'This Team Needs to be Challenged': After Win, Matt Rhule Talks Importance of Responding to Ohio

The Huskers got punched in the mouth to start the 2026 season, but Rhule was impressed with how they answered.

Jamal Rule runs against Ohio Bobcats defensive back Barry Dillon. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Nebraska football is 1-0 on the year after a 49-21 win over the Ohio Bobcats in Week 1.

However, head coach Matt Rhule knows his program has plenty of flaws to address. Still, he and the rest of the Husker staff are “happy with the win,” and, frankly, Nebraska fans should be too.

“Obviously, we’re happy with the win,” Rhule told reporters during his postgame press conference Saturday. “But there are a lot of things we have to clean up. It was not good enough from start to finish. I think we gave up 170 yards on our first three drives, then gave up 130 for the rest of the game. So, we have to be a little bit more dialed in. It’s game one, but we’re not going to make those excuses. It’s just, at the end of the day, you can’t give up a 75-yard play on the first play.”

“We knew this would be a war of attrition,” Rhule continued. “What we didn’t need is not to be challenged. This team needs to be challenged; they need to learn how to handle challenges. That was a challenge, they (Ohio) were a challenge, the heat was a challenge.”

Rhule knows the Huskers weren't going to look perfect in their first game of the 2026 season. However, he was proud of the way his team bounced back in the second half, saying NU was able to assert its will.

Jamal Rule runs for a touchdown against the Ohio Bobcats. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

A large part of that was the Big Red's success on the ground. Nebraska rushed for 248 yards on 42 carries and scored four rushing touchdowns. While the Huskers averaged north of 5.9 yards per attempt, true freshman ball carrier Jamal Rule was the star of the show.

Rule totaled 169 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns on 17 offensive touches. It was the first time a true freshman at Nebraska had rushed for more than 100 yards since Adrian Martinez did so in 2018 and the first time by a true freshman running back since 2004. However, Rhule didn't seem surprised by the necomer's success.

“He was going to be the short-yardage, goal-line back,” the head coach said. “And I said something to Dana, I was like, ‘I bet you his first play will be on short yardage for a touchdown’ and it was.”

“It’s the first game,” he continued. “It’s not the Big Ten, but I like the backs. It’s a good start for them, and now we’ll just have to build off it with them and keep chipping away, but Jamal had a great start for a freshman.”

Anthony Colandrea eludes Ohio linebacker Jack Fries en route to a touchdown. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

New-look starting quarterback Anthony Colandrea impressed in his debut as well. The reigning MWFC Offensive Player of the Year from UNLV totaled 298 all-purpose yards and four touchdowns in his first game with the Big Red.

Colandrea did not turn the ball over Saturday, something Rhule took note of.

“He looked composed; he made the right checks,” Rhule said. “He’s just gonna play. I’m not a run the score up type of guy, but we need to execute in the red zone. That was our Achilles heel last year.”

“He needs as many plays in our system as possible,” he continued. “But I love the way he handles things, the way he competes, the way he takes off. We ran a couple of quarterback draws… I think we’ve just started to scratch the surface of what we think Anthony can do.”

Defensive end Cameron Lenhardt warms up before the game. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

As a whole, Nebraska surrendered 139 rushing yards Saturday, but only 55 came from Ohio's running backs. While Rhule knows the importance of finding a way to stop the quarterback run, he was impressed with how NU's defensive line slowed the Bobcats' ground attack.

“We knew the way this team would play,” Rhule said. “It's a zone-read, RPO game. I'm anxious to watch the tape. I would've liked to have seen more pressure... We're going to need a lot more than we got today. At every position, we're all going to have to be a lot better. But anytime we go out there and they're not running outside zone for 150 yards, like has happened, it's at least a good start.”

On offense, Nebraska put up 35 points in final two quarters after a sluggish first half. Rhule said no coaching magic was involved in the turnaround.

“Honestly, guys, there was really no adjustment,” he said. “We ran the same plays, did the same things. We just stopped shooting ourselves in the foot. That was the adjustment… It was really just, ‘Hey, take what’s there’. If they play two high, let’s run the football, check the ball down. If they blitz us, let’s burn the blitz.”

The Huskers didn't need to make things more complicated than necessary. Instead, they simply stopped stalling drives with penalties and other miscues, and that made all the difference.

Nick Poulos (8) waits for the snap against the Nebraska Cornhuskers during the first quarter at Memorial Stadium. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Still, the contest unfolded in a way that required NU to find a way to respond, and that started with the first play from scrimmage — a 68-yard Ohio pass play.

“I’ll probably get fried for saying this,” Rhule said with a shrug. “I truly believed we needed some of those things to happen. I didn’t need this to be 70 to whatever, like a glorified scrimmage. I needed to play a good team… I wanted a battle. I wanted to play a good team that I respect.”

Husker likely left the stadium with respect for the Bobcats, who had NU on the ropes heading into halftime. However, Nebraska dug itself out of the hole and won convincingly despite playing a team its head coach deemed worthy of the challenge.

Now, it's on to Bowling Green, a team that lost by a touchdown on Saturday to Tarleton State of the FCS. Next week's game will provide the Huskers with another chance to improve before the schedule turns tougher in late September with the start of Big Ten Conference play.

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