WATCH: Matt Rhule postgame press conference after Nebraska throttled by Utah
LAS VEGAS – Matt Rhule and the Nebraska football program’s 2025 season is a wrap.
Final score from the Las Vegas Bowl: Utah 44, Nebraska 22
The Utes (11-2), despite losing their longtime (and borderline legendary) head coach Kyle Whittingham, finish the season on a high note to kick off the Morgan Scalley Era.
The Huskers (7-6), meanwhile, do the opposite. Nebraska began the season with records of 5-1 and 6-2 while cracking the Top 25 national rankings. Then, after seeming to have righted the ship with a win over UCLA to improve their record to 7-3, the Huskers end the season on a three-game losing streak. All three came in blowout fashion, losing to Penn State (37-10), Iowa (40-16) and Utah (44-22) by a combined score of 121-48.
Now, Nebraska has lost any amount of momentum it had gained through the season’s first 10 games. Instead, Year 3 of the Rhule Era – the most pivotal during his time in Lincoln – ends with an absolute dud instead of a thud.
Questions and concerns were already abundant following the losses to Penn State and Iowa, and even more are sure to follow after compounding those defeats with a no-show for the final three quarters of the Las Vegas Bowl.
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Rhule and the Huskers began the season by rattling off consecutive wins over Cincinnati, Akron and Houston Christian for a 3-0 start. Then came the disappointing Week 4 loss to Michigan followed by bounce-back victories over Michigan State and Maryland.
Then, after Rhule and the Huskers earned their way into the national AP Top 25 poll on the back of that 5-1 start, things took a sharp turn for them in a lifeless loss on the road at Minnesota.
The Huskers rebounded again by beating Northwestern the following week, but they let a massive opportunity slip through its hands one week later during a home loss to USC – a game in which the Huskers were seemingly in control of with a 14-6 lead and driving deep into Trojan territory before Dylan Raiola’s season-ending injury on a sack-fumble changed the entire tide of both the game and the season.
Nebraska won its next game over UCLA, going on the road and hitting the seven-win mark in true freshman quarterback TJ Lateef’s first career start. In Lateef’s second start, though, the Huskers got ran out of the building by Penn State in Happy Valley to set up the Black Friday showdown – a rivalry matchup that ended with mostly the same feeling as the loss to the Nittany Lions.
Then, more of the same in the Black Friday loss to Iowa. And, once again, more of the same in the bowl game loss to the Utes, which gives Rhule and Nebraska identical 7-6 overall records in back-to-back seasons. Better than it was over the last decade or so. Not even remotely close to the progress everyone had expected, or at least had hoped, to see in Year 3 under Rhule.
The Nebraska coach took the podium in the moments after the bowl game defeat, discussing the 22-point loss, what the defeat could mean moving forward and more thoughts from the afternoon in Vegas.
In addition to Rhule, a few players spoke with the media as quarterback TJ Lateef, running back Mekhi Nelson and defensive lineman Riley Van Poppel all took the mic.
Watch and listen to those interviews with the media via the videos below.
Wednesday’s postgame press conference videos are also available to watch for free on the Inside Nebraska YouTube channel.