Nebraska 48, Maryland 23: Every Week in the Big Ten Is a Crapshoot

Nebraska football beat Maryland 48-23 at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, and the Huskers are 5-0 for the first time since 2016. They got there the hard way. The first half was ugly, the penalty flags kept coming, and Maryland outgained Nebraska 300-195 in total yards before the break. Nebraska still led 28-23 at halftime, then scored 34 straight points to win going away.

I recorded my reaction video in front of a wall of memorabilia at my son’s house, since he got married last week, and my laptop timed out on me with the stats half pulled up.)

So some of what follows comes from the box score after the fact. The opinions are all mine.

Stop with the win-total predictions

Last week Nebraska beat Michigan State 31-13 on the road, and the predictions started piling up. Eight wins. Nine wins. Maybe more. Then the first half against Maryland happened and the comments flipped to “we’ll never beat anybody again.”

Both reactions are silly. Every week in the Big Ten is a crapshoot, and that goes for everybody. Minnesota beat Michigan 20-14 on Saturday, which is the Gophers’ first win over Michigan since 2014 and their first at home in that series since 1977, the year the Sex Pistols’ came out. Purdue beat Illinois 24-10. Missouri hammered No. 8 Florida 45-17. Ohio State handled Iowa 31-14, and I figured Iowa would find a way to slow down Jeremiah Smith. They did not.

Nebraska is 5-0 and 2-0 in the Big Ten. Take it one week at a time.

The first half was a mess

Nebraska did not show up for the first 30 minutes. Anthony Colandrea missed open receivers early. The run game went nowhere because Maryland stacked the box. I’ve said earlier that a good team will take away our running game and force Nebraska to throw. We also missed Jamal Rule, who was out.

The run game did come around after halftime. Nebraska finished with 447 total yards, 238 passing and 209 rushing, at 5.8 yards per rush. Colandrea ran for over 100 yards on 10 carries, including a 51-yard scramble. Mekhi Nelson added 46 yards on eight carries. Vincent Genatone scored from a yard out on his only carry. Kwazi Gilmer caught 11 passes for 147 yards and two touchdowns, and seven different receivers got a catch.

The biggest play of the game was Dwayne McDougle III’s 81-yard interception return for a touchdown in the second quarter. That was the first Husker pick-six since Ceyair Wright at USC in 2024.

The penalties and the officiating crew

Nebraska committed 16 penalties for 132 yards. Maryland had 12 for 150. The first half alone produced 18 flags for 161 yards, and Nebraska’s 10 in the half set a school record.

My real complaint is with the broadcast. They barely showed us any of them. We never got a replay of the holding calls, and we never saw the roughing-the-snapper call, where you cannot hit a snapper while he is still down in his stance.

This crew called holding and defensive secondary contact like they were working an NFL game. Several of the personal fouls looked like they came out of a sixth or eighth grade rulebook, where everybody is told not to be too rough. I do not like this officiating crew, and we are going to track them for the rest of the year.

One reader in our game thread suggested we focus on penalties this week with reverse psychology, so that next week we have none. I am fully on board.

Special Teams

I forgot to mention special teams in the video. You kind of knew the game was going to be off when it looked like we blocked the first punt by Maryland and then it got called for running into the kicker which resulted in their first score.

Jacory Barney had some decent returns.

One clear problem is the kicking game with regards to field goal. I was shocked that we tried over a 50-yard field goal and the hold was terrible. Maybe they want to know whether or not they’ve got their crap together on that part of special teams. I wouldn’t fault them for at least trying it. There’s still a lot of work to do.

Archie’s punting seemed to be fine.

The pro mindset question

We are paying these players, and the NIL era has turned college football into something close to a job. A job requires a professional mindset: showing up and working every day, whether you feel like it or not. College players are young, and the mindset does not always come with the paycheck.

This is why every week in the college football now is a crapshoot. Are the players going to show up prepared? Is that still a coaches problem?

What I liked about this game is that Nebraska found it in the second half. Last year the Huskers rolled along, then ran into Minnesota, did not get up for that game, and lost by a lot. This time they went to halftime with a lead, kept their composure through a third quarter that was a little sloppy, and shut Maryland out over the final two quarters.

I think a lot of that comes from the quarterback. Colandrea wants to win, and I think maturity is part of it too. In previous years a game like this turns into a blowout loss or a nail-biter at home. This one finished 48-23.

What the Maryland people think

I did a podcast earlier this week with the guys from our SB Nation Maryland site. One of them emailed me during the second quarter asking what the hell was going on, because everybody had been saying Maryland would get destroyed. I told them on the podcast that there was hope because of last year’s Minnesota game. Maybe they believed me for a half.

My guess is that Nebraska covered the spread, though I do not gamble and have not checked.

Indiana next

Indiana comes to Lincoln next week, and I will be at the game. They will be ranked. It might be a horrifying blowout in either direction. Nobody knows, and that is the point of the whole column.

We run a game thread at Corn Nation for every game, and we have a running tradition of misspelling the players with difficult names. It is not especially funny right now, but it is a good time. Come join us.

Enjoy the week. Go Big Red.