Nebraska Loses Battle of Quarterbacks and Rivalry Game vs. Iowa

On paper, the Nebraska-Iowa quarterback matchup looked dramatically one-sided.

On the field, it was even worse.

Iowa’s Mark Gronowski has 57 career wins, the most in NCAA history over all divisions. Nebraska’s quarterback counterpart, TJ Lateef, was making his third career start and, worse, was injured early in the game.

Friday’s outcome was undeniable. Nebraska stayed with rival Iowa through the first half — going into the locker room down by eight points — but the Hawkeyes ran away in the second half to win, 40-16, their 10th win over the Huskers in 11 games. It was Iowa’s seventh consecutive victory in Memorial Stadium.

Nebraska gained 231 yards in the first half and gained just 69 yards in the second half, in which the Huskers were held scoreless.

“He’s not one of the most athletic that we’ve played, but he can run and he makes the plays,” Nebraska defensive lineman Riley Van Poppel said about Gronowski in a news conference after the game.

“He can extend a play with his feet. He does well with that.”

Lateef not a factor

Huskers coach Matt Rhule said Lateef suffered a pulled hamstring in the first quarter. Rhule said there were discussions about keeping Lateef out of the game after the quarterback went into the medical tent.

“We talked about it a lot,” Rhule said in a news conference after the game.

“That limited a lot of things that we wanted to do … Dana [Holgorsen, offensive coordinator] was like, hey, I’m not going to be able to move him around.

“One of our big thoughts about this game in the dropback game, he’d scramble around, sort of the way that they play [defense]. We had to abandon that early.

“I’ve been proud of him and all that’s he’s done. It’s a great learning experience for a young quarterback to have to go out there and play when you’re not 100 percent against a really good defense.”

Huskers running back Emmett Johnson was magnificent — 217 yards on 29 carries and one touchdown — but Nebraska needed its quarterback to make plays, too.

Lateef completed 9-of-24 passes for 69 yards. He ran twice for two yards.

Lateef’s pulled hamstring notwithstanding, maybe expectations were too steep. Because of a season-ending injury to starter Dylan Raiola, Lateef was put into a difficult situation, especially against a sure-tackling, physical Iowa defense.

And this wasn’t Akron the Huskers were facing. Iowa is a fierce rival that showed up in Lincoln meaning business. The Hawkeyes’ defense controlled Nebraska’s offense except for Johnson.

Midway through the second half, Memorial Stadium was half-empty — or, half-full, if you’re so inclined — as the Huskers tumbled to a 7-5 regular-season record, a one-game improvement from their 2024 regular-season record.

Red-zone issues for Huskers

Lateef and the Huskers’ offense scored one touchdown. They kicked three field goals on three red-zone possessions in the first half. That simply wasn’t good enough against an Iowa team that allowed an average of 14.5 points per game.

“They were able to score touchdowns whereas we scored field goals,” Rhule said. “That certainly was the issue.

“If we’re being honest that’s been sort of the issue most of the year. Not winning the red-zone touchdown battle. If we hold them to a couple of field goals there [instead of touchdowns], the game is different.

“Even at the end, it’s 40-to-whatever. We’re going down trying to make it 40-24 and we fumble in the red zone.”

Gronowski excellent

Gronowski had his hand in everything — or so it seemed. And the Huskers’ defense couldn’t come up with the goods to stop him, and barely slowed him down.

Gronowski, who transferred to Iowa after four seasons at South Dakota State, completed 9-of-16 passes for 166 yards and one touchdown against Nebraska. He gained 64 yards on 13 carries and scored two touchdowns on the ground.

Iowa quarterback Mark Gronowski (11) scrambles against Nebraska linebacker Marques Watson-Trent during the third quarter. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

Iowa was 7-of-12 on third-down plays. Nebraska was 5-of-15.

“It’s just about consistency, and I feel like we really found that today,” Gronowski said in a news conference after the game. “When the defense was letting up some big plays at the beginning of the game, we were able to respond there offensively and be the reason to be in the game at that point.

“After that first quarter, we really took it away and the defense locked in a little bit, we were able to run with it. We had a great pass game when we needed it, Kamari [Moulton] was really running it well, the line was doing a great job up front, and I feel like we were consistent throughout the entire game.

“When we’re a consistent team, we’re a really tough team to beat.”

And Nebraska knows it. And the Huskers have to wait another year to turn around this rivalry.

“This is a team that had a really good plan and they just made plays and we just didn’t quite make the plays,” Rhule said.

“I feel like we defended the traditional run way better at times today ... and then their quarterback made some plays that really hurt us. When we have a third down they run a Q draw, score, we have them in the red zone, score.

“Those things can’t happen.”

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