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College Football

Three takeaways from Minnesota’s last-second stunner over Nebraska

Alex Hickey

By Alex Hickey

Published:

Big Ten West football is so back.

The first game of the final season of divisional play in the B1G was a perfect reflection of what fans both love and hate about the B1G West in particular.

The games are often close. They are almost always low-scoring. At some point a punter looks like the best player on the field. Maybe even both punters.

The first quarter between Minnesota and Nebraska summed it up nicely: 3 combined possessions, 2 punts that traveled a combined 112 yards, zero combined points.

The games are also frequently riddled with mistakes that make you wonder “why is the winner of this division allowed to play for a conference championship?”

Matt Rhule’s Nebraska coaching debut very neatly fit all of those bills — right down to kicker Dragan Kesich’s game-winning 47-yard field goal at the gun that gave the Golden Gophers a stunning come-from-behind 13-10 win over the Cornhuskers.

Tyler Nubin is that dude

During FOX’s pregame show, former Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn pronounced that Nebraska would pull off the upset because Cornhuskers quarterback Jeff Sims was the best player in the game.

Wrong.

That would be Golden Gophers safety Tyler Nubin, a potential first-round draft pick who further helped his draft stock by picking off Sims twice — including a game-changer that ended Nebraska’s final possession.

Nebraska football is back… in a bad way

Even after changing directors from Scott Frost to Rhule, the movie ended the same way for Nebraska. The Cornhuskers are 2-14 in 1-score games since the start of 2021.

The Huskers were on their way to putting the game out of reach with a time-consuming drive that potentially could have put them up 2 scores late in the fourth quarter. But Minnesota cornerback Justin Walley stripped backup running back Anthony Grant near midfield with 5 minutes remaining, and teammate Aidan Gousby scooped up the loose ball to keep the Gophers alive.

Minnesota was still on the ropes until Daniel Jackson’s remarkable toe-dragging grab for a fourth-and-10 touchdown catch with 2:38 remaining.

Turnovers remain Nebraska’s bugaboo

The Cornhuskers turned the ball over 4 times Thursday night, including an interception in the end zone on the final play of the first half. That means, of course, that Sims’ final throws in each half were picked off.

Nebraska finished 92nd in the nation last season with a minus-3 turnover margin, and 95th in 2021 with a minus-5 margin. The Huskers are already minus-3 in that category in 2023. It is unquestionably among the biggest issues facing Rhule as he attempts to reverse what has transformed into a losing culture.

Alex Hickey

Alex Hickey is an award-winning writer who has watched Big Ten sports since it was a numerically accurate description of league membership. Alex has covered college football and basketball since 2008, with stops on the McNeese State, LSU and West Virginia beats before being hired as Saturday Tradition's Big Ten columnist in 2021. He is an Illinois native and 2004 Indiana University graduate.