The Huskers open Big Ten play on the road Saturday at Spartan Stadium (5 p.m. ET, BTN) as 3-0 favorites, but this one will not feel like Ohio, Bowling Green, or North Dakota. This game is personal, and Nebraska needs to make it so.
Matt Rhule’s team has looked like one of the more complete groups in the conference through three weeks: 46.3 points per game, a rushing attack that is averaging 263 yards, and a defense that has held opponents to 11.7 points. Freshman running back Jamal Rule has been a problem for everyone (329 yards, 8.7 yards per carry, five rushing touchdowns). Anthony Colandrea has enough dual-threat juice to keep a defense honest. Dana Holgorsen’s offense has piled up chunk plays. On paper, Nebraska is the better team. However, paper does not travel well to East Lansing.
Michigan State is 2-1 under first-year coach Pat Fitzgerald after a 27-10 loss at No. 3 Notre Dame. The Spartans can run the ball with Cam Edwards, they will be louder at home than anything Nebraska has faced this season, and they have already shown they can hang around against a good team. Fitzgerald is 6-6 all-time against Nebraska from his Northwestern days and knows exactly how these games get ugly. The last two Husker trips to Spartan Stadium ended in three-point losses. That history is sitting there.
This is Nebraska’s first road game and first real test. If the Huskers treat it like another non-conference tune-up, they will leave with a 3-1 record, a long flight home, and a bunch of Nebraska fans ready to jump ship. They have to treat it like a statement. They need to make it personal. The country doesn’t believe in you; the fans aren’t sure what to think of you. It's time to show everyone that you’ve turned a corner. Show us you aren’t a bottom-third B1G team; show us you aren’t that same old Nebraska.
The offensive line has to impose itself on every snap, not just when the play-action is working. The backs have to finish runs; the receivers need to beat their man. The defense under Rob Aurich has to make Edwards earn every yard and force Fitzgerald’s offense into third-and-long. Special teams cannot gift a short field, or a punt to the wrong side of the field.
Nebraska should win it. The Huskers have more playmakers and a clearer identity right now. Expect the first half to be close. Nebraska should start to pull away in the late 3rd or early 4th quarter. Nebraska has the talent to win by double digits easily, but when you add in Rhule's record in B1G openers, his record on the road, and with it being the first real competition Nebraska has faced all year, it makes things not so easy to predict.
Prediction: Nebraska 27, Michigan State 16.
