Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule voiced what many Husker fans were feeling after the 45-7 loss to No. 2 Michigan Saturday.
“Obviously a disappointing day,” Nebraska coach Matt Rhule said. “Lot of credit to Michigan; they’re a tremendous football team. Really couldn’t stop them today.”
From the kickoff to the final whistle, the visitors from Ann Arbor had almost total control. Michigan dominated the game for 436 yards of offense, with 249 yards coming on the ground against what was one of the top rushing defenses in the country through four games.
“I kind of alluded to it the other day like we are the number one rush offense and rush defense,” Rhule said. “He was gonna run for 300 yards against us and send a message. I don’t know if it wasn’t intensity.
“I still think our guys are trying to figure out if they are good enough to play these teams.”
Nebraska managed 305 yards of offense, though 126 yards came in the fourth quarter against a slew of backups.
The Wolverines scored on six of their first seven drives, only failing on a drive that began with a pair of incomplete passes.
Heinrich Haarberg earned his third consecutive start at quarterback. His first pass of the game was intercepted, but he put together a decent game finishing 14-for-25 for 199 yards. He finished with -2 yards, but that includes the four sacks he took.
Josh Fleeks scored the only touchdown of the game for Nebraska to avoid the first shutout at home since 1968. Fleeks converted from wide receiver to running back this week, taking his only carry of the game 74 yards to house in the fourth quarter.
But even with the game out of hand, Rhule elected to continue putting his team in teachable moments. The Huskers attempted an onside kick. It failed, but the game practice may come in handy later in the season.
On the final drive of the game, Nebraska took over on its own 29 yard line. Four plays later, Big Red was at midfield and took a timeout with three seconds left. That set up a Hail Mary pass from Haarberg to the goal line. It fell incomplete, but was another situation that NU may see in 2023.
“I don’t like when a team kicks our tail, to call timeout on second down. I don’t like doing those types of things,” Rhule said. “To the victor belongs the spoils. That being said, I also owed it to our quarterback – for Jaylen Lloyd as a freshman to catch that incut at the end of the game, that’ll pay dividends down the line.”
Next up is a road trip to Illinois on Friday. Rhule says Husker fans will learn about this team in that game.
“Everyone in Nebraska will find out about this team next Friday night,” Rhule said. “We’ll find out about me. We’ll find out about them. We’ll find out about all of us on Friday night.”
“And that doesn’t mean winning and losing. If Illinois is better than us, so be it. But, we’ll see it on Friday night. We’ll see how excited we look, how much we’re flying around, what we look like.”
Nebraska Athletics Postgame Notes
- Michigan extended its lead in the all-time series between the schools to 8-4-1, including a 2-1-1 advantage in Lincoln.
- Nebraska dropped to 6-13 all-time against teams ranked #2 in the Associated Press Poll, including 2-3 at Memorial Stadium. Nebraska has lost 14 straight games against top-5 opponents.
- Today’s kickoff temperature of 93 degrees tied for the warmest at Memorial Stadium since 1985, matching the kickoff temperature in three previous games (1985 vs. Florida State, 2002 vs. Utah State, 2015 vs. BYU).
- Senior Joshua Fleeks had a 74-yard rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter. The 74-yard rush was the longest of Fleeks’ career, bettering a 17-yard run against Oklahoma State in 2018 when Fleeks was at Baylor. Entering today’s game, Fleeks had 29 career carries for 88 yards and two touchdowns.
- Senior receiver Billy Kemp IV had a 34-yard reception in the first quarter for the longest reception of his college career. His previous long was while Kemp was playing at Virginia on a 32-yard reception at North Carolina in 2021.
- Receiver Marcus Washington had a 56-yard reception on the first play of the second half, marking his longest reception as a Husker. His career-long reception is 58 yards, while Washington was at Texas in a 2021 game against Oklahoma State
- Quarterback Heinrich Haarberg threw for a career-high 199 yards in today’s game, bettering his previous best of 158 vs. Northern Illinois.
- Linebacker Nick Henrich had nine tackles in the game to increase his career total to 182. He is the 54th Husker with at least 175 career tackles.
- Today’s game captains were OG Ethan Piper, S Phalen Sanford, LB MJ Sherman and DT Nash Hutmacher.