, very similar to (Matt) Patricia. I’m not saying they’re similar of just their schematics. I’m saying they’re similar in maybe the way the NFL defenses think because they create a lot of issues for you, whether it’s three, four or five-down fronts and mixing it up and blitzing all the time and moving guys around.”

Nebraska defensive coordinator John Butler has had plenty of reasons to smile through the team's 5-1 start. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

While NU has been keeping quarterbacks uncomfortable in the pocket through six games this season, they haven’t done the best job of stopping the run. They may have the No. 1 passing defense, but Nebraska checks in at No. 75 when it comes to stopping the run, and both Maryland and Michigan have been able to exploit that at times.

Because of that, it resulted in a 3-point win and a 3-point loss, respectively. Inherently, the recipe to beat Nebraska is out there, but whether Minnesota can execute that recipe on Friday is yet to be seen.

For the Golden Gophers, if they want to be able to run on Nebraska, they’ll need to start a lot faster than they did against Purdue last weekend. The Boilermakers were able to open up a 10-0 lead on Minnesota before the Gophers finally found a spark on offense, scoring their first points of the game at the 9:46 mark of the second quarter.

Don't be surprised if you see Minnesota hand it off early and often against Nebraska and its top-ranked pass defense Friday night. | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

Against what he expects to be a much more offensively-driven Nebraska team on Friday, Fleck knows his team will need to step it up after the opening kickoff.

“We need to start faster,” Fleck said. “I think that’s just whether it’s offense, defense, special teams – and you look at the two games that we did win, we’re down 14-0 and 10-0. I mean, we’re spotting somebody points before you even get started and get into your rhythms. We’ve got to start faster. It doesn’t mean we’re going to start faster, but you’re emphasizing it, you’re coaching it, you’re teaching it schematically through a coach’s eyes.”

Fleck and his staff also have one less day to prepare for that Husker attack, so they’ve compressed a few things this week to make sure they utilize every second they can to get ready for what Rhule might throw at him Friday.

“Our coaches went right on to Nebraska, and we were able to get six, seven hours (Sunday) on Nebraska and then all day game planning (Monday),” Fleck said. “It just speeds it up, so (Tuesday was) more of a first and second down type practice, maybe a little third down at the very end. Our coaches are grinding on that.”

Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck said his team didn't take time to unpack their win against Purdue last weekend. Instead they moved right into prep for Nebraska. | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

Fleck admitted that when you’re in the Big Ten, you don’t really have time to celebrate the wins because each and every week can come down to the wire. Rhule, for that matter, has echoed those sentiments, and both coaches have seen it in action already this season. Both Minnesota and Nebraska came out as winners of one-score games this past weekend.

Fortunately for Fleck, he’s somewhat used to getting a team ready on a short week. He’s been at Minnesota since 2017, but he also led programs like Western Michigan and worked on the staff of Northern Illinois in his years leading up to his time in Minneapolis. He says when you’re in those Group of 5 conferences, you’re ready to play football on any night of the week.

“This is just the world of college football,” Fleck said. “The one thing I always tell all of you, at least I’m prepared for this. When you come from the MAC, you got MACtion Tuesday nights, Wednesday nights, Thursday nights, four-day weeks, eight-to-nine-day weeks. You’ve seen it all, and I think that we rely a lot on our past data.”

Nebraska's Dylan Raiola will be looking for his second-straight road win as NU preps for a Friday night showdown with Minnesota. | Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

Another data point Fleck has been analyzing this week is the quality of play coming from Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola. The Husker sophomore struggled last weekend at Maryland, but he’s still on pace to potentially lead the Big Ten Conference in passing touchdowns and pass attempts.

Dana Holgorsen hasn’t restricted much when it comes to the second-year quarterback in Lincoln. It will also be Fleck’s first look at him as an opposing coach, and he admitted the film has already shown him how special Raiola has been for Nebraska.

“You look at his completion percentage of where he is now – he’s decisive,” Fleck said. “He’s knowing when to run, knowing when to stay in the pocket – he’s extending plays. He’s using his feet. You know, he is a true passer that can run where maybe at the beginning when you’re a really young player and you can run, sometimes you use your feet and become a runner instead of just a natural thrower. He’s really developed into an elite quarterback in this league, and it’s a credit to them and their staff.”

Nebraska and Minnesota kick off at 7 p.m. CDT on Friday, and the game will be nationally televised on FOX.

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