By Christopher Kamrani, Mitch Sherman and David Ubben
In the latest revival of the Colorado-Nebraska rivalry, the Huskers dominated from the start of their 28-10 victory Saturday at a fired-up Memorial Stadium, taking a 28-0 lead into halftime. It’s the kind of win the program has been waiting for under second-year coach Matt Rhule. It was mostly a beating on the road for Deion Sanders’ Buffs, who struggled to match the Huskers’ intensity and to protect quarterback Shedeur Sanders. What did the result mean, and what’s next?
The Huskers needed this
Saturday night was always bigger for Nebraska than it was for Colorado. The Huskers needed a win in the worst way as a program after losing in 2018, 2019 and 2023 to their former bitter Big 12 rival. And it needed a win as a team to show notable progress under Rhule, whose first season ended with four consecutive losses and another December at home.
Colorado showed progress last year and has built a brand under Deion Sanders.
Nebraska players and coaches underplayed the significance of Saturday ahead of this matchup. Its fans did not. They showed up early and brought the juice. The students were fully seated more than an hour before the kickoff and showered Colorado players with choice words — a rare event at Memorial Stadium — when the Buffs took the field for pre-game warm-ups.
This is far from the mountaintop for a Nebraska program that aspires for much more than to snap its seven-year streak of postseason absences. But it rates as a large step. The Huskers last started a season at 2-0 with at least one victory over a major-conference opponent in 2007.
That’s 17 years. Seventeen years without this kind of achievement. It matters for Rhule as a moment of validation for fans who have waited to see marked progress on the field before they entirely believed. — Sherman
This doesn’t look like a breakthrough team for Colorado
Last week, Deion Sanders took the public address microphone after the Buffs’ season-opening win over North Dakota State and told the home crowd his team was one step closer to reaching a bowl game. It was a far less provocative proclamation than when he said in January his team was “definitely” a contender for the College Football Playoff.
Saturday night, though, his second team at Colorado didn’t look good enough on either line of scrimmage to reach any kind of postseason. The running game remained non-existent, with 7 yards on four carries for the Buffs’ backs in the first half, when Colorado trotted into the locker room having been shut out.
Sanders was going head-to-head with Rhule, his fellow second-year coach, whose team looked vastly improved from a year ago, in part because of adding five-star freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola. Colorado won last year’s matchup 36-14, but it’s Nebraska that appears to be the program on the rise a year later. The Buffaloes will play another rival on the road next week at Colorado State before beginning their Big 12 slate at home against Baylor. — Ubben
Colorado’s offensive woes
In the first big test for Colorado’s remade offensive line Saturday, the Buffaloes didn’t look improved from the heavily criticized unit from a season ago.
Shedeur Sanders was sacked three times on the Buffaloes first three drives, and the running game was non-existent throughout the night.
Deion Sanders and the Buffaloes added a handful of offensive linemen from the transfer portal, including starting guards Kahlil Benson and Justin Mayers, plus five-star freshman Jordan Seaton. Tyler Brown, one of the team’s best offensive linemen who was ineligible last season after transferring from Jackson State, also stepped into a starting role, and the Buffaloes had hoped rebooting the line would fix the team’s biggest weakness.
One overlooked protection issue for the Buffaloes is the roster’s lack of a true tight end with blocking prowess. Last season, it leaned on Michael Harrison in the passing game but didn’t ask him to block. Harrison transferred to San Diego State after last season. During one first-half snap, the Buffaloes called upon former walk-on running back Charlie Offerdahl and former linebacker Sav’ell Smalls, who moved to tight end in the spring to form a seven-man protection on the edge. Nebraska’s defensive front forced a pressure anyway, and Sanders’ pass on the play fell incomplete.
Colorado felt confident it could challenge critics who claimed the Buffaloes couldn’t rebuild an offensive line with transfers and a five-star freshman. After facing one FBS opponent, though, the Buffaloes offensive line still looks like a group badly in need of improvement. — Ubben
Dylan Raiola’s rise, Shedeur Sanders’ struggles
For Dylan Raiola, it looked pretty darn easy. For Shedeur Sanders, it looked pretty darn miserable.
What was anticipated as a showdown between a seasoned senior quarterback and his true freshman phenom counterpart morphed into a dream night for the youngster and an all-too-familiar nightmare for the veteran.
The reasoning is simple: Nebraska’s coaches constructed a balanced offensive game plan around Raiola. Colorado either did not or could not for Sanders. The Huskers were extremely complementary on offense, allowing Raiola to take shots down the field after they established a threatening ground attack with running back Dante Dowdell.
The Buffaloes appeared to be ready to just let Sanders let it loose from the outset, which played right into Nebraska’s hands. The Huskers knew that there would be no threat of a rushing game, so they asked their defensive front to overwhelm the Colorado offensive line, which they did over and over. For Buffs fans, not to mention Sanders himself, it was an eerily similar throwback to last season’s protection issues that led to Sanders being the most-sacked FBS quarterback in the country.
Sanders rarely had time to get his feet set before he felt pressure from nearly every which way.
Raiola, conversely, was able to take some shots down field, but reliably put the ball in the hands of his playmakers like Rahmir Johnson, Isaiah Nestor and speedy freshman Jacoby Barney Jr. Raiola, though he would like a moment or two back on Saturday, never looked rattled, which was both a testament to his poise in his rivalry introduction but also the blueprint laid out for him. He showed ability on Saturday for the first time also to move the chains with his feet. The freshman scrambled for 12 yards on third-and-10 to extend the Huskers’ opening drive that ended in a touchdown.
Rhule and company opted for balance, and boy did it pay off. If Colorado feels compelled to take something away from their rivals going forward, that would certainly be it. — Kamrani and Sherman
Colorado looks like it without one of its best defensive players: safety Shilo Sanders, who led the team in tackles last season.
He suffered what Colorado coach Deion Sanders called a “broken forearm” early in the first half on a collision with running back Dante Dowdell. He was quickly ushered into the locker room and didn’t return.
Carter Stoutmire, who spent last season at cornerback and moved to safety this offseason, replaced him in the loss. Trevor Woods, who spent last season at safety, moved to linebacker in preseason and was the team’s third-leading tackler a season ago, was ejected in the first half on a targeting penalty. — Ubben
Big-time atmosphere in Lincoln
The atmosphere in Lincoln was second to none. And it undoubtedly helped the Huskers. The Nebraska sideline was filled with star power ahead of kickoff that included champion boxer Terence “Bud” Crawford, the Omaha native who often supports the local team but has not regularly displayed this level.
A who’s who of former Huskers also filled the place. Heisman Trophy winner Mike Rozier strutted onto the field 30 minutes before kickoff. The Huskers’ most recent first-round pick, cornerback Prince Amukamara, joked during warm-ups with Taylor Lewan and former Nebraska linebacker Will Compton of the “Bussin’ With the Boys” podcast. Nebraska’s 1994 national-championship squad ran from the tunnel before the current team left the locker room, led out by Crawford.
Crowd noise fueled the Nebraska defense, which sent extra pressure at quarterback Shedeur Sanders after it did not blitz once in the opener. All of it appeared to rattle the Buffs and Sanders, who threw a pick six, returned 7 yards for a touchdown by Tommi Hill, after Nebraska punter Brian Buschini pinned the Buffs at their 2-yard line in the first quarter.
Let’s stress that Colorado rates several steps below the heavyweights of the Big Ten. The Buffs’ lack of a running game would get it clobbered weekly in Nebraska’s league. But the Huskers looked a bit on Saturday night like the giant emerging from a slumber that the Big Ten thought it acquired 13 years ago. — Sherman
(Photo of Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders and Nebraska’s Jimari Butler: Steven Branscombe / Getty Images)
