Nebraska HC Matt Rhule previews matchup vs. Maryland

Ahmed Ghafir
18 hours ago
3 min read

Like Washington, Nebraska football will prepare for its road game at Maryland by flying into the DMV on Thursday and practicing at a local high school on Friday.

“Washington didn’t get in until about 1 o’clock in the morning Thursday night,” Huskers head coach Matt Rhule said on Monday. “We’re not a big Thursday operation. We like to go on Fridays and keep our routine but this is one time and the only time this year that we’ll go out on Thursday just because of the nature of being on the East Coast and traveling in those areas.”

Friday will give the Huskers a chance to “spend some time together” ahead of walkthroughs, but they’re looking to maintain momentum in their first road game of the season. Saturday’s contest is expected to feature a pair of high-powered passing attacks with both Maryland and Nebraska ranking inside the top three in pass attempts in 2025. While Malik Washington (60.1%) ranks second-to-last in completion percentage among Big Ten quarterbacks, largely due to 19 drops in five games, Maryland’s secondary will have another tough test as they’re tasked with slowing down Dylan Raiola, who leads the conference in completions (118) and ranks third in the conference in completion percentage (74.2%). To head coach Matt Rhule, limiting the big plays from Maryland’s passing attack is a priority.

“They’ve got a dynamic young quarterback, five-star recruit who’s athletic but who is a passer. When you have that combination of you’re a passer first and you look to throw but you’re also athletic that extends plays. They hit a lot of deep balls. Their wideouts run - [Jalil Farooq], [Shaleak Knotts], [Octavian Smith] – can run, run, run, run. [Octavian] can really run so they’re explosive. It’s the passing game for them that’s really opened up. They can run the football too, don’t get me wrong but there’s some challenges there. We’re a pretty good pass defense so it should be a good matchup.”

On the other end, Nebraska’s offensive line will look to find its footing after averaging three sacks allowed per game in 2025. How they stop a Maryland defense tied for third in sacks (19) and 29^th in TFLs (35) will be Nebraska’s biggest worry with true freshman Sidney Stewart available to play after missing the second half vs. Washington due to targeting.

“They have high effort rushers that are relentless so their pass rush is pretty elite, which is why they’re so elite on third down. We just talked about our ability to create and build and defend a great pocket so that’ll be a key matchup there.”

Maryland also enters week seven tied for second in blocked kicks/punts in 2025 with true freshman Messiah Delhomme responsible for two of the team’s three, but to Rhule, forcing the first blocked kick against Maryland’s special teams is a priority.

“Special teams, we’ve blocked three kicks this year. Jamir Conn I think has a block and a tipped so that’s two blocks for him I guess. Every week I go to [Mike Ekeler] and say ‘hey I want to block a punt.’ I want to block punts. We’re doing a great job of returning them but trying to find ways, design ways to block punts. They do a great job special teams wise but [Ekeler] will always find a way and Jamir, when you have two blocked punts in your first five games at this level, that’s pretty impressive.”

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