Husker Big Red Daily: Matt Rhule says he ‘won’t quit’, a super annoying Nebraska football stat, basketball wins

Welcome to Husker Big Red Daily, your daily stop for the latest Nebraska football news, recruiting buzz, transfer portal updates, and Huskers headlines. Here’s a quick look at the latest storylines surrounding Nebraska athletics.

A fired-up Matt Rhule spoke with the media on Monday to talk about the Nebraska football game against Illinois this week, as well as to recap the Washington game.

Rhule spoke for 19 minutes to open the press conference. He talked about how a grown man accosted his daughter and said, “F you and F your dad.”

The Nebraska football head coach said he won’t quit. He said he will keep fighting until they ask him to leave, which might come sooner than expected if the Huskers keep losing fourth-quarter leads.

Still, it was good to see the fight in Rhule. Hopefully, this team has some fight left after three crushing losses. He said he wasn’t fighting for that guy, but for the people listening to Nebraska football games on their combine radio. That’s who the program will continue to fight for.

Of course, Rhule understands the criticism. Nebraska is a pressure cooker. Ask Tom Osborne, who was nearly run out of town before he won a national championship. Bo Pelini and Frank Solich were given their walking papers after nine-win seasons, something Nebraska has achieved once since Bo was fired.

The Huskers need to win out or win three games in November, plus a bowl game, to get there this season. Beyond that, this program just needs a win, badly, on Friday night.

It feels like a true must-win. Then again, so did the Washington game.

Most annoying Nebraska football stat

There are a lot of annoying Nebraska football stats related to this season, but the fact that the Huskers are the only team in the FBS to lead going into the fourth quarter in every single game and aren’t even ranked with a 5-3 record is baffling. At worst, this team should be 6-2.

Nebraska basketball teams sweep

The men’s and women’s basketball teams opened their seasons on Monday. The men, fresh off a Sweet 16 appearance, cruised past Le Moyne 106-64. Pryce Sandfort scored 20 points to lead the way for Nebraska. Cale Jacobsen was simply incredible, making 7 of 8 shots from the field. He was 2-for-2 from distance, scoring 17 points, grabbing four rebounds and dishing out three assists.

New point guard Trevan Leonhardt was stellar, too. He only played 21 minutes but scored seven points, grabbed five rebounds, dished out seven assists and was 2-for-2 from the field. He also had two steals and zero turnovers.

The women’s basketball team also cruised to a season-opening win, 81-54 over San Jose State. Britt Prince was spectacular, making 9 of 15 shots from the field. She was 4-for-6 from 3-point range, grabbed eight rebounds and had four steals and four assists.

Natalie Potts made her return to the court after missing most of the 2024-25 season and all of the 2025-26 season. The senior played 20 minutes and scored 14 points. She was 5 of 16 from the field but grabbed six rebounds and had three steals. Amiah Hargrove was the other Nebraska player to reach double figures, scoring 15 points (6 of 13) while grabbing nine rebounds (six offensive)

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