On Tuesday’s airing of “The Joel Klatt Show,” college football analyst Joel Klatt expressed his excitement about the Nebraska Cornhuskers’ return to relevance so far this season, particularly following Saturday’s blowout 28-10 victory over the Colorado Buffaloes. Nebraska, which has been stuck in relative mediocrity since former head coach Bo Pelini was fired in 2014, appears to finally have broken through in their second season with head coach Matt Rhule.

Klatt mentioned that the Nebraska fanbase that has longed for a consistently competitive program for the past two decades may finally get their wish this fall. “Nebraska, I thought that was an incredibly cool thing to see that environment, Klatt said. “That fan base has been begging for something that’s real for the better part of, let’s face it, what do you think, Husker fans, like two decades? And guess what? You’ve been coming every single Saturday in those two decades. This was the 398th straight sellout at Memorial Stadium. Nebraska was the standard in college football. And their fan bases just have been desperate, hungry for anything that resembles that. And at this point, they’re like, ‘Just give us something competitive.’ ‘Just give us something that is not in the middle of our conference. We are a proud program.’ And they are. And they are. And now they’ve got something that they can be proud of. I’m here to tell you that what I was saying in the preseason is coming to fruition during the regular season. Nebraska is going to be an issue for people.” Klatt added that while Nebraska’s drubbing of the Buffaloes on Saturday may not entirely represent how successful the program will be this year, it still has a skilled roster, particularly at the quarterback position with Dylan Raiola.

“Now, is Colorado a great team? Not sure. Might be a five-win team. Might be a six-win team. Maybe a four-win team,” Klatt added.

“But Dylan Raiola is very talented. That’s a quarterback that does not look like a true freshman. The way that he moves, his arm talent from every angle, his accuracy, his ability to go down the field, he did not look rattled at any point. And it wasn’t just because of the lack of pressure in his face. That’s just his nature. So, Raiola is doing exactly what he needs to do. I’ve been arguing that all he needs to do is be a net positive for Nebraska. He’s more than a net positive for Nebraska. He’s becoming a factor. He knows where to go with the ball. And I like his game. And the defense, I thought, is real. And I knew that they were going to be real coming into this.”

Klatt continued by detailing how he believes Nebraska can take the next step in its revitalization under Matt Rhule by winning the games they’re supposed to win and play with the same confidence it showed on Sturday against Colorado.

“This team, now all they need to do is continue to win the games that they should win,” Klatt said. “What we’ve seen from Nebraska in the past is that they play these games and it’s like, ‘why are they in a three-point game?’ And they would fail in terms of game situation, late in games, and they would lose. And they would lose games that they shouldn’t lose… constantly. One-score games. In fact, they did it last year. Remember, and I keep telling you about this. They played five one-score games, turned the ball over 17 times in those games, 14 of them by the quarterback. I believe those numbers are right. And if they’re not, they’re off by like maybe one. They lost those games because of turnovers. If they just turn the turnovers into ball security, then they’re going to be dangerous. They just need to show up every single week and look like the team that played against Colorado. You could tell they were highly motivated. They played like it. And I’m here to say that I’m excited for it. I’m very excited that Nebraska is back because that fan base deserves it.”

Nebraska will look to continue its hot start to the 2024 campaign on Sept. 14 when they welcome the FCS-level Northern Iowa Panthers to Memorial Stadium for a 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff on the Big Ten Network.