IOWA CITY, Iowa — So people are wondering why the Nebraska captains refused to shake hands on Friday night before the coin toss at Kinnick Stadium.
Let me try to explain. They don’t like Iowa.
Those Nebraska players didn’t want to engage in an act of good sportsmanship in the company of that opponent. They did not care about respecting the game in a series that has included repeated moments of disrespect — in their view — committed by the Hawkeyes and directed at Nebraska.
The Huskers are not above a petty gesture. They are mad. They’ve had enough. And it’s disingenuous of the Hawkeyes to act as if they don’t understand or that this protest came out of the blue.
Nebraska selects game captains before each kickoff. On Friday, Elliott Brown, Emmett Johnson, MJ Sherman and DeShon Singleton walked to the center of the field. When the Iowa captains moved to shake the Huskers’ hands, a traditional gesture, the four from Nebraska didn’t move.
Ope ???
— Hawkeye Football (@HawkeyeFootball) November 30, 2024
“That was a little weird.” Iowa linebacker Jay Higgins said after the 13-10 Iowa victory.
Was it, though?
Understand that tradition in this series is for Iowa to rip out the Huskers’ hearts. It happened again on Friday. Defensive lineman Max Llewellyn stripped Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola and recovered his fumble with 20 seconds to play before Drew Stevens nailed a 53-yard field goal as time expired to beat the Huskers 13–10.
Imagine getting kicked in the gut over and over and watching the bully celebrate in your face. Four times now in the past seven years, Iowa has beaten Nebraska on field goals in the final seconds.
Last year in Lincoln, amazingly, Iowa defensive lineman Ethan Hurkett intercepted QB Chubba Purdy in the final 20 seconds and the Hawkeyes won 13-10 on a 38-yard field goal by Marshall Meeder as time expired.
In celebration of reclaiming the Freedom Trophy after Nebraska’s lone win since 2014 two years ago, Iowa players waved goodbye to the Huskers and their fans, wishing them, “Merry Christmas,” before Nebraska stayed at home in bowl season for a seventh consecutive year.
It was painful, second-year Nebraska coach Matt Rhule said last week.
GO DEEPER
Iowa tops Nebraska on 53-yard walk-off field goal: Hawkeyes-Huskers takeaways
In 2019, Iowa kicker Keith Duncan hit a 48-yard walk-off field goal at Nebraska, then turned to the home bench, wagged his finger and blew kisses at the Huskers.
On Friday when Nebraska players arrived at Kinnick Stadium and moved toward the center of the field to gather as a team in prayer, uniformed police officers guarded the logo.
There will be no meeting on 50 yd line. Odd how this has become a thing. pic.twitter.com/fFnhloycx0
— Damon Benning (@damonbenning) November 29, 2024
Nebraska didn’t play dirty against Iowa on Friday. It was a clean game — aside from the Huskers’ special teams blunders, blown assignments in the second half and the late turnover.
They didn’t head hunt. They didn’t try to start fights or commit personal fouls. Common in rivalry games, those actions would have crossed the line of poor sportsmanship.
But a silent protest before the coin toss as a reminder of the motivation in play?
Spare us the honest audacity.
Higgins and his teammates either chose not to pay attention, or the Hawkeyes knew exactly why Nebraska wanted to send a message that it was done with getting bullied.
None of the Nebraska game captains, in defeat, were made available to the media.
And the problem is, the strategy backfired on the Huskers.
GO DEEPER
Nebraska football seniors left their mark despite losses: ‘They played so damn hard’
Nebraska dominated much of the game. It pitched a shutout until late in the third quarter when Iowa could only kick a field goal after it recovered a muffed punt at the Nebraska 4-yard line. The Huskers held Iowa to 20 yards and one first down in the first half — and a paltry five first downs in the game.
But Kaleb Johnson raced for 72 yards, 44 percent of the Hawkeyes’ output, on the first play of the fourth quarter to even the score and foretell the inevitable Nebraska collapse.
“Very similar to last year and probably years previous,” Rhule said. “We found a way to lose the game at the end.”
Rhule said he was beyond disappointed in the finish. He said he was angry.
“Credit to them,” the coach said. “Those guys, they’ve won for a long time. They believe. They make the plays all the way to the very end. We’ve got to catch them.”
The Huskers, at 6-6, lost five games this year by a total of 29 points.
In four, against Ohio State, UCLA, USC and Iowa, they committed turnovers at the end with plentiful time available to win or even the score. And in the fifth, Raiola missed an open receiver in the end zone that would have put the Huskers ahead before Illinois won in overtime.
Nebraska is set for the first time since 2016 to accept a bowl invitation next weekend. The season is not over. But it has been defined by these late-game miscues.
“One game doesn’t define us,” senior defensive lineman Ty Robinson said.
No. But five do.
After last season, when the Huskers lost four games by a field goal and a fifth in overtime, they created a mantra, “Chasing 3.” Nebraska built its offseason regimen and motivational base around the bid to get three points better.
The irony was thick in cold Kinnick air on Friday.
“We had to do what they did,” Rhule said.
He said he doesn’t believe in bad luck. “We’ve just got to get better.”
Raiola said he “couldn’t be more proud” of the progress Nebraska has made since Week 1.
“Losing this way doesn’t do justice to all the success and the strides that we’ve made as a team,” the freshman QB said.
But progress is measured largely by wins. Against Iowa, Nebraska counts one win in the past decade.
Its pregame gesture on Friday, while not an affront to the sport of football or anything more than a turnabout against Iowa, rang hollow.
In the end, when it always matters for Nebraska against Iowa, the Huskers fell short again.
“It should probably bother people for a little bit,” Rhule said.
Rest assured, people are bothered.
(Photo: Jeffrey Becker / Imagen Images)