Husker football will now play Rutgers on a Friday night in 2022
Nebraska football will play another Big Ten road game under the Friday night lights at Rutgers this season as the game was moved up one day earlier than originally scheduled.
omaha.com
Husker football will now play Rutgers on a Friday night in 2022
- Sam McKewon
- Feb 9, 2022 Updated 12 min ago
NU and RU will play Oct. 7 in Piscataway, New Jersey, one day earlier than originally scheduled.
The teams last played on a Friday night on Dec. 18, 2020, in an empty stadium at the height of the COVID pandemic, to a handful of stadium workers, team officials and reporters. The Huskers won 28-21 and promptly voted the next day to forgo a bowl game.
This time Rutgers will presumably hope to attract a far bigger crowd — both in the seats and on TV — by moving what likely would have been a noon Saturday kick to Friday prime time. A kickoff time will be announced this spring.
RU represents NU's first true road game of the 2022 season. The Huskers open with a neutral-site contest against Northwestern in Ireland that is expected to attract more Husker fans than Wildcat fans.
After the Oct. 7 game against the Scarlet Knights, NU heads to Purdue Oct. 15. The Rutgers game is preceded by an Oct. 1 home game against Indiana.
Nebraska routinely plays one Friday game per year against rival Iowa. In 2017, it played at Illinois on a Friday night, winning 28-6. The 2020 COVID game was NU's second recent foray into the Friday night games.
One other Big Ten team, Michigan State, announced its home opener against Western Michigan will be played on Friday night. MSU has in recent years moved its season opener off of Saturdays.