Tad Stryker: Difference-Maker Deficit

Throughout the past seven seasons, while Nebraska suffered through its worst stretch of football since the 1950s, many segments of the fan base pointed to internal problems with the coaching staff, including lack of player development, and poor game management. Those concerns are legitimate. However, if you look outside the confines of Husker Nation, most national observers are united in their assessment: The Huskers simply didn’t have enough good players to start with.

It will take a large upswing in talent for the Big Red to turn the corner decisively this season, which means a minimum of eight games in the win column by sundown on Black Friday. Consider this: It would mean that for the first time in nearly a decade, Nebraska would win more conference games than it loses. That’s the absolute minimum for the Huskers to be taken seriously across the nation, and to maintain positive recruiting momentum for the 2027 and 2028 classes.

In the last decade, Nebraska recruited a lot of promising players who for one reason or another did not become difference-makers. That goes for both high school recruits and transfers from other colleges. Can the Huskers bust out of that program-suffocating trend in 2025? I think they have enough talent to be in the top half of the Big Ten this year. How far can that talent rise?

Nebraska linebacker Vincent Shavers Jr. disrupts a pass by Rutgers quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis last season. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

As for how to define a “difference-maker,” for purposes of this argument, let’s use the number of all-conference players (including first-, second- and third-teamers as voted by Big Ten coaches or media) as a measuring stick.

Since 2018, only 12 Nebraska players have made the all-Big Ten first, second or third team. That’s fewer than two per season, and only placekicker Connor Culp in 2020 and tight end Austin Allen in 2021 were first-team selections. That explains a lot about NU’s combined 32-50 record over that seven-year stretch. If you want to contend for championships and playoff berths, you’d better have at least half a dozen all-conference players per year, and frankly, that’s on the low side.

To do that, there’s got to be a renaissance of all-conference-caliber talent, something of the sort Nebraska has not seen in years. The renaissance has to germinate among the freshmen and sophomores. In the meantime, head coach Matt Rhule and his staff used the transfer portal to bring in some players who just might crack the 2025 all-conference list while the young talent is developing —hopefully, at least one in the offensive line and a couple in the defense’s front seven.

So which Huskers are best positioned to be all-conference performers in 2025? Here are my picks for the breakout players of 2025 — and at least two will be sophomores.

Dasan McCullough (1) is a transfer with difference-making potential on the defensive side of the ball. | Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

Look first to a couple of transfer portal seniors, guard Rocco Spindler on offense and linebacker Marques Watson-Trent on defense, who have a realistic shot, although Vincent Shavers, a homegrown sophomore linebacker, could outshine both. Then look to another pair of home-grown Husker sophomores, quarterback Dylan Raiola and wide receiver Jacory Barney Jr. That’s three on offense and two on defense — my short list of players who have more than a decent chance at All-Big Ten this fall.

I’ll qualify that by saying that either super-senior safety DeShon Singleton or senior linebacker Dasan McCullough, an Oklahoma transfer, is a wild card. If McCullough, who is billed as a pass rush specialist, grabs an all-Big Ten berth, that would likely mean opposing quarterbacks will be under more pressure than they’ve seen since the departure of Randy Gregory, which would set up the Blackshirts to be more disruptive than they’ve been in years and, in turn, make life much easier for guys like Singleton.

Outside of something totally unexpected, like three offensive linemen becoming all-conference selections, the only possible better news for Nebraska’s win-loss record this season would be for a Husker running back to break through, something that hasn’t happened since Ameer Abdullah in 2014, but that’s an extreme longshot for 2025. The lack of proven talent at running back is probably the program’s biggest shortcoming as it begins fall camp (assuming Mike Ekeler will elevate the kicking game to at least respectable levels in his first year).

2026 could be quarterback Dylan Raiola's year for all-conference accolades. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

Looking farther down the road, who are NU’s all-conference candidates for 2026 and beyond? I’d expand the list to include Raiola, Barney, Shavers, defensive tackles Riley Van Poppel and Keona Davis, linebacker Willis McGahee IV, center Justin Evans, offensive tackle Elijah Pritchett, rush end Williams Nwaneri, tight end Carter Nelson and possibly another current freshman or sophomore offensive lineman.

Rhule hasn’t broken the .500 barrier in conference play at Nebraska yet, but give him credit for establishing a culture that tends to keep top-shelf players from wandering off — something that cannot be emphasized enough these days. Can that continue? He’s gotten a decent start on recruiting; now he’ll help himself tremendously if he achieves his goal of making Nebraska a top-notch developmental program.

When Michigan comes to Memorial Stadium two months from now, Nebraska will face Ernest Hausmann, a likely 2025 all-conference selection who used to play for the Huskers. Rhule must slam the door on that sort of thing. He needs to keep all the difference-makers he can.

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