Nebraska’s November slate comes with a familiar kind of headache: veteran head coaches, and plenty of them have had the Huskers’ number.
The month opens with Illinois’ Bret Bielema, then brings Rutgers’ Greg Schiano, Ohio State’s Ryan Day and Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz. Three of those four have regularly made life miserable for Nebraska, and the schedule only gets tougher from there with three road games and the lone home date coming against the Buckeyes in Lincoln.
That Ohio State matchup stands out for obvious reasons. The Buckeyes were 12-2 last season, won the 2024 national championship and once again look like a team built to chase the top of the sport. Nebraska gets them at Memorial Stadium, but that hardly softens the blow.
Illinois and Iowa were both 9-4 last season, and each spent enough of the year in the playoff conversation to suggest they’re sitting in that next Big Ten tier Nebraska needs to start beating more often. That’s been a problem under Matt Rhule.
Against Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, USC, Penn State and Washington, the Huskers are 1-9 under him. They’re 0-7 over the past two years, with the lone win coming in 2023, Rhule’s first season, a 20-7 victory at Illinois.
Rhule is 2-5 against Nebraska’s November opponents and 2-10 in November games overall.
November has a way of sorting teams out. It’s the stretch when programs decide who they are, and how they’ll be remembered.
Some are fighting to get bowl eligible. Others are trying to lock up a College Football Playoff spot or a conference title game berth.
And for Nebraska, the month ends with Iowa on Black Friday in Iowa City.
Bielema brings a 124-84 career record into the month and has gone 5-2 against Nebraska. Rhule is 1-1 against Illinois.
The Illini’s 2025 record was 9-4, and their passing game was led by Luke Altmyer, who is now with the Detroit Lions. Katin Houser, who has played at Michigan State and East Carolina, transferred to Champaign and is expected to keep the offense moving.
Schiano’s Rutgers team went 5-7 in 2025, and his career record sits at 99-108. He is 0-3 against Nebraska, while Rhule is 1-0 against Rutgers. The game at SHI Stadium could carry extra weight for the Scarlet Knights, who may see it as a last chance to become bowl eligible.
Day’s Ohio State team is the heavyweight of the group. He owns an 82-12 career record, is 4-0 against Nebraska and will bring a roster that includes veteran quarterback Julian Sayin, wide receiver Jeremiah Smith and the kind of dominant lines the Buckeyes always seem to have, along with their endless supply of running backs. Rhule is 0-1 against Ohio State.
Then comes Ferentz, whose Iowa program has built its identity on defense and enough offense to get by. He has been at Iowa for 27 years, owns a 213-128 record and has gone 11-6 against Nebraska. Rhule is 0-3 against the Hawkeyes, and Ferentz has won 10 of the last 11 meetings with the Huskers.
In Other News...
Dylan Raiolas Value Is Being Debated Again After Leaving Nebraska
Dylan Raiolas move from Nebraska to Oregon has already put his name back in the middle of the national conversation, and not just because of the pedigree he brought with him as a former five-star recruit. ESPN slotted the former Cornhuskers starter at No. 28 among college football transfers, a reminder that his value is still being weighed against a crowded market of quarterbacks looking for new starts and bigger roles.
For Oregon, the appeal is less about what Raiola is ready to do right now and more about what he could become with time. Dan Lanning has praised the way Raiola is growing into the Ducks system and has pointed to his intelligence as a separator, while Raiola has sounded comfortable with the idea of learning before taking on a larger job later. The question now is how quickly that upside turns into something more concrete in Eugene. [Read more 🡒]
Nebraska Faces A Blackshirts Test That Could Define Rhules Season
Riley Van Poppel is the kind of player Nebraska needs to keep trending upward if Matt Rhules defense is going to take the next step. The junior defensive tackle is entering his fourth year in the program, and the backdrop around him is hard to ignore: he has already had to adapt to a third defensive coordinator and a third defensive line coach, all while trying to carve out a bigger role in the middle of the Blackshirts front.
That matters because the Huskers problems last season were not subtle, especially once opponents got inside the 20. Nebraska gave up points on almost every red-zone trip, a level of breakdown that can erase everything else a defense does well. If the line can become sturdier and Van Poppel can keep developing, it could go a long way toward changing the shape of this season, even if the biggest answers still have to be earned on the field. [Read more 🡒]
Nebraska May Finally Have The Roster Fred Hoiberg Has Wanted
Nebraskas breakthrough 2025-26 season gave Fred Hoiberg something he had been building toward for years, with the Huskers winning their first NCAA Tournament game and pushing all the way to the Sweet 16. The bigger development now is that the program does not have to treat that run like a one-off, because the core that made it possible is set to come back while the staff has kept adding pieces designed for the way Hoiberg wants to play.
Pryce Sandfort and Braden Frager give Nebraska familiar production and continuity, and the newcomers are just as important to the picture. Trevan Leonhardt arrives as a guard who can help organize the offense, while Sam Orme adds the kind of shooting the Huskers have been looking for around their key returners. Hoiberg and his staff spent the offseason targeting players who fit the system rather than forcing the system to fit the roster, and that is usually where real progress starts. [Read more 🡒]