Football 2025

by Ken Hambleton

You’re going to need a program and new plans to follow Nebraska football this year and throughout the near future.

Last season, Nebraska improved to 6-6. NU notched a bowl victory for the first time since 2016.

The Huskers are set for a dazzling array of changes, improvements and thrills in the immediate future.

New scoreboards, new food concessions, new no-entry policy and a new team make hopes soar higher than ever for the storied football program.

Matt Rhule, now in his third season as head coach with Nebraska, has fans and opponents thinking the Huskers could be rebuilding the “old” Big Red machine that churned out five national championships, 46 conference titles and a string of home-crowd sellouts since 1962.

Rhule has a history of great successes in his third year in previous jobs at Baylor and Temple. He’s added Dana Holgorson as offensive coordinator to tighten the offense led by sophomore quarterback Dylan Raiola and defensively added Dane Key as defensive coordinator who will count on returner Jacorey Barney and plenty of transfers at key positions. Special teams also appear to be in better shape with wildly enthusiastic coordinator Mike Ekeler in charge.

But the program is also changing as the landscape of college football reorganizes through drastic moves in paying players, the transfer portal and scholarship limits.  

To march forward into the gloried football past, Rhule, NU athletic director Troy Dannen and company have been quick to adapt to the new game of college football.

The recent changes to college athletics, especially football, have installed NIL (names, images and likeness) marketing to college athletes, built a wild-west scramble for money and drastically remodeled the most popular sport in Nebraska. 

The reign of Bob Devaney, Tom Osborne and Frank Solich, brought sell-out crowds of more than 90,000 fans to their feet year after year with successes.

The packed stadium continued but success on the field slowed significantly at Nebraska since the early 2000s — with little to cheer, with losing records and few post-season games since 2002.

Nebraska is back.

Battling in the coast-to-coast, 18-team Big Ten Conference will never be easy but the Huskers are hoping to bring the glory back to 102-year-old Memorial Stadium and a football program that started with a win in 1890.

It’s a long way from the days of Nebraska competing against Creighton, the Omaha Baloon School (World War 1) and Doane College, and Nebraska counting on George Flippin — the first black player west of the Mississippi — to the amazing dominance in college football under Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne from 1962 to 1997.

NU football brings in enough income to self-support the program — a rarity among college football  programs — and still hand over $5 million to the university academic programs annually.

Plans for more major renovations to the 102-year-old Memorial Stadium are still in place, but on hold while the university tries to battle budget cuts. Still, the Osborne Legacy Complex including indoor and outdoor football facilities, new grass practice fields and a new grass field in Memorial Stadium should be more than enough to see the perennial football power is growing and sharing with its fervent fans.

Traditions as simple as wearing red on game days, flying N flags and the Pride of Nebraska marching band escorting the team to the stadium — home of the Huskers.

The loyalty is honest and deep and the hopes are always high in Lincoln as long as there is red and white on the field, in the stands and on the streets of Lincoln every fall.