Iowa players pummel Nebraska’s Matt Rhule as tension boils over in victory

Iowa had the last laugh, but they found nothing funny about Nebraska’s behavior — and made sure they knew it.

After Iowa’s 13-10 victory over rival Nebraska on Friday, Hawkeyes linebackers Jay Higgins and Nick Jackson called out Cornhuskers head coach Matt Rhule and the team’s captains over their pregame antics.

They claimed Rhule went through Iowa’s pregame warmups.

“So we knew right away what type of game it was,” Higgins said.

Shortly thereafter, the Nebraska captains refused to shake the Iowa captains’ hands during the pregame coin toss, instead staring either straight ahead or at the ground as the Hawkeyes extended their arms.

Higgins claimed that during Iowa’s first defensive tackle, he said to Rhule, “It probably wasn’t a good idea not to shake our hands,” to which Rhule responded, “Who are you?”

However, Nebraska took a 10-0 lead into halftime before falling apart in the second half.

“How good did you feel at halftime? We didn’t shake hands until 10, they were probably in the locker room going crazy. But it felt great hitting her. Trophy game, everything was on the line.”

Iowa then scored 13 unanswered points in the second half, culminating in a game-winning 53-yard field goal by Drew Stevens as time expired.

After the game, Higgins ran right up to Rhule in midfield to shake his hand.

Asked if Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz would ever do something similar, Higgins tried again.

“No, no, no, never,” Jackson said. “Come to Iowa and be a Hawk, experience the difference.”

Iowa finished the regular season 8-4 overall and 6-3 in the conference, while Nebraska finished 6-6 overall and 3-6 in the conference.

“I can’t imagine being one of those seniors and then having that happen again against Iowa, especially the way we played,” Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule said after the game.

Iowa’s social media department even got in on the fun, posting a video of X of Nebraska’s refusal to shake hands with the caption “Ope” accompanied by a laughing emoji.