'A Ceiling That Wasn't There Before': Why Jake Butt's Words About Nebraska's 2025 Group Are Resonating

The 2025 college football season nears, and this week, the Big Ten Network was in Lincoln to watch Nebraska's practice. The words of former Michigan tight end Jake Butt resonated with Josh Peterson and Jack Mitchell, and it led to a discussion on their flagship Saturday Morning Coffee Show.

Below is a lightly edited transcript about what Butt had to say and their reaction to his positivity.

Josh: I sent you that really long tweet that Jake Butt sent out yesterday, a former Michigan tight end. He was in Lincoln for the practice that Nebraska had yesterday, and Jack, those who don't want to be excited about the 2025 Nebraska football season; well, I don't know if they're gonna like this tweet very much.

Jack: We’ve made these jokes before. BTN, they don't really go in on the [camp tour] thing and say anybody sucks, right? I mean, it is pretty generally positive. And why would they? They’re getting hosted. They're not gonna come in and just really talk about weaknesses. It's about accentuating the positive. And so it's just worth keeping that in mind as I always do when these folks are there.

Now, with all that said, yeah, it fired me up. Yes!

One more note from @NebraskaOnBTN practice today. What has defined Neb football?

1 score, close games. Winning or lack thereof in November. Small details.
So how do you fix/ change that?

It’s not one massive, sweeping change. In fact it’s the exact opposite… it’s the small,…
— Jake Butt (@Jbooty88) August 1, 2025

Josh: It began with, “What's the story of Nebraska football lately? One score close games; winning or lack thereof in November. Small details. So how do you fix/change that?” And he wrote, “It's not a massive sweeping change. In fact, it's the opposite. It's a lot of the little things that are going to build up.” And so, he mentioned that it shows up for the team in a variety of ways.

One of them was involving the offensive line and kind of how they entered the field, and how Donovan Raiola was like, “Whoa, why are you doing it this way? You need to do it with a bit more energy.” So that was one thing. There was another in terms of how the receivers or running backs were handing the ball, or not handing the ball to the officials. “Don't toss it to them. Hand the ball to them.” And that was something that was apparently emphasized. And there was also a moment in the practice where 12 men were on the field, Rhule below blew the whistle, had them run a gasser. He says, “This will be what you want it to be.” It was a quote from Matt Rhule.

But I wanted to read I wanted to read this paragraph, Jack, because I think that this is the part where, for those who don't want to be excited, you know, earmuffs, as [subscriber] Chuck said a few moments ago.

“Most of the key coaching points were small details about situational football. That will decide what season this will be for Nebraska football. It's clear to me they have a top tier quarterback, wide receivers are studs, offensive line looks lean, strong, deep. They'll be better. Defensive secondary is deep and experienced. They have plenty of talent combined with the schedule to be very much in the hunt for a playoff spot. They are not built to blow out most of the teams on the schedule. Meaning, expect close games. Small details, focus, communication, execution will separate Nebraska or someone else from the pack. Excited to watch. This team will be amazing and electrifying. Whenever the day comes for Nebraska to host a playoff game. Remains to be seen if that will be this year or not.”

Jack, how you feeling?

The atmosphere for Nebraska's 2024 win over Colorado was one people will talk about for years. What if Memorial Stadium hosted a playoff game? | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

Jack: I need a cigarette. I am very excited. Wow. I mean, he really was effusive, wasn't he? Really was effusive. In watching the show, or at least the first half of it that I did, man. Listen, I get it. You don't need to tell me that sometimes hype turns into disappointment. But that's okay. I like the feeling of hype. I like how it makes me tingle. I am gonna I am gonna embrace the hype. I know others don't, but it fuels me. I enjoy it. It makes me happy, and especially Josh, you know which one's making me tingle the most this year? Oh, that offensive line talk.

I'm starting to get excited about [the offensive line] and then I heard Emmett Johnson and Dylan Raiola talk about them and those guys. Listen, you say what you want about those guys but they're pretty good hype men. I'm just excited about the whole kind of sort of buddy comedy movie that Emmett Johnson and Dylan Raiola is and I just want those two to succeed. And they're like best friends but they're also really good in interviews

Dylan Raiola and Emmett Johnson are big keys to Nebraska's 2025. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

They're doing a good job of raising the possible ceiling on my thoughts about the offensive line. And this goes to the question that you asked me on your show yesterday

Josh: “Do you allow yourself to think that the offensive line won't just be good but could be a strength?”

Jack: Yes. And my answer to that has just been we know who a bunch of those guys on the offensive line are because they've had tons of experience. And so, there's not really going to be a surprise. I think there's probably room to grow for [Gunnar] Gottula. And [Teddy] Prochazka, if he would stay healthy, he could have some significant room to grow. I think [Henry] Lutovsky and Corcoran; they're pretty established in who they are.

You combine all of that depth and experience with the two transfers coming in, and the transfers being really good, that's when it explodes to me. If you get the best out of that experience group, you combine them with those two guys, and [Justin] Evans and probably Lutovsky and then whoever that next tackle is picked the best one out of that whole group to be the other tackle. It’s a ceiling thing that wasn't there before, and that's what this whole team is. Maybe it always is that; maybe I'm just realizing this is what we say at the beginning of every year, but I feel like there's a ceiling on the offensive line that there wasn't before, and it's primarily because that transfer class.

Watch the entire episode below!

On this week's episode, they also discussed why they're excited for the 2025 CFB season. From players like Arch Manning and Caleb Downs, to matchups like Ohio State vs. Texas, and everything in between, they discussed it all!

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