The Husker defense put together one of the best performances for the Nebraska football program in the last few years against Minnesota. Just take a look at each of these numbers, and they all stand out:

• 251 total offensive yards allowed: The fewest yards Nebraska has allowed since limiting Maryland to 206 yards in 2019.

• 3.6 yards allowed per play: The Gophers gained those 251 yards on 69 plays (13 more plays than the Husker offense, so the defense was on the field for a noticeably longer amount).

• 55 yards rushing allowed on 25 carries: That’s just 2.2 yards per carry from a Gophers squad that used to wreak havoc on the Nebraska run defense.

• 196 yards passing and just a 54.5% completion percentage for Athan Kaliakmanis: The Minnesota quarterback was slinging the ball all throughout the night with just 24 completions on 44 passing attempts.

• 4.5 yards per attempt and 8.2 yards per completion

• 3.0 sacks: One apiece from Luke Reimer, Blaise Gunnerson and Nash Hutmacher – the latter two of whom recorded their first career fourth-quarter sacks.

• 3 points allowed in the first half: That’s despite the Gophers owning time of possession with an 18:06 to 11:54 advantage on the clock.

It all added up to a thoroughly impressive debut for first-year Husker defensive coordinator Tony White and the unit running his 3-3-5 system.

Watching and listening to White during his Tuesday night interview on Huskers Radio Network, however, his tone, demeanor and overall response to receiving such high praise was pretty much what you would expect from a DC whose team is coming off a loss.

It didn’t matter as much. Nebraska still lost the game, and the Huskers still have a lot of areas they can, and need to, improve upon.

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