Tad Stryker: Trench Warfare

The Huskers’ focus this offseason is fixing the offensive and defensive lines. Everything else is gravy.

Celebrations for Nebraska offensive lineman like Gunnar Gottula (77) and Henry Lutovsky (59) were too few and far between in 2025. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Urgency is rising in Husker Nation, and people are talking. “Dylan Raiola is leaving. So is Marcos Davila. Who’s left in the quarterback room?”

“Emmett Johnson is going to the NFL Draft and taking more than 80 percent of our rushing production with him. What next?”

Both are concerns — the running back situation much more than the quarterback — but Nebraska football fans will do well not to become distracted this offseason.

The much larger issue, the major concern, the one with sirens wailing and red lights flashing, the reason the Huskers have not even approached the Big Ten’s upper division over the last decade, is the weakness and confusion in the trenches. Fix the offensive and defensive lines, and a lot of problems will take care of themselves.

The chatter is incessant. Matt Rhule has hired four new coaches, and inevitably, players are announcing their plans to transfer. Is Nebraska rebuilding? Is it a major program reset? Or as Rhule insisted, more like a tweak? That argument is merely a sideshow.

Concern is warranted, there’s no denying that. The Huskers cratered in their final two games, finishing off a 7-5 regular season that, given the relatively low strength of schedule, should have gone better. But let’s concern ourselves not so much with verbiage as with vital issues. Let’s be clear about what Nebraska’s football’s identity should be.

Nebraska center Justin Evans prepares to snap the ball against Iowa. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Nebraska needs to quickly and decisively re-establish itself as Offensive Lineman U. And the necessity of rebuilding a strong defensive line is doggone near as important.

Regrettably, right now, the rival across the Missouri River is laying claim to that title. Iowa just won the Joe Moore Award for most outstanding offensive line and claims the Rimington Award winner. Kirk Ferentz, a former o-line coach under Hayden Fry, is committed to the trenches, so it’s not terribly surprising, but it’s time for the Huskers to step up. Nebraska needs to do more than just call its offensive front the “Pipeline,” or nothing’s going to change.

The solution, which will require Rhule’s tireless focus, is fixing the trenches.

When he arrived, Rhule said the right things about the trenches, but his actions — and most notably, the results from the offensive line coach — haven’t caught up to his words yet. He announced from the time he was hired that he wanted to be a “body blows” program, which is still the best vision anyone has laid out lately for Husker football, but he has not been able to deliver on it.

Recently, he took some overdue action. Rhule finally fired a major source of the problem, Donovan Raiola, and hired Geep Wade from Georgia Tech. Selecting Wade is evidence that he’s willing to admit a mistake and he’s trying to fix the problem, as is hiring an up-and-coming defensive coordinator, Rob Aurich, run game coordinator Lonnie Teasley and edges coach Roy Manning.

New Nebraska offensive line coach Geep Wade (left) and defensive coordinator Rob Aurich. | Georgia Tech Athletics & San Diego State Athletics

Will those hires prove to be good ones? It’s impossible to tell right now, unless you’re part of the significant swath of Husker fans who already have written them off because they’ve concluded that any decision made by Rhule must, by definition, be a bad move. Those folks have already written off the 2026 and 2027 seasons and are presumably waiting for Rhule to be fired. They’re out there; I’ve corresponded with a few, and I’ve seen their posts on social media.

Of course, the trenches fell into disrepair long before Rhule’s arrival. The question is why they haven’t been fixed in the three years he’s been in Lincoln. Well, for one, the damage was profound, and for another, the urgency has been lacking.

Perhaps the opportunity to sign Dylan Raiola, a five-star quarterback who was immediately billed by recruiting geeks and media types as savior of the program, was a distraction for Rhule and the Husker coaching staff. And let’s be clear, it’s good to have a five-star quarterback if the infrastructure is solid. But it obviously wasn’t.

Ultimately, the problem has not been fixed because the head coach has not prioritized it highly enough and because the offensive line coach has failed. The offensive tackles have been a liability for at least a decade, and the play at center and guard hasn’t been a lot better, mainly because Mike Cavanaugh, Greg Austin and Donovan Raiola couldn’t do their job effectively.

For Rhule, it’s time to double down on his original intent: fixing Nebraska at the line of scrimmage. Run the ball. Stop the run. Let’s be crystal clear about Nebraska’s identity.

Emmett Johnson gained much of his yardage behind an underperforming offensive line. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

Johnson’s All-America success at running back this season was flukish. It was due about 25 percent to the o-line and 75 percent to his own ability to find creases, contort his body through them, make amazing spin moves and break tackles. To do it all without injury for an entire season was astounding. The fact that Johnson finished second among major college football rushers and yet his team barely finished above .500 overall, went 4-5 in the Big Ten, stood just 81st in the nation in team rushing yardage and averaged only 4.19 yards per carry makes it painfully evident where the root of the problem resided, even if you ignore the fact that Husker quarterbacks were sacked 30 times. Johnson didn’t get a lot of help from the o-line or any other running back, and Dylan Raiola couldn’t overcome that lack of support as well as EJ could.

On defense, the Blackshirts were plagued all year long by weakness up front, although in fairness to the recently departed John Butler and Terry Bradden, the d-line graduated Ty Robinson and Nash Hutmacher after the 2024 season, and almost everyone who returned was undersized and young. There would’ve been at least marginal improvement in the defensive front next fall even with no coaching changes, but that would not have been the case with the offensive line had Dylan’s uncle returned for his fifth season.

Enough looking back. All eyes on the transfer portal, where the Huskers need to sign at least one first-rate, run-stuffing, man-eating giant to build the defensive line around. Then they need a top-flight offensive tackle with excellent footwork and pancake proclivity. Thirdly, the Huskers need a good running back to compete with Mekhi Nelson and Isaiah Mozee. If they can’t find another EJ, a newer version of Devine Ozigbo, Cory Ross or even Imani Cross would do a lot to set up Nebraska for success in 2026.

Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola was sacked seven times by Michigan, but he got this pass away under heavy pressure. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Do the Huskers need to get a good quarterback or two from the transfer portal to replace Raiola? Certainly, but keeping in mind that TJ Lateef is more than adequate to lead the Huskers next season to a better record than the 2025 team put up, the NIL expenditures for quarterback shouldn’t be all that high. In fact, in the next month, Rhule should shell out at least three times as much NIL money for offensive and defensive linemen and running backs as he does for quarterbacks. Justin Evans, Elijah Pritchett and Gunnar Gottula are a good starting point, but first and foremost, the deficit of talent in the trenches must come to an abrupt end. And frankly, I’d rather see another all-conference running back than a four- or five-star quarterback. Could Lateef rise to those heights? Maybe, especially if he has a good running game to lean on.

A decade ago, Nebraska had success with Tommy Armstrong. I was amazed at all the flak he received from Husker Nation while winning 30 starts at quarterback. With Armstrong operating behind decent offensive lines, Nebraska enjoyed its two most recent nine-win seasons in 2014 and 2016. In his senior year of 2016, even with an ordinary set of running backs (Terrell Newby 879 yards, Ozigbo 412 yards), Armstrong’s 14 touchdown passes, coupled with 512 yards on the ground and eight rushing touchdowns, were enough to get the Big Red six wins in the Big Ten.

The Huskers need a dual-threat quarterback, and Lateef has the tools, if he has the durability. But most of all, he needs strong, reliable offensive and defensive lines. Nebraska’s 2026 conference schedule is daunting, and after a weak finish to Rhule’s third season in Lincoln, expectations are low, but if the lines are right, the results will follow. The solution absolutely must be found in the trenches.

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