Nebraska's Black Friday Matchup With Iowa Is The Most Important Game Of Matt Rhule's Nebraska Career

It’s the most important game of Matt Rhule’s career on Friday.

What’s going to happen?

Nebraska football's 2025 regular season comes to a close on Black Friday, as it does every year, with a battle against the Iowa Hawkeyes. This year has been a mixed bag for Rhule’s group.

The excitement of the non-conference season led into the 30-27 loss against a good-but-not-great Michigan squad.

Back-to-back wins in October against Michigan State and Maryland – two games Nebraska trailed in during the fourth quarter, no less – led to a Friday night catastrophe against Minnesota.

Dylan Raiola took nine sacks against Minnesota; a game that's hung over the Nebraska program over the last month. | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

After a bounce-back win against Northwestern, featuring a game-winning drive from Dylan Raiola, the sophomore quarterback was lost for the season in the midst of a 21-17 loss to USC.

And two weeks after TJ Lateef and Emmett Johnson shined in Nebraska’s 28-21 win in the Rose Bowl against UCLA, Nebraska got romped in Happy Valley against a below-average Penn State squad.

One game to go. An entire offseason of narratives awaiting.

Narratives were the name of the game in the lead-up to the 2025 season.

I was not immune.

Not only was I fascinated by Matt Rhule’s breakthrough year three seasons at Temple and Baylor, but I also looked into the past at Nebraska to find clues for what this season could mean for Rhule’s own future at Nebraska.

Matt Rhule's year three was supposed to be a big breakthrough for the program. A loss on Saturday would stifle any potential momentum heading into the offseason. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

Could he do it at Nebraska? And regardless of the answer, could this season give us a glimpse at what was to come?

With one game to go, he hasn’t so much answered the first question in the affirmative. And the latter’s answer might not be what a whole lot of us expected, let alone wanted.

This hasn’t been a jump forward for the program. Nebraska’s certainly an improved program under Matt Rhule, but it’s hard not to be when you’re comparing his first three seasons to the worst five-year run Nebraska football has had since the 1950s.

With 36 games under his belt, Rhule stands at 19-17 in his tenure in charge of the Big Red. Among the 17 losses, 2025 has featured the third and fourth largest margins of defeat Nebraska has suffered. Penn State (27 points) and Minnesota (18 points) only trail the 56-7 shellacking at the hands of Indiana in 2024 and the 45-7 win by Michigan in 2023. Both of those teams made it to the College Football Playoff; the Wolverines won it all.

Minnesota and Penn State are a combined 11-11 on the season.

If this hasn’t been a jump forward, could it be a glimpse at what’s to come? Maybe this is what Nebraska football is now: a slightly above-average program that wins more than it loses, but could put up a stink bomb in any game.

It’s not like the potential issues weren’t there right in front of us coming into the year. A program built on development, in particular on the lines, made the wrong bet; both the offensive and defensive lines were big causes for concern throughout the season. Dylan Raiola was sacked 27 times in seven games against Power Four competition, including nine times in the 24-6 loss at Minnesota. Nebraska’s run defense was easily the worst of the Rhule era to this point, giving up 200 yards or more against Cincinnati, Michigan, USC, and Penn State; they’d go 1-3 in those games. The 22 rushing touchdowns allowed rank 108th in the country.

Dana Holgorsen’s offense has been inconsistent. John Butler’s defenses have responded poorly to getting punched in the mouth. In-game management has again been a struggle.

They’re one game better than they were through 11 games in 2024, two games better than they were in 2023, and four games better than they were in 2022.

Yet, something has seemed off for two months.

And now Iowa’s coming to town.

One game to go.

The Iowa game on Black Friday is the most impactful game ahead of an offseason since the famed 2016 game in Iowa City.

In the aftermath of Iowa’s 30-10 bludgeoning, soon-to-be former Defensive Coordinator Mark Banker quipped about how Iowa’s practices are like a “bloodbath” because of how they played. It hung over the Nebraska program all offseason long; a window into what your rival was doing that you weren’t. In the losses since, it’s hard not to think about it.

Regardless of what happens Friday afternoon, I don’t think you’ll hear anyone inside the program lamenting how hard Iowa practices in comparison. Friday is less about fancy quotes and more about what happens on the field.

If the loss in State College was a missed opportunity for a Culture Win, Friday’s tilt with the Hawkeyes is that times ten.

Nebraska will need to lean on Emmett Johnson against an Iowa defense that ranks in the top 15 in rushing yards allowed. — Nebraska will need to lean on Emmett Johnson against an Iowa defense that ranks in the top 15 in rushing yards allowed per game. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

Nebraska cannot lose this game on Friday.

Period.

Nebraska wasn’t good enough in 2023 and 2024, but those were the first two years of a rebuild. People weren’t happy about it, sure, but there was an understanding to it; a grace afforded. At least this is better than what came before.

How on earth could you say such a thing after a 5-1 start turned into a 7-5 finish? How is this progress when Nebraska’s 16-8 August/September/Octobers have turned into 2-10 Novembers? A loss on Friday means an 18-18 record across three regular seasons. “At least this is better than what came before it,” is gonna be a hard pill to swallow if it means another loss to Iowa. At home, no less.

Can Nebraska put together the roster it needs to in the portal* if it whimpers to the finish line? Can the right moves be made across the coaching staff to fix the issues of the first three seasons?

*Because Lord knows it’s not happening with the 2026 high school recruiting class.

But what if they win?

Is 8-4 all that different from 7-5? Does a win over a 7-4 Iowa team – thus, 7-5 if Nebraska wins – really mean that much?

Yes. Yes of course.

Acknowledging that Nebraska is in a different place in the sport means acknowledging that they’ve never really found themselves in a spot where a win over a hated rival can “salvage” a so-so season.

The games against Oklahoma in the 70s and 80s were for positioning in the Big 8; national championships were often at stake. Ditto for Colorado in the 90s, for both Big 8 and Big 12 (North) supremacy. As the days in the Big 12 came to an end, it was still about winning the North at times. You could certainly ruin one’s day. But beyond the 2005 Restore The Order win by Nebraska in Boulder, there never seemed to be a save-the-season component to any of the games, at least on Nebraska’s side.

It was more of the same when Nebraska joined the Big Ten. The Black Friday game against Iowa seemingly meant more to those of us Nebraskans in the eastern part of the state and those Iowans who lived on the western edge of theirs. Nebraska won in 2011, 2012, and 2014; it wasn’t about salvaging, it was about doing what Nebraska was supposed to do.

When Iowa took over the rivalry in 2015, it coincided with the darkest stretch of Husker football since the 1950s. Rarely did Nebraska even have a chance to “salvage” bad seasons. The 2017, 2018, 2021, and 2022 matchups came with no bowl stakes on the Nebraska side of things. A win might make you feel better, but the season was still a failure.

Keith Duncan blew kisses into the Nebraska crowd following his game-winning field goal in 2019. It's one of the most memorable images in this rivalry over the last decade. | Bryon Houlgrave/The Register, Des Moines Register via Imagn Content Services, LLC

That’s not the case on Friday.

A win and the offseason would feel a lot different around here. The chirping is a little bit louder on this side of the fence. Maybe it’s not Matt Rhule Year Three with big bold letters, but it’s undoubtedly a step forward.

A potential new era of Husker football.

I love this stuff.

I love the stakes of a game like this.

I love the stakes of a rivalry like this.

Memorial Stadium is a different place when the Iowa Hawkeyes are in town. | Josh Peterson

Thousands will make their way into Memorial Stadium Friday morning. Millions more will watch on TV. So many will have a pit in their stomach; the Big Game Feelings in their tum tums, as I’ve come to describe it.

Forget momentum, the vibes of the offseason will be shaped by 60 minutes* of football between two teams separated by 302 miles of I-80.

*Unless overtime is required. In which case, buckle your seatbelts.

Win it so you can shut up former Iowa Hawkeyes like George Kittle.

George Kittle shreds Will Compton on 'SportsCenter with SVP'. pic.twitter.com/5Z2SnIc2Kb
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 25, 2025

Win it so you can shut up current Iowa Hawkeyes like Logan Jones.

Iowa center Logan Jones, who is from Council Bluffs, on the Iowa-Nebraska border, says his scholarship offer from the Cornhuskers came a day after he committed to Iowa.

"They said I was too small to play there... I'm beyond grateful they said that." pic.twitter.com/ZbJ3o1TWoH
— KCRG Sports (@KCRG_Sports) November 25, 2025

It’s Nebraska and Iowa on Black Friday in Lincoln, Nebraska.

What more could you want?

Agree or disagree, if you have a comment for Josh, send him an email: joshpeterson.huskermax@gmail.com

More From Nebraska On SI

Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, subscribing to HuskerMax on YouTube, and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.