Nebraska Football Opponent Preview: North Dakota

Defensive Player to Watch: Lance Rucker

Rising senior edge rusher Lance Rucker is sure to present a major challenge for Nebraska’s offensive line. Fortunately for the Huskers, they return Elijah Pritchett and added Tree Babalade from South Carolina at tackle ahead of the 2026 season.

In 2025, the Millard South (NE) product led North Dakota with 10.5 sacks while adding 63 tackles, four forced fumbles, and two pass breakups on his way to earning First-Team All-Missouri Valley honors. In short, Rucker is one of the best edge defenders the Big Red will face all season and easily the most talented player on the Fighting Hawks’ roster.

How the Huskers let him leave the state coming out of high school remains a mystery. Through three collegiate seasons, Rucker has totaled 112 tackles, 13.5 sacks, four forced fumbles, and five pass breakups. If he builds on that production in 2026, the Nebraska native will almost certainly get a shot at the NFL.

Biggest Question Mark Heading in 2026

North Dakota lost second-team All-Missouri Valley running back Sawyer Seidl to the transfer portal following the 2025 season, and how the Fighting Hawks replace that production could have major implications this fall. In an effort to do so, the program added Matt Lawson, formerly of Illinois State. However, Lawson is coming off a 2025 season in which he redshirted.

Lawson appeared in all 12 games for Illinois State in 2024, totaling 447 rushing yards while averaging 4.3 yards per carry as a true freshman. Now entering his redshirt sophomore season, the 200-pound back will likely be counted on to take on a much larger workload.

Quarterback Jerry Kaminski can help add to the rushing attack, but against the Huskers, North Dakota will probably want to limit how often he exposes himself to a Big Ten defensive line. Keeping him healthy throughout the season is critical to the program’s success, so expecting the same level of rushing production from him as last year may be unrealistic. Even so, the Fighting Hawks’ ground game remains its bread and butter. And the opportunity to take down a Power Four team will likely mean they show up ready to use every tool in their bag to get the job done.

The last time Nebraska faced North Dakota came in 2022, when the Huskers earned a 38-17 win in what ultimately became the final victory of the Scott Frost era. However, the Fighting Hawks are in a much different position as a program now, reaching the FCS playoffs in two of the three seasons since that meeting.

Head coach Eric Schmidt holds a 13-13 overall record, though North Dakota appears to be significantly better than that mark suggests. A marquee road win against the Big Red would only strengthen that belief, and the Fighting Hawks are likely to arrive in Lincoln expecting to compete for four quarters.

This is not a game Nebraska can simply coast through. The Huskers will have to prove they are the better team from the opening kick. Arguably, it will be NU's toughest non-conference matchup of the season, and North Dakota will do everything possible to reinforce that narrative. Still, the Big Red possesses a significant depth advantage across the roster, and over the course of four quarters, that should eventually show itself. Whether the win comes pretty or ugly ultimately will not matter. Against a Dakota school, nothing is handed out, and Matt Rhule will need to have his team ready to earn it, regardless of the final score.