Nebraska has some cool trips on its football schedule in 2025.
Stretching from Rose Bowl Stadium to a game just on the fringe of the nation’s capital.
Of course those who are common travelers to Husker away games can tell you it’s all frivolity the night before and then – unfortunately too often of late – pained expressions on sleep-deprived Husker fans waiting outside Gate B13 for their flight home at 5:30 on Sunday morning.
I’ve been front row to that scene enough to know you could rank any game away from Memorial Stadium in a five-way tie for first on the toughness scale until the Huskers prove they can be that clutch squad in the road unis.
The Huskers did win twice away from Lincoln in 2024: a 20-15 Pinstripe Bowl victory over Boston College and a 28-10 win at Purdue. There was one hideous game, the 56-7 defeat at Indiana. And then three games that, frankly, the Huskers probably think they should have won: 28-20 at USC, 21-17 at Ohio State, 13-10 at Iowa. The last one especially, but the other two were there to be gripped as well.
The Huskers are 3-8 so far away from Lincoln the Matt Rhule era. You have to go back to 2014 and 2015 for the last time NU was .500 in games away from Memorial Stadium (3-3 both years), and back to 2013 (4-1) for a Husker winning record. Picture Ameer Abdullah diving into the end zone late in the Big House and Pat Smith making a clutch kick in overtime at Penn State.
Since 2016 the Huskers have been 13-34 in games not played just off of Vine Street.
This is not all doom and gloom. The Huskers had it in them to break through on the road last year. The game at Ohio State was one of their better ones of the season considering the eventual national champion foe. The Iowa game, with the Haweyes’ five first downs, still is a head shaker considering how much of the night was full of Blackshirts dominance.
So let’s look closer at this year’s five games outside of Lincoln. Nothing easy. We know better than that. But opportunities certainly.
5. Maryland: The Terps were 4-8 last year but also took down USC 29-28 at home in 2024. There were multiple score losses in their home venue to Rutgers and Iowa, and a 37-10 loss to Northwestern that was probably Mike Locksley’s team’s worst of the season.
But in this portal era teams flip their rosters so fast – and Maryland certainly did – it’s hard to even base too much from one season to the next. Interesting to see where Maryland goes on offense after bringing in Justyn Martin as a QB option from UCLA. But it sounds like Malik Washington was having as good of a spring as anyone at the spot.
By the time Nebraska arrives on Oct. 11, the Terps will also be playing their fifth home game of the first six on the schedule, with Washington coming there the week before NU. So they do have a chance to build momentum in their own yard. The Terrapins do find some playmakers at the skilled spots pretty routinely so no sleeping on them.
Although Nebraska’s last trip there, in 2019, was actually one of the best NU road trips recent memory – a 54-7 Husker win early in the Locksley era.
4. Cincinnati (at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City): It’s only slotted here because the Huskers will feel home away from home against the Bearcats, with a good bet it’s an 80/20 or more kind of Husker crowd.
Still, this is a tricky opener. Nebraska got it right last year for the first time in a while with UTEP coming into Lincoln in Week 1. These neutral site games on opening week often feel very quirky. And the Bearcats, though 5-7 last year, lost four games by a touchdown or less and beat eventual CFP participant Arizona State by 10. They return a starting QB in Brendan Sorsby, too. He threw for 2,813 yards with 18 touchdowns to seven interceptions.
I could make an argument it’s the biggest game of the year for NU and not just because it’s the next one. We’ve seen a lot of examples around here in past years how tones are set off the bat in these first games. The Huskers need to be dialed in and come back home 1-0 and ideally feed off that winning confidence.
