Exhibition Season Is Officially Over!

For the second week in a row, Nebraska football treated Memorial Stadium to a glorified scrimmage. The Huskers flattened Houston Christian 56–7, following up the previous week’s laugher over Akron with another rout that felt more like a spring game than a September showdown. Sure, Houston Christian left Lincoln with a healthy payday, but for Nebraska, it was another box checked with minimal stress.

The SMQ crew couldn’t help but pose the obvious question: Why not line up a good FCS team? North Dakota? South Dakota State? At least keep that money in the Midwest and give Husker fans something resembling competition.

The schedule is what it is and the Huskers did what good teams do - they beat the pants off an overmatched opponent while playing nearly everyone on the squad. The win moved the Huskers to 3–0, and while the strength of schedule hasn’t turned any heads yet, the team has avoided the pratfalls that doomed seasons past - I’m looking at you, Mister Onside Kick!

Dylan Raiola once again was impressive, passing Tommie Frazier for ninth place on the Nebraska all-time passing yardage list with 222 yards in one half of work. TJ Lateef got the attention of quarterback-hungry teams with his second consecutive stellar relief appearance. If they’re not backing up the truck loaded with NIL money for TJ…they should.

Emmett Johnson is stepping nicely into the RB1 role, while Kwinten Ives chipped in with 121 total yards of offense and a score.

The question of the week from the SMQ team became “how many times in a row can the same person yell GO BIG RED?” Jay thinks it’s only once, while Bob thinks that more than three in a row is a bit much….but that the real answer is “as long as someone is responding.”

The bigger takeaway? Nebraska is already one-quarter of the way through the regular season, sitting undefeated and untested. That’s not a bad place to be. But it also means the cupcakes are gone, and the real season begins now. If the Huskers want to prove they’re more than a paper tiger, they’ll need to dominate teams that actually punch back.

It’s time to see if the Huskers are more like Jake Paul or Bud Crawford. Let’s GO BIG RED!!

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