Rohr’s Four: Four reactions, impressions, reflections, concerns and questions after Nebraska’s 49-21 win over Ohio.
1-Jamal rules
The more sane among us will wait until the depth chart comes out on Labor Day. The depth chart coming into the game suggested it was even entering the game with Isaiah Mozee, Mehki Nelson and Jamal Rule But I know what I’ve seen with my eyes: Nebraska’s top running back is Jamal Rule. He showed power, speed and explosion while piling up 122 yards in 15 carries with and two touchdowns while adding two catches for 47 yards and a touchdown.
This was my inclination coming into the game, and I saw nothing Saturday to dissuade me. Neither Nelson nor Mozee distinguished himself during their opportunities (admittedly, limited behind Emmett Johnson) during the 2025 season. Rule was clearly the best one of the three through the Spring Game, running for 119 yards on nine carries. He has the most promise of the three. But Saturday, he also had the best production of the three.
His play earned the first shot at the job Saturday against Bowling Green. This is the future of Husker Football. Get him the reps he needs to be fully acclimated for Big Ten play, when the rubber will truly meet the road.
2-Colandrea answers and questions
Saturday was our first look at Anthony Colandrea, and we got a decent dose of the range of the experience. To the positive was his mobility, extending plays, gaining yards with his running as well. To the negative was the volume of running–he’s not gonna make it through the season carrying the ball 10 times per game, especially in Big Ten play, and his struggles to find receivers other than Kwazi Gilmer and Jacory Barney, Jr. (Gilmer and Barney combined for 18 targets compared to 14 targets for the rest of the Husker receivers). Colandrea fumbled once, though NU recovered it, and was not intercepted.
In other words, promise and questions about the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year, which is what we expected. The longest completion was a 51-yarder to Nelson, which was actually a fairly short dumpoff that Nelson took most of the way, breaking tacklers and charging down the middle of the Bobcats defense.
It would be hasty to mark Colandrea as a clear upgrade to former QB Dylan Raiola after one start, especially against a MAC team. But his ability to extend plays was on display, and that was the biggest mark against Raiola. And at least for game one, his strong points were on display without the possible drawback of turnovers. So far, so good.
3-Defense still a question
Anyone who thought the defense was fixed from last year after the move from John Butler to Rob Aurich had those illusions shattered on the first play of the game, when Nick Poulos hit Riley Neer on a short, quick slant for a 68-yard gain. The Bobcats scored on their first three drives, taking a 13-7 lead on Nebraska with 8:13 to go in the second quarter. Though the Blackshirts settled in, Ohio gained 4.2 yards per rush and only allowed two sacks while giving the ball back to the Huskers just once on a tipped interception.
Some of that can be attributed to the absence of Owen Chambliss, the senior linebacker who transferred to Nebraska with Aurich to help install Aurich’s defense. Surely his absence led to some gaps in communication with the defense. Add to that the desire by Aurich to stay vanilla in his scheme, and it’s not surprising that the Huskers bent.
It is helpful that, after the first series, they didn’t break until late in the game. But for anyone hoping to see Blackshirt dominance in game one to build confidence moving forward, you left game one disappointed. Nebraska mustered just two sacks and just five hurries against a physically outmatched offensive line. The Huskers had just four tackles for loss for the game as well, so it’s not as if Nebraska controlled the line of scrimmage when Ohio ran the ball, either.
But it’s worrisome when a veteran defense unit had such trouble, especially early, to where Ohio was to within one score deep into the second half, that’s not a reassuring sign moving forward. Ohio might be the best non-conference team Nebraska will face this year, but they’re far from the best offense the Huskers will face this year. The Blackshirts will have to take steps forward if they’re to hold up against Big Ten foes.
4-It’s a mad, mad world
Throughout this offseason of displeasure, through all the eligibility lawsuits and court fights and battles over who could play and who couldn’t, the refrain from college football backers was: Just wait until we get back to the games. All the court bickering, all the confusion and consternation over who can play, who cannot, and how much they should be paid for the privilege would fade into background and the always engrossing drama that surrounds the action of college football would overshadow the off-field worries.
Then Michigan/Western Michigan happened.
The Broncos were clinging to a 12-7 lead with the clock winding down and the Wolverines near midfield. Bryce Underwood heaved a Hail Mary that went through the end zone without being touched until a WMU defensive back tapped it while out of bounds with the clock showing triple-zeroes, no time on the clock. Game over. Broncos win a thriller over their in-state foe.
But then, a buzz from above. Naturally, the play must be reviewed to make sure the final second elapsed before the ball was touched, signifying the end of the game. The review happens. I was listening to the Michigan radio crew as the final seconds unfolded, and they’d resigned themselves to the idea that their team had sustained an embarrassing season opening loss to a MAC school in their own state, all as Kyle Whittingham takes over in the wake of the disgrace of the end of the Sherrone Moore era.
The referees emerge from their curtain of review, ready to deliver the dark obituary of the moment to the 100,000-plus at Big House. They flip on their microphones. Somehow, someway, one second is found. Michigan gets one more shot. From near midfield, Underwood lines up one more shot at it. This time, he finds his man in the end zone and, inexplicably, the Wolverines win. Everyone scratches their heads. Later Saturday night, the Big Ten sends word forth: their clock, which none of us mere mortals can see, had one more second to go when the ball was touched out of bounds. The clock we could all see had run out. But the mystery clock had another tick on it, and miraculously, the discrepancy benefitted the bigger school, the one from the Big Ten, whose officials were adjudicating the situation.
Even the games can’t save us. It’s one thing that we can’t agree on how many conference games we should play in a season. What players should and shouldn’t be eligible. How many quality teams we should play outside of conference play. But now, we can’t even agree on how long the games actually are? 60 minutes aren’t really 60 minutes? We can’t agree on which clock we’re using to when the game is happening and when it’s over?
College football has always lived in ambiguity. Some of us remember when we couldn’t agree on who was the national champion, and just split it between two teams. Variance in eligibility has lived in college football since a boy who couldn’t enroll at Harvard could carry the ball for Notre Dame, or the football star who couldn’t get into Stanford could enroll at Alabama, or Nebraska.
But as we evolve, we have to move closer to one voice. One league. One set of rules. And an over-arcing governing body that represents the interests of the teams impartially. The Big Ten Conference has an awfully tough time operating from a place of neutrality when their interests clearly lie with one party (Michigan) and against another (Western Michigan). College football has operated with a handful of pockets of regionality only interacting each other for a big non-con game and bowl season. But this isn’t 1975. It’s time for college football to grow up and act like a big league. It’s the second biggest sport in our nation, behind the NFL. Time to start acting like it. It sure didn’t Saturday with Michigan/Western Michigan.