Salvage Yards
- Sean Brennan
- Nov 13
- 10 min read
Emmett and T.J. rack up impressive statistics as Nebraska pushes to save a season of missed opportunities
Under the lights at the historical Rose Bowl in Pasadena Saturday, Nebraska held on for a 28-21 win and salvaged – temporarily, at least – what could have been – and could still be – a sinking ship of a season.
I’ve got a hand it to ‘em.
And you already know. The ‘em, in regards to Saturday, was headlined by a one-two combo in the form of true freshman quarterback T.J. Lateef and star running back aka tough sumbitch Emmett Johnson. Live from Los Angeles, “The T.J. and E.J. Show.”
All eyes were on the backfield. Lateef, because of the season-ending injury to Dylan Raiola and because his performance in relief of Dylan in the USC game was … um … shaky, to say the least. Johnson, because at this point all eyes of NU’s opponents should be on him. Dude is that good.
The pair delivered in spades: Lateef was nearly flawless making his first career start in the stadium that annually hosts the Rose Bowl, colloquially known as “The Granddaddy of Them All.”
Far from the shaky kid we saw against USC, one of the youngest players on the field instead looked into UCLA’s eyes and asked, “Whose Your Daddy of Them All?” He had more touchdowns – three – than incompletions, two (one of which was a blatant drop by Dane Key). Johnson continued running – and catching – like a man possessed. The leader in rushing yards among the Power 4 conferences amassed 232 total yards and hit paydirt three times.
But they weren’t the only heroes: head coach Matt Rhule and deserves credit for rallying the troops (even if those timeouts were once again burning a hole in his pocket; Jack Handoff has more on that later) offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen seemed more in his element with a running quarterback (yes, more on that later); defensive coordinator John Butler’s side of the squad was far from perfect, but again (you bet your ass there’s more on that later); and the much-maligned offensive line … not that shitty after all? Stay tuned.
While the nose is back out of the water, “Operation Salvage 2025” isn’t over yet. Beating a UCLA team that’s 3-6 and ranks 112th in defensive yards allowed was fun, but it isn’t all that impressive. You could say the same about every other win on the schedule this year, save for Cincinnati. After a bye week, the Huskers travel to Penn State, then finish with Iowa at home on Black Friday, which will double as senior day for the rarest of finds in modern day college football – players who started their careers as Huskers and will end them as Huskers, having never entered the transfer portal – like Javin Wright (finishing his seventh year with the program, he’s also granddaddy of them all), Marques Buford Jr., Heinrich Haarberg and Turner Cocoran.
I’m on record saying that regardless of what happens over those last two games, 2025 will go down as a season of missed opportunities – if for no other reason than the schedule set up so well for a playoff run. Next year? Take a look. Oof. Predators like Indiana, Ohio State and Oregon are all on next year’s slate.
Wins over Penn State and Iowa won’t change that. But it doesn’t mean 2025 be brought up from the depths and identified as progress. What happens against the Nittany Lions in Happy Valley and the Hawkeyes in Lincoln will determine just how much. A higher-profile New Year’s Day bowl game in either Orlando or Tampa against an SEC team would certainly quiet the demons of the close losses to Michigan and USC as well as the October dud in Minneapolis. How many – and to an extent, which – Big Ten teams make the College
Football Playoff will dictate the pecking order, and Nebraska most likely needs to win both to get there.
With that being said, let’s take a look back at Nebraska’s solid-if-not-spectacular win in the Rose Bowl. Ready, set – Omaha! Omaha! – hut-hut, hut!
FOUR DOWNS
1. I’m already annoyed by the T.J. Lateef vs. Dylan Raiola conversation that’s been all the rage amongst the fanbase, so of course I’m going to completely contradict those feelings and add to the growing pile of annoyance myself.
I mean … what else did you think I was going to do?
By the third quarter, two questions had already formed in the minds of Huskers fans. The first: is T.J. Lateef better than Dylan Raiola? The second: Is there a quarterback controversy brewing in Lincoln? My instinctive response to both questions is to tell you not to worry about it … but you’re a Huskers fan, so of course you’re going to worry about it. And judging from callers and emailers after : "The Husker Online Postgame Show” and “Big Red Overreaction,” plenty of fans are doing just that. Taking sides, saying “I told you so!” and allowing for little middle ground.
As to the first question, I’d advise you not to think in terms of “better” and “worse.” Dylan and T.J. have very different styles – obvious to everyone except Fox announcer and resident idiot Devin Gardner, who during the game kept trying to point out how similar they are. What are more reasonable questions to ask are, “who is the better fit going forward? Who pairs better with Holgorsen’s strengths as a playcaller?”
As to the second, it can’t really be a quarterback controversy in the traditional sense, because at the moment Dylan cannot play. A true quarterback controversy is when a coach cannot decide between two healthy players. What could happen is that Lateef plays well against both Penn State and Iowa, at which point it could turn out to be a controversy. The wrench? The NCAA changed its transfer portal rules for 2026, and as opposed to years past there is only one transfer portal window this offseason, and it happens before spring practice (Jan. 2-16). Why is this important? Because if T.J. plays well and if he learns he is a hot commodity with offers at other Power 4 programs – offers accompanied by high six-figure revenue sharing/NIL deals – and if he feels that the coaching staff will anoint Dylan the unquestioned starter no matter what, he would have to make a decision before spring practice, rendering a true controversy moot.
Is your head spinning? That’s a lot of IFs. Like I said, you shouldn’t worry about it. But that wouldn’t be the Husker way now would it? So we carry on.
I would be very, very, very surprised to see Raiola told he’s been shuffled back to No. 2 due to injury. I suspect Lateef plays well enough to earn a fairly lucrative offer from someone on the Power 4 level. Nebraska could try shell out enough money to keep them both, but an extra million is money they need to funnel to the offensive and defensive lines – not to someone holding the proverbial clipboard. It’s also worth remembering that this fanbase absolutely freaked out at the prospect of losing Rhule to Penn State; five days later, after that 24-6 stinker against Minnesota, at least half of those previously freaked out people were suddenly saying, “Penn State can have ‘em.” Lateef was incredible on Saturday, and I’m not predicting any stinkers, but this is a fickle sport and things can change in a hurry.
You’re still worrying about it, aren’t you? Life as a Huskers fan … why do we do this to ourselves?
2. Appreciate Emmett Johnson while you can – he’s almost surely going to declare for the NFL after the season. Yet another sad consequence of success for your guys in college football is that the better they play, the more likely they are to jump into the NFL Draft a year or two early. It sucks, but it’s 20 times better than them betraying you for the transfer portal. And while early declarations happen at every position, there’s more urgency for running backs. They have an average NFL career of just 2.5 years, the lowest of any position group. With 410 carries and 82 catches in his Husker career (with surely another 50 to 60 coming against Penn State and Iowa), Emmett already has a lot of miles on his odometer.
NFL draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. is noticing what E.J. has done with those carries. He of the bespectacled face and slicked-back hair currently has Emmett listed eighth in his most recent ranking of NFL running back prospects. But it should be noted the list is from Oct. 29, two days before the USC game and nine before UCLA, in which Emmett had his best two games of the year and finally made a splash on the national scene. Talk of a late season Heisman run is certainly a pipe dream. More talk of Emmett as a third- to fifth-round draft pick most likely ensures that even with a lucrative NIL offer he will not be back in Lincoln next year. Get that big league money kid! (And hopefully he picks up some postseason award hardware on his way.)
Oh yeah, while we’re talking about the success of the running game, how about a shoutout to the offensive line? They haven’t been truly offensive since the Minnesota shitshow. In fact, they’ve been good – something you could not have convinced me I would say four
weeks ago – relinquishing just two sacks while NU has racked up an average of 166.3 yards on the ground over the last three games. The five guys now playing have settled into the rhythm and timing it takes to execute “the 300-pound ballet.” (Those are the late, great Matt Vrzal’s words, not mine.) They set a low bar over the first half of the year, but they’ve certainly cleared it … for now. Penn State and Iowa both have much stouter front sevens than small-ish Northwestern, overrated USC and undermanned UCLA.
3. I know, I know … it was aggravating at times, but in the end, the defense once again surrendered just 21 points. The Blackshirts … are playing blackjack? Well, they’re at least proving quite good at hitting the optimum target number in the table game, landing on 21 (points allowed) in three consecutive games. That’s 28-21 over Northwestern, a 21-17 loss to USC and now, Saturday’s 28-21 win over UCLA. Butler doubled down on his bend-but-don’t-break strategy against the Bruins. That strategy is simple: don’t give up big plays, make the offense earn the small stuff, don’t be a wuss and always hit on 16 against a face card (OK, OK – I snuck another blackjack reference in for fun) and over time, the opponent is bound to make a mistake: the more plays they run, the more likely they are to turn the ball over, get sacked, or simply throw incompletions. Particularly in the red zone. It’s simple math and probability – coupled with the fact that these aren’t professionals just yet.
Wait? They are? Kinda? Moving on…
For the most part, since the Michigan game, it had been working (poor open field tackling against the Wolverines betrayed Butler’s strategy as UM ripped off touchdown runs of 37, 75 and 54 yards). Butler was it again against UCLA, and while the Bruins were mistake-free and marched the field – thanks to the mad hatter scrambling ability of quarterback Nico Imalavea – on drives of 75 and 96 yards, Nebraska also forced two punts, a missed field goal and turned them over on downs once. They also got to Nico three times for sacks. Perhaps next year, with a more developed defensive line, we’ll get even more.
Like the individual drives within the game, Butler’s strategy is built to win over time. And while it may not look pretty all the time, keep the faith.
4. The lack of a killer instinct is a definitive sign that Nebraska is good, but far from great. This week’s candidate for “play that launched 200,000 texts” is probably Imalavea’s scramble on 3rd-and-10 on UCLA’s fourth quarter drive that got the Bruins within seven (although the Bruins elusive QB scrambled for a first time five times on either third or fourth down). Like I said. Maddening. The texts? Some form of “we have no killer instinct” (expletives optional). It’s not all on the defense, either. Nebraska scored its last touchdown with 11:44 left in the third quarter.
There’s something missing with Nebraska football when it comes to landing the death blow. The Huskers could’ve done it with a 13-3 lead over Cincinnati in the season opener; you could argue they failed to capitalize on early leads against Michigan State and Maryland; they failed to do it against Northwestern, despite a 21-6 advantage in the fourth. The point of the game when fans of truly good teams – up by three scores – start lighting their victory cigars is simply a smoke signal to Huskers fans that things are just about to get interesting. They never make it easy, do they?
“Deep-ish Thoughts,” by Jack Handoff
• Who exactly is Matt Rhule talking to on his headset throughout the game? For most of the game, the television cameras show Rhule walking back and forth on the sidelines talking intensely to … somebody. From what I can tell, both Holgorsen and Butler call their offense and defense from the sidelines, so it’s a fair question. Most likely it’s some sort of all-coaches conference call, but it makes you wonder if
There is a chance it’s a hotline for 1-800-TIM-EOUT – where they advise coaches on when and when not to use them. Rhule could certainly use the advice. He called two during the third quarter against UCLA for reasons that remain unclear, ONE WEEK after he was heckled by fans for doing the same inexplicable thing against USC. Call me crazy, but one would think you’d go out of your way to not be so reckless when you’re not very far removed from doing the thing you were just made fun of for. (You’re welcome for that world salad, but I think it makes sense.) It’d be like puking in the living room at a cocktail party, then showing up the next week and puking again just to show that you can. For Rhule, this marks about his 10th unfortunate cocktail party incident. And broadcasting legend Dick Vitale ever get into the heckling business, Rhule is ripe for the picking.
• Goddamn – I said goddamn! – what a beautiful uniform matchup. Some people find inner peace through watching a beautiful sunset. Others, like me, find peace of mind and peace of the sartorial variety when two traditional uniforms like Nebraska’s and UCLA’s square off on a Saturday evening in November. So there’s Jack Handoff, striking a Buddhist pose, and all is right with the world – particularly when Emmett is streaking down the sideline for six.
• In less-than-exciting news, it appears UCLA is moving its home games from the Rose Bowl to So-Fi Stadium, possibly as soon as next year. Considering UCLA is a middling (bad?) Big Ten program at this point, maybe it’s not the biggest deal in the world. But it’ll be yet another move away from the tradition of college football. Home to the NFL’s Rams and Chargers, So-Fi is architecturally impressive but built for rich people and pricey corporations but, somewhat ironically, comes with lighting that gives viewers at home all the ambience of Aisle 22 at your local Wal-Mart. Yawn. Color me unenthused.
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