Once again, Nebraska’s Brian Buschini is ‘unsung hero’ for Huskers in win over Rutgers

Moments before, Rutgers’ Flip Dixon broke free through the middle of Nebraska’s punt shield and deflected the ball, but flew into Buschini in the process — while Buschini’s right leg was still at hip height in the air.

The crowd of 87,464 at Memorial Stadium collectively gasped as the two tumbled together, with Dixon falling under Buschini as Buschini flipped over him— with his helmet smacking into the turf at the Rutgers’ 46-yard line.

Dixon got up right away. Buschini didn’t. And the only movement the Helena, Montana, native made was to grab his lower right back.

“I got out there and he wasn’t moving. I was concerned,” Nebraska coach Matt Rhule said after NU’s 14-7 win over Rutgers. “And he was like, ‘I’m gonna be OK. I’m gonna be OK.’”

Buschini eventually hopped up. He gingerly jogged to the sideline while grimacing in visible pain. After a lengthy evaluation in the medical tent, he stayed in the game.

If we’ve learned anything about one Brian Buschini during his Nebraska tenure, he isn’t taking himself out of a game. Ever. It doesn’t matter if he’s limping. It doesn’t matter if he’s wearing a back brace in between punts. It doesn’t matter if he needs a quick in-game session with the massage gun.

“My back was hurting pretty good, but, honestly, it’s not something I ever thought about — coming out,” Buschini said. “God has put me in this position to be able to play here and this is my senior year. Like, there’s so many things — why on earth, (it’s) a little back pain. Like, who cares? Go out there and tough it out.

“If I go shank it 5 yards and it’s obviously better for them to put in Kamdyn (Koch), then they can take me out that way. But I’m not just gonna go out on my own terms. That’s not the type of person I want to be.”

No shanking happened. Another blocked punt, yes, but no shanking.

Instead, Buschini had his version of Michael Jordan’s infamous Flu Game.

To put it simply: Nebraska does not win on Saturday night without Brian Buschini’s heroics. Nebraska-Rutgers 2024 shall henceforth be remembered as the Brian Buschini game.

The five non-blocked punts sailed for 251 yards. That’s an average of 50.2 yards with two that landed inside the 20-yard line. Two of them went for 60-plus yards, including a 69-yard punt late in the fourth quarter to pin Rutgers at its 11-yard line with 2:17 to play that evoked a roar of “Buuuus” for Buschini.

“I love Brian,” junior cornerback Marques Buford Jr. said. “If we had 130 Brian Buschinis on this team, this would be a great team. A lot of the time, the kickers or the punters, they don’t get a lot of recognition or respect, but Brian holds weight on our team and today showed it. Gets hit, blocked punt, think he got hurt … just seeing him come back, he kicked like two or three kicks that were game-changing.”

That late-game 69-yard punt, that 61-yard punt in the second quarter that had Rutgers at its 24-yard line and a 41-yard punt in the fourth quarter that pinned the Scarlet Knights at the 5-yard line.

“Buschini is technically part of the defense, right? I mean, he’s doing his part of helping us pin them down in their own 10-yard line,” senior defensive end Ty Robinson said. “And that allows us as a defense to go out there and play a little bit more loose and more free became we know they’ve got to drive 90, 80 yards to go score a touchdown.

“So to watch him go out there and battle through the adversity was really awesome. It just kind of shows the character of him and that mentality we have as a team. That’s all throughout the team, and he’s done a great job at showing it.”

And, of course, there’s no forgetting his perfectly executed fake punt that resulted in him throwing a 30-yard pass to sophomore receiver Jaylen Lloyd.

Buschini says he’s never attempted a pass in a game before. Plenty of times in practice. Thousands of times in practice dating back to his days as a Montana Grizzly. But never in a game. Not until Saturday. It’s too bad it didn’t lead to any points for Nebraska, but it did give the Huskers a spark.

“Oh my gosh. He spun it, too,” Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola said with a smile. “I give it a 10 out of 10. I loved it.”

With all that in mind, what a day for Buschini.

Two very low points with those blocked punts. But incredible game-changing highs, too.

“Brian, we thought he was the unsung hero last week and I say he’s the unsung hero this week,” Rhule said. “… Brian, he showed the heart of a lion out there.”

Does he deserve a Blackshirt after this? And his three-tackle day against Purdue last week?

“Yeah we might have to,” Robinson said with a smile.

Buschini, though, he’s modest.

When informed of the comments from Robinson and Buford, he played coy.

“Those are nice words, but those dudes are dudes,” Buschini said. “Ty’s a freak of nature and I’m just the punter. That’s really nice of them to say that. I’m going competing against the ball and they’re competing against dudes that are trucking me if I go out there.”

Yeah. We got a glimpse of that in the first quarter. Don’t need that to happen regularly.

Luckily for Buschini, he — and the rest of the Huskers — get a week away from the gridiron thanks to the idle week. Lord knows they need the ice baths and the cold tubs, the infrared saunas and the hot tubs, and all the other newfangled recovery technology.

All those fancy gizmos and gadgets are game-changers, but they can’t replicate a break in the schedule. Pairing them together? Now that has the opportunity to make for a great combination.

At the halfway point of the season, Nebraska is 5-1. That’s the Huskers’ best start to a season since 2016. One win away from a bowl game. With six games to go. With a date against an undefeated Indiana on deck in two weeks.

There’s still plenty to correct. Plenty. Saturday sure wasn’t pretty, either. Nor was it particularly stat-heavy from the offensive side of things.

But Nebraska will take it. Heading into the idle week with a 5-1 record is much, much better than walking into it after a loss and sitting at 4-2.

“This’ll be a tape we can learn a lot from as we heal this week,” Rhule said. “… Glad we have a bye and see if we get better.”