Go Big Ribbit

09/04/2026

GO BIG RIBBIT PREDICTION: NEBRASKA 17, OHIO 10

I think Nebraska wins Saturday. I also think it’s going to be closer than a lot of people expect.

Before we get to the prediction, we have to talk about Frank Solich.

There couldn’t be a more appropriate opponent to open the season against than Ohio. Solich took over for Tom Osborne at Nebraska, went 58-19 in six seasons, won the 1999 Big 12 championship and took Nebraska to the national championship game following the 2001 season.

Then came 2002. Nebraska went 7-7. Solich made changes, got the Huskers back to 9-3 the next year, and Nebraska fired him anyway.

He landed at Ohio and turned the Bobcats into a consistently relevant program. Solich won 115 games there, became the winningest head coach in MAC history and took Ohio to 11 bowl games.

They eventually named the field at Peden Stadium Frank Solich Field.

And now Frank is coming home.

Nebraska is honoring Solich this weekend with its Football Hall of Fame Legend Award. He’ll be recognized at Memorial Stadium Saturday and is expected to serve as honorary coin-tosser.

That’s pretty dadgum cool.

Part of me wishes Nebraska were playing a Frank Solich-coached Ohio team Saturday.

Another part of me is very glad we’re not.

I like Ohio as a nonconference opponent.

I don’t like playing them first.

This game was scheduled back in 2020 when Solich was still Ohio’s coach, so I understand why Nebraska wanted it.

But I’d rather open with North Dakota, work out the first-game kinks, and then play Ohio.

The Bobcats went 9-4 last season and 6-2 in the MAC. They averaged 27.8 points per game, beat West Virginia, lost by only three at Rutgers and finished by beating a 10-win UNLV team 17-10 in the Frisco Bowl.

And UNLV’s quarterback?

Anthony Colandrea.

Yep. Our new quarterback.

Ohio held Colandrea to 184 passing yards, no passing touchdowns and an interception. He did run for UNLV’s only touchdown.

So Ohio already knows it can beat Nebraska’s new QB.

That makes me a little nervous.

Here’s the good news.

Ohio lost significant pieces from that 9-4 team, including quarterback Parker Navarro, and the Bobcats have a first-year head coach in John Hauser.

Nebraska has much more returning experience.

The Huskers return six starters on offense and six on defense. Seventy-two percent of Nebraska’s roster is at least in its third year of college football, and Nebraska ranks third nationally with 69 percent of last year’s production returning.

We also added plenty of experienced transfers.

If this becomes a depth game, Nebraska should win it.

But we’ve got unknowns too.

New quarterback. New defensive coordinator. New offensive line coach. And after having the luxury of Emmett Johnson last year, Dana Holgorsen hasn’t even named a clear No. 1 running back yet.

Welcome to college football in the transfer-portal era.

Sometimes you just don’t know what you’ve got until somebody kicks the ball off.

Anthony Colandrea is my biggest wild card Saturday.

I hope this guy is good.

He’s talented. He was Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year last season, threw for 3,459 yards and 23 touchdowns, and he’s got plenty of starting experience.

I also love having a mobile quarterback. When everything breaks down, he can make something happen with his legs.

And let’s just say it:

The dude looks like Herbie Husker.

Blond hair. Goofy grin. Then you listen to his press conferences and he frequently says things like:

“Aw, shoot.”

Come on.

If somebody designed a quarterback in a laboratory specifically to play football at Nebraska, we’re getting pretty close here.

I like the kid.

Now let’s see him win.

Because there is one big concern: turnovers.

Colandrea has been interception-prone, and his last college football game was a loss to the same team he’s facing Saturday.

Maybe that gives him a little extra motivation.

What I don’t want is Nebraska working through opening-day mistakes, Colandrea getting frustrated and trying to force plays against a team that already knows it can beat him.

Protect the football. Let Geep Wade’s offensive line go to work. Use Nebraska’s depth. Don’t give Ohio short fields.

Do that and Nebraska wins.

So here it is.

Nebraska 17, Ohio 10.

Yep. 17-10.

That’s a lot more conservative than Vegas, which has Nebraska favored by more than three touchdowns.

I hope Vegas is right and I’m completely wrong.

I would love nothing more than to watch Nebraska come out Saturday and absolutely light up the scoreboard.

Because Matt Rhule needs a statement.

I’ve said it before: I don’t know yet whether I like Matt Rhule as Nebraska’s coach.

I want to like him.

I want him to be the guy.

But he’s got to prove it.

Nebraska has gone 7-6 in each of the past two seasons. We haven’t won nine games since Mike Riley’s 2016 team.

At some point, progress has to show up in the win column.

Rhule isn’t getting fired because of one bad game or even one disappointing season. But fan enthusiasm matters. Booster enthusiasm matters. The sellout streak matters.

Winning, and looking good doing it, gives people a reason to believe again.

So here’s my measuring stick.

If Nebraska comes out Saturday and beats a solid Ohio program by three or four touchdowns?

Watch out.

Maybe this Nebraska team is better than I think.

If Nebraska grinds out a close win?

Then we’re probably looking at something similar to the last couple of years. A team capable of winning football games, but still trying to take that next step.

Could Ohio pull the upset?

Sure. It’s college football. They’re a MAC program coming off nine wins. They’re not coming to Lincoln expecting to lose.

Some people are even throwing Ohio around as a possible upset pick.

I don’t buy it.

Nebraska has more depth, more returning production and Memorial Stadium.

I think the Huskers survive the opening-day mistakes.

It’s going to be closer than people think.

But I’m picking the Big Red.

Nebraska 17, Ohio 10.

And if the Huskers make me look like an idiot by winning 42-10?

I’ll gladly take it.

Go Big Red. Go Big Ribbit.

-Husker Holys

08/30/2026

GO BIG RIBBIT: A New Season, an Old Team, and a Long Memory

By Husker Holys

It’s been an interesting offseason.

And heading into another Nebraska football season, I’ll admit something right away: I still don’t know what I think about Matt Rhule.

I don’t know if I like him. I don’t know if he’s a great coach who is eventually going to get Nebraska where we want to go, or if he’s ultimately going to be another stopgap between where Nebraska was and wherever Nebraska football finally lands.

I just don’t know.

And maybe that’s the best way to describe where I am with Husker football right now: wait and see.

Last year, when I stopped doing the Bug Pod podcast and began transitioning what I was doing into what has now become Go Big Ribbit, my life had changed considerably. I had lost a good friend and the person I spent so much time doing the Bug Pod with, Dr. Charles “Chip” Smith.

I was grieving. I still am, a little bit.

And strangely enough, that experience has made me think differently about Nebraska football, because I think Husker fans are grieving too.

Obviously, losing a football dynasty is nothing like losing someone you love. But grief, in its broadest sense, comes whenever something important to us changes and we realize the old version isn’t coming back.

People sometimes describe Nebraska fans as long-suffering.

I don’t think that’s quite right.

We aren’t a long-suffering fan base. We’re a long-remembering fan base.

There are programs whose fans have never watched their team win a national championship. Iowa fans have never experienced what Nebraska fans experienced five times.

We have.

We remember.

We remember the walk-ons. We remember superior strength and conditioning. We remember offensive lines imposing their will on people. We remember option football and power running. We remember when Nebraska didn’t hope to compete nationally. Nebraska expected to compete nationally.

And that’s what makes the last couple of decades so difficult.

We know what worked.

And we also know we can’t simply do it anymore.

College football has changed. NIL has changed it. The transfer portal has changed it. Recruiting has changed. Rosters change almost overnight. The old Nebraska formula cannot simply be pulled out of storage, dusted off and run again.

That’s hard for a long-remembering fan base.

Last season, I was checked out for much of the year. Even this offseason, I’ve struggled with what college football has become.

But I’ve also realized something.

I root for Nebraska because Nebraska is my team.

Not because they’re winning.

Not because they’re playing exactly the kind of football I want them to play.

Not because I approve of every coaching decision.

They’re my team.

There are memories attached to that N. There are people attached to it. There are Saturdays attached to it. There are parts of my life attached to it.

And I’m ready to see what happens next.

There are reasons for optimism.

Donovan Raiola is gone, and Nebraska bringing in an offensive line coach with the résumé of Geep Wade is fascinating to me. Nebraska desperately needs better offensive line play, and I’m excited to see whether Wade can finally get that room moving in the right direction. If he does, Dana Holgorsen suddenly has a lot more possibilities with this offense.

Then there’s Anthony Colandrea.

He’s exciting. He’s mobile. And I’ve believed for a long time that Nebraska needs mobility at quarterback. I don’t think Nebraska football is at its best with a statue standing in the pocket.

Now, those interceptions concern me.

But I’ve joked before that if nothing else works, maybe we just have Colandrea start running the option.

Hey, I’m a long-remembering Husker fan. What did you expect?

There are concerns too.

I didn’t like the drama surrounding Mike Ekeler and Matt Rhule. I wish Nebraska could have retained Ekeler, and special teams remains something I’m watching carefully.

And then there’s Rhule himself.

I don’t think Matt Rhule gets fired if Nebraska underachieves this season. His contract situation makes that extremely unlikely.

But I do think this is a make-or-break season in another sense.

If Nebraska doesn’t show meaningful improvement, eventually donors and boosters stop believing. Financial support gets harder to maintain. Enthusiasm fades. And that makes an already difficult rebuilding job even harder.

I want Matt Rhule to be the guy.

I really do.

I want him to be more than another stopgap. I want to watch him do at Nebraska what he did at Temple and Baylor. I don’t think that’s impossible.

But like a lot of Husker fans, I’m done predicting that the breakthrough is definitely coming.

Show me.

I also don’t think Nebraska ends up muddling around at six or seven wins this season. My feeling is that we’re going to learn something definitive.

Either Nebraska shows a real positive trajectory and wins eight or nine games, or things go badly enough that serious questions about the direction of the program become unavoidable.

I think we’re going to find out what Matt Rhule’s Nebraska actually is.

And then there’s the sellout streak.

Memorial Stadium badly needs its upcoming renovation. Frankly, I think Tom Osborne made the stadium too big when Nebraska expanded it beyond 90,000 seats during his time as athletic director.

This season, the sellout streak appears more vulnerable than it has in a long time.

There’s actually something good about that: ordinary families are getting opportunities to attend games. Nebraska has been offering deals. Tickets are accessible.

Troy Dannen has expressed confidence that Nebraska can get the tickets sold. And if corporate purchases are ultimately needed to keep the streak alive one more season, I’m perfectly fine with it.

Yes, I know the streak has been artificially supported before.

I don’t care.

It’s ours.

It’s something special that Nebraska still has. It’s something this fan base has maintained through some absolutely miserable football.

So prop the dadgum thing up for one more year if you have to.

The stadium renovation changes everything next season anyway, and eventually Memorial Stadium will emerge with a smaller capacity. Once the renovation is finished, if someday the streak ends naturally, it ends.

But after everything Husker fans have sat through?

Give us this one.

And maybe that’s ultimately where I am heading into this season.

I’m trying to stop demanding that Nebraska football become 1995 again.

That team isn’t coming back.

That version of college football isn’t coming back either.

Sometimes I look at what Curt Cignetti has done at Indiana and laugh when people call him a unicorn, because some of what he does feels remarkably familiar to anyone who remembers how Nebraska coaches operated in the 1990s.

But Nebraska has to find its own way forward in 2026.

Maybe Matt Rhule is the guy who finds it.

Maybe he isn’t.

We’re going to find out.

I hope Geep Wade builds an offensive line that’s fun to watch. I hope Holgorsen gets this offense moving. I hope Colandrea makes plays with his legs, throws fewer interceptions and, if necessary, accepts my completely unsolicited recommendation to install the option.

Mostly, I hope Nebraska football starts giving us something to cheer about again and begins finding the kind of success we’ve watched so many other Husker sports achieve.

And I’m going to enjoy finding out.

There won’t be a weekly podcast this year. Instead, Go Big Ribbit will have a pregame and postgame write-up right here on Facebook.

A little football. A little analysis. Probably some frustration. Hopefully some celebrating.

Because after everything, I’m still here.

We’re still here.

We’re long-remembering.

And it’s still our team.

Here’s to hoping Matt Rhule proves he’s the guy.

Go Big Red. And Go Big Ribbit. 🐸🌽🏈

08/29/2026

08/28/2026

Classic 1983 Poster done with 1983 graphics.

08/17/2026

Classic 70s Husker Song.

Neat old Nebraska Cornhuskers Song I put to some old cornhusker foo...

08/15/2026

I wish the blackout helmets had the Blackshirts Skull and Crossbones, but these will do.

08/14/2026

Just ordered my “Grail Hat”: Herbie Husker Golfing

08/11/2026

🚨 BREAKING: MATT RHULE READS GO BIG RIBBIT 🐸🌽

Oh my goodness.

A few days ago, Go Big Ribbit unveiled our revolutionary plan to solve Anthony Colandrea’s interception problem:

STOP THROWING THE BALL AND RUN THE OPTION.

And now we have video of Colandrea running the option in practice.

Coincidence? Probably.

But we’re taking credit anyway.

And folks… LOOK AT IT. IT’S BEAUTIFUL. 😭

Coach Rhule, you’re welcome. No consulting fee necessary. Although if you need the rest of Tom Osborne’s playbook explained, Go Big Ribbit remains available.

Next step: keep Colandrea running the option, let those wheels go to work, and if we absolutely HAVE to throw the football…

Never mind… Why the heck would we ever want to do that? 🐸🏈🌽

THE OPTION IS BACK, BABY.

Go Big Red.
Go Big Ribbit. 🐸

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08/11/2026

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You asked for it, you got it. 🤝

We’re going old school with the Seahawks for !

08/11/2026

So Beautiful. 🦄

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