In November, Huskers to Meet Several Big-Name Coaches

Part Three of Three

In Part Three of our look at the coaches Nebraska will face in 2025, Huskers fans know three of them quite well.

So do most college football fans.

USC’s Lincoln Riley, Penn State’s James Franklin and Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz have combined for 422 victories. The November coaches — these three plus UCLA’s DeShaun Foster — are 14-7 against the Huskers.

Under Matt Rhule, the Huskers are 0-4 against the November opponents. Rhule’s college career record is 59-56 (.513) in nine seasons, and 12-13 (.048) in two seasons at Nebraska. He was 11-27 while coaching the NFL’s Carolina Panthers.

Part One of our series looked at the August-September opponents on Monday, and Part Two covered the October opponents on Tuesday.

At Memorial Stadium
Time and TV TBD

Trojans coach: Lincoln Riley

Riley record: 81-24 (.771). He is 26-14 (.650) in three seasons at USC. He was 55-10 (.846) in five seasons at Oklahoma.

Riley vs. Nebraska: 2-0, when he coached at Oklahoma.

Rhule and Nebraska vs. USC: 0-1

USC hiring Riley in 2022 was considered a huge coup, but his record with the Trojans is 26-14 — decent but certainly not spectacular. USC went 7-6 and 4-5 in the conference in its first Big Ten season.

Riley has coached three recent Heisman Trophy winners, all quarterbacks: Caleb Williams at USC, Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray at Oklahoma.

Riley won four Big 12 championships at Oklahoma. The Sooners went to four New Year’s Six bowl games and three College Football Playoff appearances.

He was a walk-on quarterback at Texas Tech. 

Time and TV TBD

Bruins coach: DeShaun Foster

Foster’s record: 5-7 (.417)

Foster vs. Nebraska: 1-0 

Rhule and Nebraska vs. UCLA: 0-1

Foster landed the Bruins head-coaching job in February 2024, after Chip Kelly left UCLA to become the offensive coordinator at Ohio State.

Foster, a running back, played at UCLA and played five seasons in the NFL with the Panthers and one season with the 49ers.

He spent 10 of the last 11 seasons coaching at UCLA. He was a graduate assistant in 2014-15, coached the running backs from 2017-23 and was an associate head coach in 2023. He coached the running backs at Texas Tech in 2016.

UCLA went 5-7 in its first Big Ten season. The Bruins did win four of their final six games, including a 27-20 win at Nebraska.

Time and TV TBD

Nittany Lions coach: James Franklin

Franklin record: 125-57 (.687) in 14 seasons. Franklin is at 101-42 (.706) in 11 seasons at PSU. He was 24-15 (.615) in three seasons at Vanderbilt.

Franklin vs. Nebraska: 1-1

Rhule and Nebraska vs. Penn State: 0-0

Franklin has an impressive record at Penn State but his inability to win a big game haunts him. Franklin and the Nittany Lions are 1-10 vs. Ohio State and 3-7 vs. Michigan. Since the Big Ten abandoned its two-division conference format in 2024, Penn State has escaped Ohio State and Michigan dominating in the East Division.

Penn State won two games in last season’s College Football Playoff — defeating SMU and Boise State — before losing to Notre Dame in the semifinals.

As usual, the Nittany Lions have a stacked roster and many experts say they are a lock for the College Football Playoff.

Franklin was a quarterback at East Stroudsburg University.

At Memorial Stadium, 11 a.m. CBS

Hawkeyes coach: Kirk Ferentz

Ferentz record: 216-145 in 29 seasons (first three seasons were at Maine). He is 204-124 (.622) in 26 seasons at Iowa.

Ferentz vs. Nebraska: 10-6

Rhule and Nebraska vs. Iowa: 0-2

Ferentz and the Hawkeyes will provide a difficult, season-finale matchup for Nebraska. Iowa has won nine of the last 10 meetings. The only Cornhuskers victory in that time frame was in 2022. Iowa is 21-3 in November games since 2019.

Nebraska has lost its last six home games to Iowa. The last Huskers win over Iowa in Lincoln was in 2011, by 20-7. The Hawkeyes haven’t had a losing season under Ferentz since 2012.

Iowa hired Tim Lester in January as offensive coordinator. Lester, who replaced Ferentz’s son Brian, has 22 years of coaching experience. He was a head coach for 12 years and in 2024, he was a senior analyst for the Green Bay Packers.

Ferentz was a linebacker at Connecticut.

Related: Early season opponents. October opponents.

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