Nebraska’s Path Forward Isn’t Easy

Admit it. That first time you saw Nebraska’s schedule, you bristled.

Two home games in the final five. Back-to-backs that feature Indiana and Oregon in October, then Ohio State and Iowa in November.

For most, it’s hard to find seven wins on that schedule — particularly for a Nebraska team that arguably underachieved in 2024 and 2025 when it failed to find wins in November and finished each season 7-6. Progress from recent history, but a far cry from expectations around Lincoln.

Change was afoot. The Dylan Raiola era ended and Matt Rhule flipped his staff again, with one of the lone bright spots from 2025 — Mike Ekeler — leaving for another job in the Big Ten.

So how does a Nebraska team breaking in new assistant coaches, a new quarterback and carrying a tendency to come up short flip the script? Let’s take a look.

Oct 11, 2025; College Park, Maryland, USA; Nebraska Cornhuskers wide receiver Nyziah Hunter (13) reacts — Nebraska receiver Nyziah Hunter is one of several key players to return to Lincoln instead of hitting the portal. | Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

Continuity Counts

Despite the turnover among assistants, most of the players will be familiar to Nebraska fans. Other than Raiola, the most notable portal exit was defensive lineman Keona Davis, who is headed to Miami.

The Huskers managed to keep their wide receiver room intact and even added to it. Nebraska also retained several intriguing defensive players who could have left but will instead be part of Rob Aurich’s system as the new defensive coordinator moves the program to an entirely different structure.

On one hand, these players haven’t won a lot of games. On the other, if Nebraska’s new assistants can help unlock a different level of success, there are plenty of players who could take meaningful steps forward. A new voice. A new leash. A new year. It’s happened at Nebraska before. It will happen again. It could happen as soon as 2026.

Nebraska needs quick results from defensive coordinator Rob Aurich. | San Diego State Athletics

New Year, New You

That’s what the defense is telling itself. There are four new coaches involved and several new faces, most notably Aurich, who will be the architect of Nebraska’s latest defensive overhaul.

Aurich had significant success at San Diego State, where he flipped the defense in a hurry. His units were disruptive, stout and efficient. The Aztecs were excellent in stop rate, consistently created havoc and regularly got off the field. That turnaround came quickly after Aurich arrived from Idaho and inherited a struggling defense.

Nebraska fans have seen this before. Before Ty Robinson became a quarterback’s nightmare, he was coming off a season with 24 tackles, four tackles for loss and two sacks. Before Nash Hutmacher wrecked offensive lines in 2023, he was a role player with 15 tackles and a half tackle for loss in his third season. It’s easy to forget now, but the entire offseason heading into 2023 was filled with concern about the defensive line — until it became the team’s biggest strength.

Omar Brown experienced his breakout in 2023. So did Isaac Gifford.

Much of that was due to new coaching, including Tony White, who transformed Nebraska from a struggling defensive unit in 2022 into one of the stingier defenses in college football.

Can Riley Van Poppel, Williams Nwaneri and others find similar success? It’s hard to say they won’t without at least giving the group a chance.

Paul Mubenga is one-third of Nebraska's efforts to rebuild its offensive line. | Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

Trench Warfare

Nebraska’s portal haul may feel underwhelming in spots, but the Huskers clearly accomplished one of their primary objectives after hiring new offensive line coaches Lonnie Teasley and Geep Wade — they reshaped the offensive line.

Nebraska retained Justin Evans, who quietly played well in 2025, and Elijah Pritchett, who came on strong late in the season. The Huskers also added three players with starting experience in Tree Babalade, Brendan Black and Paul Mubenga.

If Wade — who could end up being the most important offensive hire of Rhule’s tenure, including Dana Holgorsen — can elevate the line, Nebraska’s offense has a real chance to flourish.

The Huskers found success despite some of the worst pass-blocking numbers in the country, and every fan can recall multiple drives stalling when the offensive line couldn’t push the pile in short-yardage situations.

Even small improvements would loom large if Nebraska can avoid the issues that consistently bogged down its offense during conference play.

Red Zone

It wasn’t a particularly strong year for Holgorsen, and Nebraska’s offensive issues were well documented. The Huskers scored just 22 points per game against Power Four opponents, and after Raiola’s injury, they were competitive offensively in only one game — against arguably the weakest Power Four team on the schedule — and even then, they managed just 28 points.

One area where Nebraska could improve, whether because of a more mobile quarterback in Anthony Colandrea or a stronger offensive line, is in the red zone. Nebraska ranked 40th nationally with 53 red zone trips. Not great. Not terrible.

In conference play, however, the issue was magnified. The Huskers scored half of their red zone touchdowns in three non-conference games and the bowl game, leaving just 15 touchdowns in Big Ten play while also settling for 12 field goals. Those numbers resulted in one of the worst touchdown conversion rates in the country at 48.39 percent (No. 113).

Holgorsen has to find ways for Nebraska to finish drives with six points instead of three.

Any one of these improvements could help Nebraska, but real progress — and real wins — in 2026 will require several of them to hit at once.

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