Nebraska came back off holiday break by avenging last season’s loss to Northern Iowa, downing the Panthers 30-6 in Lincoln this past weekend.

Last season, UNI beat the Huskers 24-9 to start the new year, but the Huskers flipped the script this year by winning eight matches.

“The last couple of years, we’ve had a little bit of a flat performance off the break, so that was a point of emphasis — structuring practices and making sure that it was on the guys’ minds, so I think that they handled that well,” Nebraska assistant coach Tervel Dlagnev said. “I thought we were the aggressor and our shape looked good. It’s really hard to score 30 points on another team, especially a team in the Top-15 and a team that’s well coached like UNI, a team that beat you last time out.”

Despite the fairly dominant win, a lot of the chatter surrounding the dual surrounded the absence of #4 AJ Ferrari from the lineup at heavyweight. Ferrari is 5-1 on the year but has wrestled just one match since the National Duals Invitational in mid-November.

At National Duals, Ferrari suffered a concussion against Ohio State’s #3 Nick Feldman in a 5-4 loss. Ferrari finished the match before downing #8 Konner Doucet 2-1 in the third-place dual, but he’s wrestled one match since — on Dec. 19 against North Carolina. Ferrari pinned backup Michael Calcagno, but it was clear to him and the staff that he needed to be more prepared.

“He got a pretty significant concussion at National Duals in that Feldman match where he kind of clipped in and out — it kind of got progressively worse on the ride home,” Dlagnev said. “He came back and had a couple practices the week of North Carolina. He’s a competitor, so I think that sometimes he under-reads the importance of preparations. He’s like, ‘I’m just a savage.’ 

“It is very impressive what he can do when he puts his mind to it when it’s competition time, but he had two workouts. He went out against North Carolina against their backup and he put it on him, but I think he kind of felt that he’s not where he needs to be.”

With the addition of Ferrari via the transfer portal and true freshman Cade Ziola from the 2025 recruiting class, Nebraska went from heavyweight being a weakness to a strength. Nebraska’s 2024-25 starter Harley Andrews is all of a sudden third on the depth chart.

This depth has allowed Nebraska the luxury of exercising extreme caution and not rushing Ferrari back to action, especially considering he was in a walking boot leading up to the season with a turf toe injury.

“He’s just on the mend. We have Harley, who is probably a top-20 guy and we have Cade,” Dlagnev said. “It’s (Ferrari’s) first year at heavyweight and he’s a lighter heavyweight, and his style of wrestling is kind of brute — he kind of just double-legs you in the face. We just want a couple more practices and fighting in the room before we send him out there.

“College wrestling is a grind, so we just want to be smart because we don’t want this to plague us — like be under-prepared and get injured, then miss a couple duals. We just want to kind of get him right, and we have a good heavyweight room, so we have the means to do that.”

With Ziola in Coralville making the Soldier Salute final this weekend, Nebraska went with Andrews against Northern Iowa’s Adam Ahrendsen. Andrews navigated a back-and-forth match, eventually winning 16-7 with a late takedown to Ahrendsen’s back.

“He’s a really good wrestler and he can wrestle at a very high level, but he carries a little bit of performance anxiety,” Dlagnev said of Andrews. “That was a big moment for him. I’ve seen him panic there and shoot himself out of the match, and he kind of just stood his ground and built his lead and got the major even when he didn’t need it. I think that showed incredible maturity and just fighting for your team.”

Not to be outdone, Ziola was one of the stories of the Soldier Salute. The smallest heavyweight in the field, the true freshman Ziola avenged a loss to Minnesota’s Bennett Tabor by beating him 4-2 in the quarters before downing #15 Spencer Lanosga of Navy 4-1 in sudden victory in the semis.

In the final, Ziola fell to #10 Koy Hopke 5-3, but he did beat the Gopher starter 8-7 earlier in the year at the Bison Open. 

“He’s already a major problem. People are definitely afraid to shoot on him — he’s 220 pounds and sixth-year seniors are definitely afraid to shoot on him. He’s all over these guys,” Dlagnev said. “The matches leading up to the finals were close on the scoreboard, but they really weren’t that close in the action. In the finals, he was kind of all over that kid and he gave up a takedown. That’s not the kind of match that you worry about the next time. I’m more like, ‘Let’s run that back,’ and I feel very good about that match moving forward.”

According to Dlagnev, Nebraska’s future at heavyweight is extremely bright with Ziola, especially once they get some weight on him.

“He’s got to put on another 15 pounds, and he’s slowly working his way up, but I think he’ll balloon after the season, most likely. He’s going to go from kicking your butt 4-2 to kicking your butt 12-2 — that 15 to 20 pounds is going to be a big separator,” Dlagnev said. “No one is out there just whooping him, and at his size and the weight class, it's incredibly encouraging for the future. We think he’s going to be a superstar. Obviously, wrestling is hard, and it’s not like he’s going to ride off into the sunset and never lose again, but the reality is that he’s going to put himself in the position to do some really cool stuff if he keeps his enthusiasm and love for getting better.”

According to Dlagnev — an Olympic bronze-medalist at heavyweight in 2012 who is very hands-on with Nebraska’s upperweights — the sky is the limit for Ziola.

“No one is going to kick Cade’s butt because he’s just so miserable to wrestle and it’s just such a unique style. Unless he just completely mentally checks out, it’s going to be very difficult to hang a bunch of points on him; he’s going to be in every match,” Dlagnev said. “There’s like a massive level jump that’s brewing, and it’s going to happen when Cade actually realizes how good he is. When he realizes that he is in the conversation and he belongs — because he’s still doing everything he’s doing with incredible respect for his opposition. 

“He’s just like a kid in a candy store and he’s just happy to be there and he’s so excited, but there’s going to be a moment in time where he goes ‘Wait a second,’ and it’s going to be an absolute problem in any style and any weight. I really think he’s going to be a problem for a long time, especially if he keeps improving, loving it, doesn’t get too hung up on distractions like winning and prizes, but just keeps loving it like he loves it and puts on a little weight, he’s going to be an absolute freak.”

Saturday Standouts

Nebraska had a number of impressive performances against UNI, but Dlagnev really liked what he saw from #6 Christophoer Minto at 174, #8 Jacob Van Dee at 133, and #14 Chance Lamer at 149. 

Minto beat #19 Jared Simma by 10-1 major decision, while Van Dee downed #18 Julian Farber 5-0. Lamer earned his first dual win as a Husker with a 19-4 technical fall against Ethan Basile.

“Minto is rock solid — he’s super stingy, but he’s also now becoming a really good wrestler. He was the wrestler of the night for me just because he’s been trying to break through offensively, and it was finally one of those moments where everything he’s been working for months in his individual work finally shined through in the live wrestling,” Dlagnev said. “He was fast to the leg, he was penetrating under guys and was fully committing to his leg attacks. He wasn’t just trying ankle picks, it was full-send under, so that was a big breakthrough from practice to competition which you love to see.”

As for Van Dee, who is 10-1 on the year, Dlagnev loves the toughness and willingness to fight that the Pennsylvania native brings to the table.

“He’s always been a tough person and a hard worker. He’s never had quit, but he also has some anxiety just like anybody — he wants to squeeze late and wants to be perfect at times,” Dlagnev said. “I think that’s been his struggle, and I think he’s starting to let that go. You can see it in his energy level, you can see it in his hand fight, he’s starting to relax and more positions are opening up for him.”

According to Dlagnev, Lamer opened up and let loose against UNI after being too tight in a 7-2 loss against Oklahoma State’s #11 Casey Swiderski in his first career dual as a Husker.

“Against Oklahoma State he was very squeezey — he was desperate for an underhook,” Dlagnev said. “This time, the underhook wasn’t coming. So what? I’ll do other moves. He wrestled his defense, he was breathing, he was fast to his re-attack, and he shot under the guy. He was very shallow against Oklahoma State.

“Just getting him to smile and be excited to go fight someone was really exciting.”

Nebraska Prepared For Big Ten Grind

According to Dlagnev, Nebraska’s initial intense portion of its training regimen was a success, meaning the Huskers are physically ready to take on the grind that is the Big Ten dual season. That in turn will allow them to ratchet back their practice intensity going forward in anticipation of said grind.

“We’ve kind of completed our building portion. Our ability to get our opponent tired the other night was a good snapshot that our building phase was effective,” Dlagnev said. “We’re not out of shape, so if we get tired it’s more likely going to be nerves or circumstances, but we’re a physically prepared team. Now the physicality of practice can be dialed down because once you have the durability to fight hard, you can dial back those intense practices.”

Nebraska starts conference dual season Friday when it hosts Purdue, but it has upcoming dates in a busy January against top teams Minnesota, Iowa, Ohio State and Penn State in consecutive duals, so the emphasis will be on individual work, recovery, learning, sweating and sharpening, according to Dlagnev.

“That big physical durability phase, we’ve done a good job with,” he said. “Now we just have to keep people healthy and dial the intensity in and out and let our guys’ most intense minutes of their week be in the match.”