This 2025 college football season feels like a ref horror flick. These ghosts in stripes have coaches fuming and playoffs twisting. And this time, it’s Matt Rhule’s Nebraska under the radar. By the third quarter, you can almost hear the boosters grinding their teeth in the suites while Husker boards light up with rage.

Nebraska alum and Bussin with the Boys’ co-host, Will Compton, didn’t hold back in showing his grudge over the officiators. “That’s the worst f—– call I’ve ever seen. Fire every referee,” he wrote on X. There was a series of wrong calls that sincerely broke the Cornhuskers’ momentum.

With 8:49 left in the first quarter, Nebraska got hit with a 15-yard facemask penalty during an Iowa kick return. That pushed the ball into Cornhusker territory and helped set up an Iowa field goal, which D.Stevens took from a 41-yard distance. For Nebraska, this was a momentum killer. Instead of forcing Iowa to drive the full length of the field, the penalty basically handed Iowa an early scoring chance and put the Nebraska defense in a tough spot from the start. The second wrong call was a punting penalty. It happened in the third quarter when R. Dakin booted a 53-yard punt down to the Nebraska 10-yard line.

J. Barney tried to return it from there, but Iowa chased him all the way back and tackled him in Nebraska’s own end zone. That play gave Iowa a safety. Getting tackled in their own end zone for a safety was a tough break for Nebraska. First, it gave Iowa 2 free points. Then, because of safety rules, Nebraska had to kick the ball back to Iowa. Lastly, there was a targeting foul committed by Nebraska that the referees completely ignored. In the third quarter, things got wild. Nebraska’s return man, Jacorey Barney Jr., caught the punt and barely had time to breathe before Iowa linebacker Karson Sharar came flying in and blasted him.

The hit knocked the ball loose, and it bounced all the way into Nebraska’s end zone, where Iowa picked up a safety. At first, the refs didn’t throw a flag for targeting. The hit looked nasty, so the announcers and fans immediately started calling for it. But after reviewing the play, the officials decided there just wasn’t enough proof that Sharar hit Barney in the head or neck. So the hit stood, the safety counted, and the game rolled on. All these plays, if judged properly, could have given Nebraska numerous opportunities to make points. But tragically, Nebraska fell short, losing 40-16 to the Hawkeyes.

What went wrong in the Lincoln Memorial Stadium?

Nebraska’s loss to Iowa felt like the same old story. Early on, Emmett Johnson looked like the hero the Huskers have been waiting for. He ripped off a 70‑yard run on the opening drive and piled up 177 of his career‑best 217 rushing yards before halftime. Then the script turned ugly. Right before the half, Mark Gronowski slipped in for a 1‑yard touchdown that shaved the cushion and quietly handed Iowa the momentum heading into the locker room. Coming out of the break, the game completely unraveled.

Gronowski added another rushing score. Kamari Moulton punched in a short TD, and what had been a one‑point game late in the second quarter detonated into a 34‑point Hawkeye avalanche. Meanwhile, Nebraska’s freshman quarterback, TJ Lateef, had the kind of first home start you try to bury in the tape archive. He completed just 9 of 24 passes for 69 yards as Iowa’s defense tightened the screws after halftime.

The Hawkeyes held Nebraska to only 69 second‑half yards after giving up 231 before the break. The Hawkeyes went on to beat their border rivals again for the 10 time in the last 11 matchups. The previous seven games were all tight, decided by a touchdown or less, but this one wasn’t even close. It was Iowa’s biggest win over Nebraska since that 56–14 blowout back in 2017.