NU Hopes Offseason, Bye Week Iowa Prep Helps in Annual Rivalry

In a little more than 48 hours, Nebraska will be back on the football field taking on a Big Ten foe.

What makes that statement even more impactful is the fact that Nebraska walked off the field and returned home after a blowout loss to Penn State a little more than 72 hours ago. If you take out the 32 hours of sleep, you can only hope the team got over this stretch; that leaves them with all of 40 awake hours to be students, football players, and to maybe have a few meals squeezed in.

We’re a bit past the midpoint of a short week for the Nebraska football team, which takes on Iowa bright and early Friday at 11 a.m. Fans likely will have their “Kegs & Eggs” hoodies out in full force.

Penn State saw little resistance in its 37-10 beatdown of Nebraska this past weekend. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

However, because it’s a short turnaround from the butt kicking the team got in Pennsylvania Saturday, Nebraska coach Matt Rhule admitted this week’s rivalry game with Iowa is something have in focus all year long.

“We prepare for them in the offseason,” Rhule said during his weekly press conference on Monday. “We think about it in the offseason. We talk about it in the offseason, we do it in the bye week. It has to come to fruition on Friday, but it’s our players this Friday – they have to do it. I told them, ‘You’re going to have to go out and have to play well.’ It’s on them, and that’s how they should want it.”

Nothing this past Saturday against Rhule’s alma mater was how the players should want it. The game went about the way Husker fans would have feared, but also predicted. Penn State ran the ball early and often, outpacing Nebraska by 100 yards on the ground in the game.

The Huskers had a hard time keeping Penn State out of the offensive backfield as they ended up with five tackles for loss. — The Huskers had a hard time keeping Penn State out of the offensive backfield as they ended up with five tackles for loss, including three sacks. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

The passing totals were nearly identical in the game, but where Penn State won the game was on defense. The Nittany Lions were in Nebraska’s offensive backfield about as much as Nebraska was. PSU recorded five tackles for loss, including three sacks in the 37-10 rout.

On Monday, Rhule was asked if he was getting ready to face another team like Penn State on Friday when Iowa comes to town, and his answer was quite candid.

“They’re very different,” Rhule said of the Hawkeyes. “They’ve added a quarterback run element. He’s accounted for like 20 other touchdowns. He’s done a very nice job. They’ve got four losses by a total of 15 points. I mean, they’ve played some elite level teams. They’re a great team. They get to it in different ways.”

Iowa quarterback Mark Gronowski will serve as yet another mobile quarterback threat for the Husker defense on Friday. | Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

Nebraska hasn’t exactly looked great against a quarterback who can run this season, so NU defensive coordinator John Butler will have his hands full on Black Friday. To get ready, he and the rest of the coaches have tightened up the operations this week when it comes to practices.

“We just move everything up a day,” Rhule said. “Thanksgiving – that’ll be a traditional Friday for us, which is a walkthrough and meetings in the morning. We’ll cut them loose for a little bit and then bring ‘em back to the hotel and do our normal hotel on Thursday night.”

Thanksgiving night at the hotel might be one where a lot of transfers get caught up to speed on how the Nebraska-Iowa rivalry has unfolded over the past decade. As of late, Iowa’s had Nebraska’s number in some very tightly-contested games…and some not-so-tightly-contested games.

Iowa Hawkeyes place kicker Drew Stevens celebrates after kicking the game-winning field goal against Nebraska in a 13-10 win in 2024. | Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Nebraska is 1-9 against Iowa in the last 10 contests, with the lone win coming in a 24-17 Husker win in 2022. The past two seasons have been heartbreakers for the Matt Rhule-led Huskers – both ending in 13-10 losses on game-winning Iowa field goals.

Now, it’s year three for Rhule against the Hawkeyes, and you can bet he’s still very aware of the way his team has gone out against Iowa the past two seasons.

Year	Result
2024	13-10 Iowa
2023	13-10 Iowa
2022	24-17 Nebraska
2021	28-21 Iowa
2020	26-20 Iowa
2019	27-24 Iowa
2018	31-28 Iowa
2017	56-14 Iowa
2016	40-10 Iowa
2015	28-20 Iowa

“Two years in a row, I’ve watched them kick a field goal to win it and walk off the field and watch them celebrate,” Rhule said. “I think one of their superpowers is that they’re so comfortable in the close games, and I think historically our team has been uncomfortable in close games.”

The Huskers have somewhat righted that ship here in 2025, but the verdict is still out on if they can do it against their border rival. Rhule said this year’s team may have some key players getting their first crack at Iowa after transferring to NU, but they’re getting brought up to speed quickly.

“I think a lot of that happens peer-to-peer, player-to-player,” Rhule said of the players discussing the rivalry amongst themselves. “I think they understand just how much this game means to us. Obviously, we have three new coordinators, but it’s our one year doing it, and Coach Ekeler coached against them in the bowl game, I think three years ago when he was at Tennessee.”

Iowa walked away with the Heroes Trophy the last time they played Nebraska in Lincoln. | Reese Strickland-Imagn Images

While familiarity with Iowa seems to be in place, the timeline is still sped up for both teams this week. Press conferences are happening faster, the practice schedule is getting condensed, and the game just so happens to be a morning kick.

Everything is working against the teams as they rush to prepare for the Black Friday clash, but it’s also a race to the finish line that Nebraska’s prepared for all season long.

“We’re practicing a bit differently,” Rhule said. “We just had to accelerate our process a little bit this week. We had the bye two weeks ago, and we spent a couple days on Iowa as coaches got ahead.”

In today’s Big Ten Conference, it’s rare to see a team consistently, but with Iowa being Nebraska’s protected conference game year in and year out, Rhule said he gets to dive into his prep for the Hawkeyes in an entirely different way.

Nebraska coach Matt Rhule says there are advantages to getting to play Iowa annually, and he hopes that pays off come Friday. | Reese Strickland-Imagn Images

“In the old Big Ten West days, you could kind of do that a little bit more,” Rhule said of being able to prep well in advance. “Now it’s like who (do) we play, and who’s the coach? This is the one constant, so now it’s our third year doing it now.”

Nebraska will be entering Friday’s showdown looking to achieve a variety of things. A win over Iowa would get the bad taste of the Penn State game out of their mouths, but it would also make Nebraska 8-4, which would mark the first time that’s happened since 2016 when the Huskers finished the regular season 9-3.

To do so, Rhule said he knows his team will have to fight to be there at the end…again. As previously mentioned, Iowa has had the ball last in both games, resulting in back-to-back 13-10 Hawkeye wins over the past two seasons.

“They’re designed to win the fourth quarter,” Rhule said. “They’re going to run the football. They’re going to milk the clock. They’re going to pump the ball in the fourth and one. They’re going to do all of these things because they want to win the war of attrition and beat you in the fourth quarter.”

Nebraska coach Matt Rhule said Iowa is "designed to win in the 4th quarter." We'll see if that holds Friday in Lincoln. | Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

We’ll see if the Huskers can make it to the fourth quarter first. Kickoff between the Huskers and Hawkeyes is set for 11 a.m. CST Friday, and the game will be televised nationally on CBS.

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