Husker Football 2026: Another Voyage Into the Unknown

Matt Rhule may have his best Nebraska team yet. After years of disappointment, the Huskers still have to prove they're worthy of any hype, or hope.

Nebraska coach Matt Rhule patrols the sideline against Michigan. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Fall camp will effectively wrap up this weekend, marking an end to the off-season’s rosy prognostications and throwing cold water on fans across the country. Hard truths await many.

The initial coaches Top 25 opened with eight, count ‘em, eight Big Ten schools – and Nebraska wasn’t one of them. The Huskers didn’t earn a single vote in the preseason AP poll. The omissions feel like less of an oversight and more of a recognition that Nebraska generally underwhelms once rubber meets the proverbial road, especially in the tundra of November, where Matt Rhule’s record is abysmal.

As we’ve seen with our perennially brittle Huskers, whether under the volatile Bo Pelini, or the laid back and likeable Rhule, one bad break is all it takes for spirits to sink and resignation to set in. “Here we go again…” we all mumble to ourselves. Pretty sure Melvin Gordon just scored again.  

Few Husker fans remain during the final few minutes of the 2025 Iowa-Nebraska game in Memorial Stadium. | Cory Edmondson, KFGE

Rhule says he has his best team yet – I don’t disagree with him. But Nebraska’s had better rosters than many of the teams its lost to over the last three years – 2023 Maryland, 2024 UCLA, 2025 Minnesota – because they’ve lacked the kind of in-game coaching that can provide an edge or the kind of dudes that put the team on their backs like an Ameer Abdullah or Lavonte David in crunch time. Will 2026 be any different? I have my doubts.

Speculation That May Look Really Dumb in Two Months

We know less about this iteration of the Cornhuskers than we do about dark matter. Either because Rhule absorbed the feedback about toning down the rhetoric or because they want to catch opponents off-guard (or both, I guess), they haven’t given much away this camp season. We know the Blackshirts will line up with 4-2-5 personnel and the offense will deploy some type of spread with a QB run game. That’s about as much as we know of the whole.

The individual parts give cause for cheer and concern.

Here's some speculation that may look particularly stupid by October: I think Rob Aurich eventually gets Nebraska back among the elite defenses in the sport. He coaches defense the way Charlie McBride did post-1992: simple, fast, and plenty violent.

Nebraska defensive coordinator Rob Aurich | Nebraska Athletics

I say "eventually" because it may take more than a year to reinvigorate the flagging Blackshirts. Dwayne McDougle is good, but how well-rehearsed are he and Jamir Conn (Caleb Benning?) at playing together at safety? Last time we saw Jeremiah Charles, he was getting picked on by Ethan Garbers and a bowl-less UCLA squad. Victor Evans was playing in Conference USA last year – covering Middle Tennessee State slot backs is different than what Ohio State and Oregon will line up across from him. 

I’m lapping up the Owen Chambliss hype, but lump me in with the cynics who worry he won’t be fully healed from his toe injury. Feet are tricky – they ruined the senior years of Taylor Martinez and Tommi Hill (different situations, I know). I saw enough film of Dexter Foster in Corvallis to know he packs a physical punch but also misreads plenty of run fits, too. Here’s hoping Vincent Shavers makes good on his tantalizing potential this season.

Speaking of potential, maybe Jahsear Whittington will live up to the hopes that have been laid at his nimble feet and Nebraska will cobble a stingy run defense together with a smaller but quicker group. But odds are the Huskers don’t have the beef up front to repel the Big Ten’s more formidable lines. The D-Line appears to be a year away, when understudies like Tyson Terry, Dylan Berymon, and others will have another year of seasoning.

I’m buying stock in Geep Wade hand over fist. The Huskers were long past due to hire a coach of Wade’s caliber for what they want to be their signature position group. It’s Nebraska – you’re supposed to have a good O-Line. It only stands to reason you have a top-tier line coach. They have that now, along with three big transfer additions. I suspect whoever runs the ball won’t have to find all the holes themselves this year.

But I’m not expecting miracles in pass protection. Elijah Pritchett has come a long way, but his best days are still ahead of him. Right tackle is unsettled. The interior should be the strength again.

Then there’s Anthony Colandrea, a mobile quarterback with a history of playing fast and loose with the football – last time Rhule bet on that profile, it produced catastrophic results. Now I don’t think Colandrea is going to be the second coming of Jeff Sims. And to be fair, I think he raises Nebraska’s ceiling considerably with his skill set and gunslinger mentality. But when someone shows you who they are, believe them. Colandrea is as likely to lose the Huskers a game they shouldn’t as he is to win them one they have no business emerging victorious in.

Nebraska quarterback Anthony Colandrea fires a pass to a receiver during the 2026 Red-White Spring Game. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Also, how often do Husker QBs go the entire year unscathed? Whether due to injury or play, expect more than one signal caller to take meaningful snaps this year.

Keep the Faith

Vegas pegs Nebraska’s win total at 6½. The last time Nebraska exceeded Vegas’ expectations, Obama was still in office. In other words, the Huskers have a habit of falling short of expectations. With this schedule, that’s not likely to change. I see the range of possible records bottoming out at 4-8 or soaring as high as 10-2 if all the gears click into place.

We know enough about Rhule at this point to know that 6-6 is probably most likely. I see them sweeping nonconference but splitting Michigan State and Maryland. The Terrapins have lots of talent, though the loss of Zahir Mathis downgrades it considerably, and game experience to boot. Pat Fitzgerald won’t have his best team but last time he was a head coach he went 1-11 and that one win was against Nebraska. Rutgers has never beaten Nebraska – I don’t expect that to change. That leaves one win among Illinois, Washington, and Iowa – no idea who it’ll be but it’ll demand that Colandrea make some big, big plays with his feet and his arm.  

Good on those who feel 8-4 or 9-3 are likely – I wish I had your wide-eyed innocence.

But don’t surrender to the doom and give up your season tickets just yet. Like it or not, Rhule will be back next year, and he’ll have another year of development and culture building under his belt, a team that’s growing, and the best freshman quarterback in the country on his roster, along with a cadre of blue chippers to aid him.

Maybe Nebraska goes 6-6. But maybe Colandrea catches fire, Aurich works faster than expected and the Huskers finally become the team everyone keeps predicting them to be. That's the beauty of August – it’s awash in unknowns.

But Nebraska has spent too many autumns turning August optimism into November resignation to ask anyone for the benefit of the doubt.

This time, they'll have to earn it.

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