Anthony Colandrea has already seen the trap Ohio can set for him. In December’s Frisco Bowl, the Bobcats held his UNLV offense to 10 points and Colandrea to 184 passing yards. Late in the first half, returning Ohio safety DJ Walker intercepted him at the two-yard line. Ohio won 17-10.
Now Colandrea gets the same opponent in a Nebraska uniform. That turns an otherwise straightforward opener into a useful second look. What has changed since Ohio made him labor for points?
Nebraska vs. Ohio: expect the win, inspect the offense
Saturday, Sept. 5, 11 a.m. CT, FS1
The Fan Watch model gives Nebraska a 78% chance to win. Calibrate the nerves accordingly. Ohio is capable of making this uncomfortable, but an ordinary Nebraska performance should produce a Nebraska victory.
The score alone will not answer the interesting question. Colandrea arrives after winning 2025 Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year at UNLV, where he produced 3,459 passing yards, 649 rushing yards and 33 combined touchdowns. Nebraska did not choose an untested replacement; it chose a senior with demonstrated passing and running production.
What Nebraska needs to see is that production becoming efficient offense in a new setting. Watch how often Colandrea reaches the right answer without inviting chaos. Does he take the available throw when Ohio protects against his legs? Does Nebraska keep manageable down-and-distance? When he scrambles, is it an advantage created by the design or an escape from a broken play? Most of all, watch him near scoring territory, where Walker’s bowl interception gives Ohio a recent, concrete success to draw upon.
There is continuity behind the experiment. Dana Holgorsen is in his second full season as Nebraska’s offensive coordinator after directing a 2025 offense that produced the Big Ten Running Back of the Year and a school season record for completion percentage. The personnel at quarterback has changed, but the person designing the operation has not. Saturday can begin to show whether Holgorsen has converted Colandrea’s dual-threat ability into something cleaner than the offense Ohio contained in December.
Do not demand a finished product after one afternoon. Do demand command. Demand fewer wasted possessions, better decisions around the goal line and an offense that does not need Colandrea to improvise its way out of trouble. A comfortable win with uneven quarterback play would still count in the standings, but it would leave the week’s real question open. A controlled performance against a defense that already knows how to frustrate him would mean more than piling up numbers against an unfamiliar opponent.
This is also the first football meeting between Nebraska and Ohio, according to Ohio’s 2026 schedule announcement. Yet for Colandrea, it is no introduction at all.
The interactive guide and methodology carry the broader model context. Here, the worthwhile evidence is whether a favored Nebraska team and its new quarterback have supplied a better answer to a familiar problem.