Can Nebraska Finally Beat a Ranked Team?

“Just going out there and knowing we’re a Big Ten team and just letting them know how we play in the Big Ten – physical and hard-nosed, and that’s how we expect to play,” Nebraska sophomore wide receiver Jacory Barney Jr. echoed during his bowl week press conference. “We get a chance – a last shot with my guys to prove ourselves and to build off this going to next year. (If) you beat a ranked opponent, it’ll set us up good for next year.”

It’ll be yet another domino Nebraska coach Matt Rhule can finally knock down, which he’s proven he can do. Rhule inherited a Nebraska team from Scott Frost that frankly didn’t know how to win close games and at times – even win the “easy” games. It’s been an entire culture reset for the Huskers since Rhule showed up, and slowly, but surely, the third-year Husker coach is knocking down key dominoes.

With a chance to end one of the ugliest streaks in program history this week, Rhule is making sure the team has fun, but also has their heads on a swivel come Wednesday.

“We’re here to play a football game,” Rhule said during his bowl week press conference. “We have a chance to go out and play a top-ranked team and what an experience it is and play one more game together. I think the guys have all focused at a high level.”

NU will need all the focus it can get as it tries to overcome both injuries and the opting out of star running back Emmett Johnson, who is preparing for an NFL career after a stellar junior season in Lincoln. Fortunately, as some guys bow out of the 2025 season, Nebraska quarterback TJ Lateef seems to be rounding into form just in time for the Las Vegas Bowl against the Utes.

“He looks good out there in practice, so I’m excited for him to play,” Rhule said. “He just took every rep. We’ve been cautious with him because obviously, we have a game. We want to get them to the game, but he looks fast. He looks like he can run the football. I think the entire offense is up with him, and we’ll run him. We’ll move him around and we’ll play.”

It also helps that a bowl game like this gives Nebraska the “one-off” mentality. The team that will jog out of the tunnel on Wednesday doesn’t resemble what fans saw for most of the season in Lincoln, and it likely won’t resemble what they’ll see when the 2026 season kicks off in August.

There are new coaches, new faces and likely a new approach to how NU will play this game. However, for this one game, this team has the chance to do something that nearly a decade of previous teams couldn’t.

The opportunity comes against a 15th-ranked Utah team that’s dealing with its own fair share of opt-outs and coaching changes, none being bigger than the departure of longtime head coach Kyle Whittingham. Just this week, Whittingham left the Utes to take on the head coaching job at Michigan.

The Utes knew their time was coming to an end soon with Whittingham, but many players thought they’d still get a bowl game sendoff with him. Well, think again. Whittingham’s in Ann Arbor.

“I mean, he got to Vegas and talked to his team and all of a sudden he’s the coach of Michigan,” Rhule said of the sudden changes with Whittingham. “I was kind of hearing some rumors that he might get that job about a week ago, kind of before it popped. Obviously, when he announced it was his last game, I was like, ‘Great, one more thing for Utah to be fired up about.‘ They’re a great football team. I know they’ll be excited.”

With game prep all but wrapped up for the Huskers, the players are now working on match-ups they expect to see when the ball is kicked off Wednesday afternoon. For receiver Jacory Barney Jr., he’s not only excited to see the ball coming his way from Lateef, but also the kickoff itself.

“I feel like special teams will be a big factor in this game because it’s the last game of the season,” Barney Jr. said. “Some people may not be locked all the way in. Those key moments can be a big turnaround in the game. When it comes to the beginning games, those (are) about minimizing mistakes and capitalizing where you can.”

It’s been more than a month since the Nebraska football team’s taken the field, and for those with a short memory, you don’t want to think about the last few times the Huskers have been on the field. It was far from a pretty end to the season for a Husker team that shot out to seven wins by October.

Now, on the final day of 2025, Nebraska will look to close out the year and start anew with a statement win against a very good Utah team.

“I think they’re a good group,” Barney Jr. said of Utah. “I feel like it’ll be a good game for us. I see it as another chance to beat a ranked opponent. If we do that, the fans will feel good about it going into next year. That’ll give us some confidence going into next year and having TJ get that win, I feel that’ll be good for us.”