Somewhere, Trev Alberts and Matt Rhule were smiling after they got the monkey off their back – and off the Nebraska football program’s back – late Saturday night.

Actually, we know exactly where they were smiling: the locker room.

That’s where Alberts handed out the game ball to Rhule after the Huskers earned the first win of a new era, 35-11, over a Northern Illinois team that was kind enough to cover the 42.5 over/under spread via a garbage time touchdown with less than five seconds remaining. It was a last-minute score that downgraded Nebraska’s defensive performance from super-duper dominant to just, simply, super dominant.