When Anthony Colandrea and Nebraska take on Ohio on Saturday morning, it will be a clash of two teams who don’t know each other well. In fact, the two teams have never faced each other in the long histories of both programs. And yet, the Bobcats do know Colandrea pretty well.
In fact, if Husker fans want to see what “stopping Colandrea” looks like, they need to look no further than last year’s Scooter's Coffee Frisco Bowl (yes, that is actually its name). Despite the quarterback earning the Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Year and dominating almost anyone he ran across, he didn’t have a particularly good game in his final outing as a member of the Rebels.
In the 17-10 loss to Ohio, Colandrea completed 19 of 30 passes for 184 yards, 1 touchdown, and 2 interceptions. While he also ran for 28 yards and another score, he had a costly fumble.
Nebraska football can learn from Anthony Colandrea’s 2025 struggles against Ohio
So does that mean Nebraska could get shut down by the Bobcats the way that the Rebels did? It’s certainly not a guarantee that the better talent around the quarterback won’t overcome whatever formula Ohio used. There’s also the added tidbit that the MAC team is replacing quite a few of its defensive players.
At the very least, there’s a good chance that Nebraska could get an early hint at how opposing teams will try to stop the Huskers’ new offensive attack. Ohio doesn’t have any real assessment outside of some short videotape of guys like Isaiah Mozee and Mekhi Nelson.
Even tape of offensive players like Jacory Barney and Nyziah Hunter isn’t worth much considering they’re playing with a new quarterback and a revamped Husker offense. And of course, with new defensive coordinator Rob Aurich changing up the defense, Ohio can’t even know exactly how to approach his defense.
Hopefully, Anthony Colandrea has also figured out what he did wrong in last year’s bowl game and can fix it for Nebraska.
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