Coach Matt Rhule is using Nebraska football’s first loss of the season as a teaching point as the Huskers move forward and continue striving to take the next step as a program.
The Huskers fell 20-17 to No. 7 Indiana at Memorial Stadium on Saturday. They led most of the game, but a few big plays from the Hoosiers turned the game around and extended Nebraska’s losing streak against ranked teams to 31.
“I think you have a team that’s angry and knows that they let one get away,” Rhule said Monday. “We’re certainly disappointed but not discouraged. We also understand that that’s what it looks like. You have to not play really well for 55 minutes, you have to play well for 60, and I think each and every one of us — coaches, staff, players — know that we have to be one or two plays better.”
The team will look to play that complete game when the Huskers face Oregon Saturday night. Nebraska is heading into the contest 5-1, while the Ducks are 3-2.
“It’s one of those teams that instead of saying number this, number that, you can say their names because you’ve seen their names since they were freshmen in high school on the On3 sites and all those different sites,” Rhule said. “You know everyone by name, and you know how talented they are.”
One player Nebraska’s especially familiar with is junior quarterback Dylan Raiola. He spent two seasons in Lincoln before transferring to Oregon this year. Raiola’s contributed as a backup for the Ducks behind Dante Moore and has played in three games with one start. He’s totaled 456 passing yards on a 65.5 completion percentage, five touchdowns and two interceptions thus far.
It’s unclear who the Ducks will start under center on Saturday, however. Moore suffered a concussion against USC on Sept. 26. In his four starts, Moore’s completed 69.7% of his passes for 926 yards, nine touchdowns and zero interceptions. It’s been Raiola, and senior Brock Thomas leading the Ducks since Moore’s injury though.
Raiola replaced Moore and led the Ducks to a 41-27 victory over the 19th-ranked Trojans, going 19-for-25 for 289 yards and two scores. He drew the start against No. 12 UCLA on Saturday but struggled mightily, finishing 6-for-19 for 43 yards and two interceptions before Coach Dan Lanning turned to senior Brock Thomas. He finished 11-of-15 for 156 yards and one touchdown, but the Ducks fell 17-15 on a failed two-point attempt late.
Rhule said the Huskers are preparing for all three quarterbacks.
“It’s just really like who poses a zone read running threat, because I think that changes a little bit of how you play,” Rhule said. “Who poses a quarterback draw threat, and then it just comes back to matching the receivers.”
Fifth-year Bear Alexander (6-foot-3, 316 pounds) and senior A’Mauri Washington (6-foot-3, 325 pounds) lead the Oregon defense in the trenches, plugging up the middle to set up senior linebacker Matayo Uiagalelei (5.0 sacks) to make plays off the edge in the passing game.
“We’ll have to see how Coach Lanning and his staff decide to play,” Rhule said. “The front, will they be aggressive and get up the field and try to keep Anthony (Colandrea) in the pocket? Will they drop a guy out and spy the quarterback? Will they mix it up?”
In addition to the challenge the Ducks’ talent will present, the Huskers also have to deal with a late kickoff in Eugene, set for 10 p.m. CT. The Husker have already begun trying to adjust their body clocks. Rhule said he has asked the players to go to bed later and has moved meetings and practices back two hours to help prepare for the time change.
“We’ll adjust to it, we’ll prepare for it, but it’s going to come down to blocking and tackling,” Rhule said. “So I want our guys to have that mindset as well.”
As for Rhule’s message to his players ahead of their matchup with Oregon, he wants them to focus on where they’re at now rather than what’s happened in the past.
“Don’t live in a world of, ‘Oh, that was really good; we were close,’” Rhule said. “Don’t live in that world because when you do that, you’re a loser. We don’t do that. Don’t live in a world of, ‘if only,’ because none of that works.”
