The freshman Nebraska quarterback hugged each one — his mom, Yvonne, was crying — until he reached his young cousin, whom he hugged, grabbed and tossed, joyously, five yards in the air.

On an afternoon full of great throws, it might have been his best, and it fit the scene around him after NU’s 44-25 win over Wisconsin.

Fans warmly milled around the field, erupting at the news of Nebraska’s sixth win officially the team becoming bowl eligible. Seniors lingered in victorious reverie — what defensive lineman Ty Robinson called a “Cinderella ending” to his career.

“It’s a surreal moment today,” Robinson said. “It’s awesome.”

The seven-season bowl drought is dead. So is the 10-game, nearly-12-year losing streak to the Badgers. And Nebraska slayed the twin dragons in a way, just two weeks ago, few would have imagined.

With its offense rolling up 473 yards, 24 first downs and eight scoring drives without allowing a sack or a tackle for loss.

For seven long years, opponents would not give NU a sixth win on a platter. So, from a dominant opening drive to a final one-yard leap on a play called “Apollo,” the Huskers took. And took. And took. Until they raced across the field and hoisted a trophy that, since its creation in 2014, they’d never touched.

“It was exciting,” Raiola said after completing 28 of 38 passes for 293 yards. “It felt good to finally put it all together.”

“Man, I’m going to really enjoy tonight,” said safety Isaac Gifford, one of many seniors who’d never tasted a bowl berth. He said the win was for the seniors, the guys who’d already graduated without making a bowl, and even fans who stood by the program in its valley. It “felt good,” Gifford said, to get the win for a state “that goes through it with us.”

For coach Matt Rhule, by turns understated, exhausted and reflective after the game, it was, yes, a bit of “relief,” that Year 2 wouldn’t be a mirror image of Year 1’s no-win November. And it was full confirmation that his decision to hire Dana Holgorsen as the team’s new playcaller, nine games, into the season, was a gamble worth taking.

“Dylan was really on,” Rhule said as Athletic Director Troy Dannen wearing a “Bowl Bound ‘24” shirt, watched the presser with Gov. Jim Pillen. “And we ran the football really well.”

To the tune of 180 yards, five yards per carry and four rushing touchdowns. Plus, a number of Raiola’s throws — on screens and quick passes to the flat — functioned like runs that forced Badger defenders to shed blockers and tackle athletic Huskers in space.

That’s part of what Holgorsen envisioned when he arrived two days after NU’s sludgy 27-20 loss to UCLA. Take the onus on the scheme. Put the onus on getting the ball out of Raiola’s hands and into that of playmakers like Emmett Johnson (198 all-purpose yards) and Jacory Barney (nine catches, 85 yards). Five different Huskers ran the ball. Eight different Huskers caught it.

When Nebraska boards that charter plane for its bowl destination, Holgorsen just might get first dibs at seats.

“He keeps the game simple and allows me to do me,” said Johnson, NU’s first 100-yard rusher this season.

“You can call whatever on the sheet — close your eyes and call whatever — and we have to just execute it,” Raiola said.

“I think the biggest thing he’s brought is a little bit of swagger to them,” Rhule said.

In front of 86,923 fans the Huskers (6-5, 3-5) swaggered from the start They needed six plays and fewer than three minutes to score their first touchdown. Holgorsen debuted a two-back set, Johnson and Dante Dowdell, and dealt downhill runs and playaction passes down the Badger 5, where backup quarterback Heinrich Haarberg trotted onto the field and scored behind a convoy of blockers.

While Wisconsin (5-6, 3-5) promptly answered with a 82-yard touchdown drive of its own, Nebraska had much more in store for a Badger defense that held No. 1 Oregon to 16 points.

A route combination that consistently got Jahmal Banks open over the middle while receivers crossed underneath him. A short-side power sweep, backs following two pulling linemen, while three receivers as decoys drew defenders to the other half of the field. A rocket route that had Johnson starting from the backfield and running free for a 27-yard reception into the Wisconsin secondary.

The Huskers added two more touchdowns in the first half and tacked on a John Hohl field goal just before half when the Badgers, instead of kneeling out the remaining second quarter clock, ran the ball and lost a fumble.

NU led 24-10 at half. By late in the third quarter, the Huskers had pushed the advantage 34-10 with a Dante Dowdell touchdown from three yards out.

The Badgers, having fired their own offensive coordinator six days ago, bit back on touchdown throws of 24 and 58 yards, as NU’s defense was forced to play redshirting cornerback Blye Hill, still returning from a serious knee injury suffered last spring. A 24-point pad had been cut in half, 37-25, with 8:30 left.

This might have been a pucker moment a month ago, and if Rhule was left to his own devices, he might have bled clock, played conservatively, tried to hold on for that sixth win. Raiola said he even asked Rhule what Nebraska intended to do.

Run the offense, Rhule said. Holgo is here.

“I loved it,” Raiola said. “…I’m glad we did. We played really loose, played really free tonight.”

NU ate up 5:19 of the clock and moved 75 yards over 10 plays. Wisconsin helped with three personal foul flags, but Nebraska to some degree caused those penalties with its aggression. The final score, Dowdell leaping over the top, allowed both Robinson and defensive lineman Elijah Jeudy to serve as lead blockers.

The play, Robinson said, is called “Apollo.”

Seems right, given Nebraska’s achievement Saturday night.

And so the stadium dance party started in earnest with 3:11 left and NU up 19. It continued with a DeShon Singleton interception, a playing of Wisconsin’s “Jump Around” theme song, a series of kneeldowns, and, at game’s end, the mad dash for a trophy.

“I had forgotten there was a trophy,” Rhule said. It’s not the way his brain works, he said.

Also, Nebraska had never won it.

Next week, the Huskers can win back The Heroes Trophy that’ll sit in one end zone of Kinnick Stadium, where Iowa plays. NU will be an underdog. It won’t deter Raiola.

It was the quarterback, after all, who said in the wake of the USC loss that NU would win the Wisconsin game. It wasn’t quite a guarantee, but he meant it, and he got his feeling from how Husker players just acted after the Trojans won.

They were ready, Raiola thought, to take off. Certainly, the offense was.

“I’m a big vibes person,” he said.

Nebraska had all of the best vibes Saturday evening. The drought is dead. The losing streak is, too.

“The cloud that kind of hangs over everything, it’s gone,” Rhule said. “This is the last time we celebrate six wins.”