Opponents shine: Second player wins weekly award against Nebraska defense

The Nebraska football defense under Tony White has been great. But there have been bumps in th road.

UCLA v Nebraska
UCLA v Nebraska | Steven Branscombe/GettyImages

The Nebraska football team's recent downward spiral has been an interesting one. For a while, it was looking like Matt Rhule had finally wielded the silver bullet for the eight-year bowless streak. It turns out that five wins are the silver bullet that could put an end to a couple of coaches' careers for the Huskers.

There have been all sorts of negatives since the Cornhuskers got off to a 3-0 start to the season and have gone 2-3 since. Among them is that while NU's defense has been excellent for the entirety of the season, it's hit some rough patches every now and then. Indiana, Illinois and to a lesser extent UCLA have unlocked some good performances.

As it turns out, UCLA's Kwazi Gilmer is the second offensive player this season who received a conference award for performing against the Nebraska football team. Gilmer was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week.

Nebraska football opponent wins player of the week

Gilmer's selection as the freshman of the week adds a little insult to injury after the Huskers lost a game they really needed to win. The wide receiver had also been a non-factor in most of UCLA's games this season.

Illinois' Luke Altmyer won co-Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week after the Illini beat the Huskers in OT in NU's conference opener. That was the first player to get such an award.

The Huskers have only one such award of their own this year. That was given to punter Brian Buschini who was named the Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week in Nebraska's 14-7 win over Rutgers. In that game he did a very good of punting, while also clearly ailing. He also had a 30-yard completion on a fake punt that set up one of NU's two scores.

Gilmer recorded 3 catches for a career high 88 yards while scoring the first touchdown of his college playing days. That touchdown ended up being the decisive score in UCLA's 27-20 win over the Nebraska football team.

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