Peterson: The Biggest Questions Nebraska Football Needs to Answer This Offseason

How do you feel right now about where Nebraska football is going?

That’s not a rhetorical question, by the way; I’m genuinely asking.

The regular season is now more than three weeks in the rearview mirror. News of Dylan Raiola’s impending transfer is now a week old. In that time, I’ve spent a lot of mental energy on trying to figure out what there is that I truly believe in right now with Husker football.

Mike Schaefer hit on a lot of it in his first column for HuskerMax last week:

In four seasons, and for different reasons, the Huskers will have had three different defensive coordinators, two offensive coordinators, two special teams coordinators, three defensive backs coaches, three defensive line coaches, two offensive line coaches, and two wide receiver coaches. That doesn’t even touch on the constant change inside the recruiting department, which saw Nebraska move on from Vincent Guinta, who was the senior director of player personnel and recruiting from 2022 to 2024, only to finish with a class ranked No. 113. Was it a small class? Yes. Does that mean Nebraska should still finish No. 113? No.

Going purely off records, 2025 was a little bit better than 2024, which was a little bit better than 2023, which was a little bit better than 2022, which was a little bit better than 2021. Again, if you just look at the record, this team was better than the 2024 group that finally broke the bowl-less streak. But when you look under the hood, it’s hard to find a whole lot to be optimistic about right now.

Two years after finishing 132nd of 133 teams in turnover margin at -17, the Cornhuskers finished +3, good for 47th in the country. The special teams, a boat anchor for a solid decade, ranked fourth in the country according to Brian Fremeau. Emmett Johnson had more than 1800 yards from scrimmage and was an All-American. Throw in the schedule, which was the second-easiest* the program has faced since joining the Big Ten. If I were to tell you all of the above in the pre-season, what record would you have picked? 9-3? 10-2? 11-1?

*This stat is based on opponents’ combined winning percentage. The nine teams Nebraska played this year combined to go just 37-44 in league play (45.7%), which includes five wins and four losses against Nebraska.

Instead, they finished 7-5, with as many double-digit losses – three – as they had combined in 2023 and 2024. In 2023, Nebraska caught Deion Sanders and Colorado at the worst time, going down 36-14. Weeks later, it was eventual national champ Michigan, as the Wolverines won 45-7. Even last year’s loss came to an eventual College Football Playoff team when Indiana won 56-7. Colorado, Michigan, and Indiana went a combined 30-10.

Minnesota, Penn State, and Iowa finished just 21-15.

Seriously, where is Nebraska football going?

We won’t know the answer to the “where” for some time, but there are questions I do think will get answered this offseason. Ultimately, those will shape the direction of Matt Rhule’s Nebraska Cornhuskers for good or for ill. You could probably come up with a dozen questions rather quickly. I decided to focus on five.

Let’s unpack them.

1. What will Nebraska do at quarterback?

Nebraska quarterbacks Dylan Raiola and TJ Lateef during the USC game. — Will the Nebraska QB position go from Dylan Raiola to TJ Lateef? How will Nebraska attack the portal? Answering the QB questions are first and foremost for Nebraska football heading into 2026. | Cory Edmondson, KFGE

More than anything, this will probably have the biggest impact on shaping the 2026 season. Assuming TJ Lateef isn’t the presumed starter, I see three paths the program could take.

Bring in a proven Power Four starter, one who will assuredly cost some money.
Bring in a proven Group of Five or FCS starter, one who will cost less money and allow you to fill in other gaps.
Bring in a former highly-ranked high school player, focusing less on experience and more on (unproven) potential.

My preference? Option two. I love the idea of someone who’s started (at least) a season’s worth of games, has put up solid numbers, but could be brought in at a lower price tag than the Brendan Sorsby-types. It allows the program to fill other positions* of need, spreading the money out.

*Stay tuned.

Rhule and company bet big on Jeff Sims in 2023 and that was a disaster. And while you can’t really say “no” to a player like Dylan Raiola, you wonder what happens in December of 2023 if they lean more into Kyle McCord instead. Or at the very least, tell Raiola he’ll have to earn the starting role. Is Nebraska football in a better spot going into 2026? I think you can make an argument in the affirmative.

Regardless of which choice they go with, do you trust them to get the quarterback position right?

2. How does Nebraska replace Emmett Johnson's production?

Nebraska running back Emmett Johnson scores his third touchdown against Akron on a six-yard run. — Emmett Johnson carried Nebraska's offense in the back half of the season. How do they replace him? | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

You might know Emmett Johnson's numbers by heart, but let's go over them just in case.

He finished second in the country with 1821 yards from scrimmage. His 1451 rushing yards ranked third. In six of his last seven regular-season games, including the final five, he rushed for at least 100 yards, including 217 in the season-finale against Iowa. He was an All-American and named the Big Ten Running Back of the Year.

Not bad for a guy that only had one game rushing for 100+ yards combined in 2023 and 2024.

So, where does Nebraska go from here? Johnson picked up 83.3% of all rushing yards by Nebraska running backs. His 251 carries accounted for 80.7% of all carries and were 232 more rushes than the next closest back. EJ Barthel has his work cut out for him, replacing the durability and production of Johnson.

Two more quick questions on the running back room;

Is the next starting running back currently on campus?
How many backs will it take to replace Johnson's 1800+ yards from scrimmage and 15 total touchdowns?

3. Which other players will hop into the transfer portal?

How many key pieces to Nebraska's 2025 will remain on the roster in 2026? | Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

There’s not too much to add here. It’s college football in the era of revenue sharing, NIL, and the transfer portal. Everyone is a potential free agent.

4. Is Nebraska ready to do what it takes to shore up the lines?

Judging off his comments in early-November, the answer should be yes.

Strong comments from Nebraska coach Matt Rhule about the Huskers' ability and desire to be aggressive financially in the transfer portal during the offseason ahead.

"I'm no longer worried about... We got what we need to go get the best players in the country."

More on that:…
— Mitch Sherman (@mitchsherman) November 10, 2025

I’m going to take those comments at face value. Assuming that’s the case, there’s no reason Nebraska can’t upgrade big time on the lines. Specifically, I want to see what happens on the defensive side of the ball.

Nebraska’s run defense was the worst it’s been under Rhule in 2025, ranking 96th in rushing success rate, 107th in EPA per rush, 97th in yards per game allowed, and a staggering 116th in yards per carry. The 26 rushing touchdowns by opponents ranked 119th in the nation. The 2023 and 2024 groups gave up just 17 rushing touchdowns combined across the two seasons, ranking inside the top five in rushing touchdowns allowed both years.

They have to be better.

Can Nebraska find their own version of David Bailey and the disruptive Texas Tech defensive line? | Nathan Giese/Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

I can’t stop thinking about the massive improvements we’ve seen from Texas Tech this season. David Bailey (previously at Stanford), Romello Height (Georgia Tech), Lee Hunter (UCF), Skyler Gill-Howard (Northern Illinois), and A.J. Holmes Jr. (Houston) make a group that was dominating and fearsome week after week. According to Max Olson of ESPN, the Red Raiders invested more than $7 million to secure these newcomers along the defensive line.

It showed, with the Red Raiders going 12-1, winning the Big 12, and picking up the 4-seed in the CFP. And in the same stats where Nebraska’s rush defense has been among the worst in the country, Tech ranked 2nd, 1st, 1st, 1st, and 5th. They’ve been absolutely dominant.

Can Nebraska swim anywhere near waters like those? Even taking Rhule’s words seriously, I’m dubious they’ll write checks that large. But they can certainly up the amount of monetary investment into a defense that will need to get better under new defensive coordinator Rob Aurich.

Speaking of…

5. Are the coaching changes more of a reset or tweak?

John Butler was Matt Rhule's defensive coordinator for one season. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Aurich (defensive coordinator) joins Geep Wade (offensive line), Lonnie Teasley (run game coordinator), and Roy Manning (defensive edge) as the announced additions to Nebraska’s coaching staff. Ignoring the potential for more changes, you do have to wonder what all this will mean for a massively important 2026.

Is it a reset? Is it a tweak?

Rhule would have you believe it’s the latter, saying as much at his most recent press conference. He bristled at the idea of the program being in a “reset” mode. "That's ridiculous,” he said on Friday. " We're building. The program was dead for 10 years, and we went to back-to-back bowl games.”

More from Rhule: "We just won seven games. Should it have been nine? Yes. It should have been nine. So, I'm tweaking. Just tweaking."

If anything, I appreciate that he is making big, tough moves. Too often around here, the head coach doubled down on issues. Meanwhile, Rhule acknowledged Nebraska fell apart at the end of the season. Nebraska is "not doing a good enough job at the end of the season,” he added.

He’s not wrong! But it’s one thing to identify the problem. Another thing to fix it entirely.

Can he?

If you have a comment for Josh, send him an email: joshpeterson.huskermax@gmail.com.

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