Nebraska (1-1) needed to win the home-opener in no-doubt fashion to regain confidence after last week’s loss. The Huskers did just that Saturday against Fordham (0-1) to the tune of a 52-7 victory.
The 376th consecutive sellout at Memorial Stadium saw the first win for Nebraska over an FCS opponent since Bethune-Cookman in 2018. The Huskers are are 13-0 all-time against FCS opponents.
Saturday marked the first home game with fans allowed at 100 -percent capacity in 645 days.
“Gosh, that felt good,” Nebraska coach Scott Frost said. “Just walking out to the tunnel, even pregame with the stands half-full in pregame was special and I got a chance to walk through the tunnel at the end of the game with my sister with my wife and my son, and he was giving the fans high fives.
“We missed the fans, I know they missed being here but this was a dismal place without them, so I can’t wait till next week.”
The game started slow for the home side, giving Husker fans some doubt early on. Nebraska was forced to punt on the first and third possessions, getting a touchdown run from Adrian Martinez between there.
But the Rams scored in the first minute of the second quarter to tie the game at 7-7.
“I was frustrated at the beginning,” Frost said. “We did a couple dumb things at the beginning of game, putting the ball on the ground and spitting and sputtering a little bit but ended up catching the momentum a little bit and it looked a lot better.”
After a Connor Culp 37-yard field goal gave NU a 10-7 lead, Fordham attempted their own. It was blocked by Marquel Dismuke and the Rams would never threaten again for the rest of the game, managing just 89 yards the rest of the game with 30 of those coming on their final possession.
Nebraska scored touchdowns on the next six of their final seven possessions, only not getting points when backup quarterback Logan Smothers took a big hit and lost the ball in the fourth quarter.
The Huskers racked up 633 yards of total offense, with more than 300 for both rushing and passing. This is the third time in school history Nebraska has accomplished that statistical milestone, with the others being 2013 against South Dakota State and 2019 at Illinois.
For the sixth consecutive game, Nebraska held its opponent to under 400 yards. Fordham had 292 total.
Martinez had a better outing in his second game of the season. He threw for 254 yards on 17-of-23 passing for one touchdown, adding 45 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
The fourth-year starter surpassed the 500 completions mark, joining only Tommy Armstrong Jr. and Taylor Martinez in reaching that mark. Martinez also moved into third place on the career total offense list at 8,034 yards, passing 2001 Heisman winner Eric Crouch (7,915 yards).
Smothers finished with 50 yards through the air on 4-for-7 passing, adding 36 yards on the ground.
Transfer running back Markese Stepp eclipsed the 100-yard rushing mark for the first time in his career. He carried the rock 18 times for 101 yards.
Other running backs getting in were Sevion Morrison (nine rushes, 31 yards, two touchdowns), Marvin Scott III (six rushes, 30 yards, one touchdown), Jacquez Yant (five rushes, 25 yards), Rahmir Johnson (five rushes, 19 yards), Gabe Ervin Jr (six rushes, 17 yards), and Cooper Jewitt (one rush, two yards).
Also going over 100 yards for his position was transfer receiver Samori Toure. He reeled in eight catches for 133 yards. Toure also added 35 yards on the ground with one rushing touchdown.
“Every receiver wants to be their quarterback’s go-to,” Toure. “I wanna be (Martinez’s) go-to target. But we’ve got a deep, deep, deep receiving corps. We all got confidence in all our guys.”
Kickers Brendan Franke (5-for-5) and Kelen Meyer (4-for-4) combined to go 100-percent on kickoffs ending in touchbacks.
“We rep it out everyday in practice,” Franke said. “Its nothing new. Its just whether you can take what you do in practice into the game and perform well.”
For all the things that went right Saturday, the punt return game remained a dizzying experiment. Cam Taylor-Britt was in for the first couple, with one taking a quick hop and bouncing off the captain. Fordham recovered. Brody Belt handled the duties the rest of the game, but he also had a near disaster on the away sideline.
“We tell our returners to catch the ball, no matter what,” Frost said. “And when the ball hits the ground, you have to make a smart decision. If it’s bouncing easy and a hop you can handle, and nobody’s around, then we want to want to catch it and not let it bounce several yards down the field.
“I thought (Taylor-Britt’s turnover) was a little too much in traffic and, you know, there weren’t a ton of those mistakes today, but we’re really going to focus hard on the ones that we did make and make sure we address them every time they come up.”
Defensively for the Huskers, JoJo Domann and Quinton Newsome led the Blackshirts with five tackles each. Domann (1) and Williams (2) each added interceptions.
For the Rams, linebacker Ryan Greenhagen finished with 30 total tackles. That is a Nebraska opponent record, and ties the Memorial Stadium record which was set in 1976 by Husker Clete Pillen against Oklahoma State.
The Huskers needed a win in a bad way, and got it. The competition will turn up next week when Buffalo (1-0) comes to town.
“We got a tough slate of games, we got a long season,” Frost said. “We have to keep getting better. This team’s going to be able to compete with anybody that we go on the field with and then it’s a matter of playing clean and making somebody else beat us, not beating ourselves.”