The Value of One More Football Game

It may not stir the same excitement as bowls of the past, but it still matters. Nebraska gets one more game — and that alone makes it worth paying attention to.

Wednesday's Las Vegas Bowl is still a big opportunity for TJ Lateef and Nebraska. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

For seven seasons, Nebraska toiled as a program, spending December and January watching everyone else go bowling while it wondered why it couldn’t come away with a one-possession win — or several — to qualify.

Now the Huskers are coming off back-to-back bowl-qualifying seasons, are matched up with a Top 15 team, and the general reaction feels like being asked to go to church an extra time during the week.

Nebraska’s November nose-dives, bowl-game uncertainty in the portal-and-playoff era, and questions about the Huskers’ own roster all conspire to keep enthusiasm for this game muted.

Here are a few reasons why Wednesday’s game still matters in the face of everything else:

A win in the Las Vegas Bowl is something to build on for potential returning players like Nyziah Hunter and Luke Lindenmeyer. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

It’s a football game

Sometimes we forget how rare these actually are. You’re guaranteed 12. That’s it. Others might get more — sometimes a lot more — but Nebraska fans know all too well that nothing beyond those 12 is promised.

A Wednesday afternoon game on New Year’s Eve might not rank high on the priority list, but the version of you sitting around in May would be very interested in a random football game involving your favorite team.

We spend a larger chunk of the year waiting and hoping for football season than actually living in it. We should probably appreciate all of it more than we do.

No one eagerly anticipates list season. No one really wants another round of Husker Games (RIP). We’ll all convince ourselves that the spring game is the best we’ve got. So why thumb our nose at an actual football game right now?

Donovan Jones emerged in a similar bowl game setting a year ago. Who could do the same in the Las Vegas Bowl on Wednesday? | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

All the auditions

One game isn’t enough to define a player, but it can offer a glimpse of who might matter moving forward.

Last year’s Pinstripe Bowl highlighted Emmett Johnson, who parlayed a strong finish into an All-American season. Vincent Shavers and Donovan Jones showed they could be reliable starters when healthy. Even Luke Lindenmeyer and Heinrich Haarberg used the bowl game to illustrate that tight end wasn’t going to be an area of emphasis moving forward.

Who could be next?

Justyn Rhett stepping in with Deshon Singleton unavailable? TJ Lateef showing that, with more lead time, Nebraska can field a competent offense? Perhaps Nyziah Hunter reasserts himself as a top wide receiver going into an important offseason?

Nebraska and Matt Rhule have a chance to end an up-and-down year on their own terms. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

End the year how you want

No one is going to write glowingly about the 2025 season. In many ways, it felt like an empty-calorie snack — enjoyable at times, ultimately unfulfilling.

Even so, Wednesday presents a chance to end it on Nebraska’s terms. Against a ranked Utah team dealing with its own turmoil, Matt Rhule and company can show this team still has fight, pride and resolve.

If you’re going to play a game, win it. If you’re going to compete, be the best version of yourself.

Nebraska has played in games that “don’t matter” before. A win here won’t be the 2009 Holiday Bowl, the 2005 Alamo Bowl or the 2015 Foster Farms Bowl. But it would be another victory. Another ranked win. A win as heavy underdogs. A way to say, “It wasn’t the goal, but we finished it anyway.”

There’s always next year. The beauty of this sport is that the discussions never end.

But games — and the chance to compete — are rare. They should be treated as such. This Wednesday features a Nebraska football game, and that’s always better than the alternative.

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