Nebraska football has not given up a passing touchdown in its first four games of the 2025 season. However, with three new starters on both the defensive line and the linebacker position, the Huskers are getting outrushed by their opponents.
After losing the likes of Ty Robinson and John Bullock to the NFL, John Butler’s unit is starting two sophomores and three offseason transfers on the defensive front.
A year ago, Nebraska allowed an average of a little more than 101 yards on the ground. In 2025, three teams have breached that number, and both Cincinnati and Michigan ran for more than 200 yards.
Head coach Matt Rhule said they are one of the top teams in the country in terms of throwing the ball and defending the pass, but are struggling on both sides of the ball with the run.
“We are not there running the football,” Rhule said. “We are not there stopping the run, and we talked about setting the pocket. So, there’s areas that we need to get significantly better at, and I don’t know how to get better at running the ball and stopping the run other than to practice. So we went good-on-good and we worked on those things.”
The Huskers’ passing defense has held three of the four quarterbacks they faced under a 53% completion percentage. They also held three of the four quarterbacks to under 100 yards passing, but Michigan ran riot for 286 yards in Nebraska’s only loss of the season.
Rhule said a lot of the runs they’ve given up aren’t necessarily on the defensive line.
“They’re on everybody,” Rhule said. “It takes all 11 guys to run the football and stop the run.”
Butler said bye weeks are a great opportunity to study players, positioning, scheme and a multitude of other aspects on the defensive side of the ball like where the big plays are coming from.
“They’re only happening in the run game,” Butler said. “It’s very specific. It’s not like they’re running the ball for 50 yards and throwing the ball for 50 yards. So, I think we have a good plan in terms of what we’re doing when we think they’re going to throw the ball… we’ve got to solve the obvious, which is not just the run defense, but the explosive plays that we’re giving up in the run defense.”
The Wolverines scored all three of their touchdowns with rushes of 37 yards or more. In comparison, the Huskers only have one such rush on the season.
Butler believes it comes down to players being in their gaps and having the ability to get off blocks.
“I think really through the Cincinnati game and the Michigan game… we’re getting blocked too much, and we’re not tackling well enough, and we have to practice that,” Butler said. “We have to emphasize that.”
Sophomore defensive lineman Riley Van Poppel said their mentality was the issue against Michigan.
“We have to be violent,” Van Poppel said. “We have to be physical, and we have to play with high effort.”
Rhule said the defense will be challenged on both fronts when it faces sophomore quarterback Aidan Chiles on Saturday.
“He’s taking what’s there, and he’s protecting the football,” Rhule said. “He is dynamic. He can run… We’ll have to be prepared to stop that.”
Chiles completed more than 68% of his passes and accounted for 11 total touchdowns through Michigan State’s first four games.
Rhule said Chiles is an explosive player and one of the better quarterbacks in the Big Ten. He said responding after a tough loss like Illinois and Alabama did comes down to a team’s mindset.
“Our game came down to probably one play,” Rhule said. “Not saying we’re a play away, but it came down to one play. Our guys have to make sure they’re ready to play so that they can chase their one play.”
Nebraska will face the Spartans at 3 p.m. CT on Saturday in Lincoln, Nebraska.