Which Players Does Nebraska Need to Keep on the Roster for the 2026 Season?

The list of players that are must-keeps for 2026 season is probably smaller than you think. Why has that been the case? Josh Peterson and Matt McMaster discussed it on this week's Saturday Morning Coffee Show.

Below is a lightly edited transcript of their discussion.

Josh: How many players are even on the roster that you're like, “They can't lose that guy?”

Matt: Great question! It's not that many! It's not that many. Josh, doing this exercise with you about talking about the portal, I became a lot more worried about Nebraska football. I went through the roster. I went through the whole roster, and I was like, “I'm afraid things are far worse than I thought they'd be.”

Because I went down the laundry list [of needs]: the two quarterbacks, the two running backs, the two interior offensive linemen, the one tackle, the three DTs, the one edge, the two linebackers, the two corners, the one safety. That’s a lot! And then you go through, and you're like, “Okay.” So, [Vincent] Shavers. [Andrew] Marshall. [Elijah] Pritchett. [Nyziah] Hunter. [Williams] Nwaneri. [Keona] Davis.

Josh: It’s a short list.

Matt: Dylan Rogers?

Josh: Did you mention Justin Evans?

Matt: Oh, God! If he left…

Nebraska offensive tackle Elijah Pritchett before the Huskers' 2025 game against Northwestern. — Elijah Pritchett is on the short list of players Nebraska must bring back in 2026. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Josh: What’s that, seven players?

Matt: But I think there is only like four or five backbreakers. Marshall would be a backbreaker. Evans would be a backbreaker. Shavers would be a backbreaker. Pritchett would be a backbreaker. And Hunter. Those five, I'd be like, “[crap]”. But it's only five.

Josh: Yeah, that's a bummer.

Matt: Only five.

Josh: You want that number to be a lot higher.

Matt: I want that number to be like 14. Right? And then, you're able to survive two of them. And you're like, “all right, damn, that sucked.”

Josh: Yeah. “But at least we got the other 12!”

Matt: “But we're fine. We got a core. We're good. We knew what was going to happen. We couldn't pay all of them.” That's the problem, too. In theory, you kind of want guys going into the portal, in a way, because…

Josh: Money off the books?

Matt: "We can't pay all these guys because we had a good year and we have a good roster." Honestly, we are fully to a point where how teams manage their rosters is exactly how pro teams manage their rosters. I don't know, though, if it's exactly like the NFL. Like everybody calls it NFL light. I just kind of call it pro sports light. There's really not a one-to-one in terms of how we handle these situations.

Josh: Well, no, it's obviously the lack of free agency – a true free agency, you know, in that regard – it's obviously a huge deal.

Matt: So, back to your point, though, I'm kind of upset going through the roster being like, "wouldn't mind if a lot of these guys went in."

Nebraska receiver/punt returner Jacory Barney Jr. in action against Iowa on Nov. 28, 2025. — Is Jacory Barney on the list of players Nebraska "must keep" ahead of 2026? | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Josh: Yep. I think that's it. You want to talk about indictments? Like, there was a question a few minutes ago; [a subscriber] says, “serious question, what percentage chance do you all give the rule era working at this point? I define working out as continued progress, eight wins or so in at least one year in the next three, which Nebraska seriously contends for the playoff.”

And man, Matt, when you start going through the number of players that they have on the roster that would be a heartbreaker if they left; that's a huge problem. Matt, you named five guys, and it's going into year four. You don't want that number. You want it to be a much bigger number going into year four than just five. You almost have more seasons than good players.

Matt: It's just crazy to me where it's like, “Okay, I understand there might have been some things you had to clean up.” When Rhule’s like, “You don't understand what we walked into.” And I don't think he's wrong, but at the same time, that doesn't take away the fact that you have not been able to develop the offensive and defensive line. That's not an excuse. Okay, you know because the operations department was not running as efficiently as top programs do, does not give you the excuse.

I go through these offensive linemen on the roster, and there's a lot of these guys who haven't played, but they've been in the program for two to three years. And you're like, “This is why Donovan Raiola got fired.”

Josh: The lack of development with those young, highly thought of offensive linemen, too. Nebraska beat actual schools for the services of some of these guys.

Matt: And you're just like, the [hell] is Grant Brix?

Nebraska offensive line coach Donovan Raiola before the Huskers' 2025 game against Northwestern. — Former Nebraska offensive line coach Donovan Raiola didn't have a whole lot of developmental stories to brag about in his time in Lincoln. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Josh: I was just going to say, Grant Brix is probably the poster child for this entire conversation, right?

Matt: And I like we've been talking about Jason Maciejczak for like another three years at this point, too, and how strong he is. And Sam Sledge, right? I've been waiting for somebody to be like, “Hey, he's ready! He's ready to go.” Crickets. It's just been nothing.

And so, that's the whole frustrating part of this, Josh. The problem was supposed to be the solution. The problem has been overall player development, and that's the reason why [Matt Rhule] got hired. And you can tell me Emmett Johnson and I can name you 25 other players who we all thought, “Hey, have a shot.” And they didn't do anything.

Jaylen Lloyd, Jayden Doss, Malachi Coleman. Where do they all go? Not here. You know, they're gone. Brice Turner, Jeremiah Charles, Ismael Smith Flores. Where are they at? Where's Carter Nelson at? Where's Carter Nelson? What occurred there? Like Grant Brix, Maciejczak, Sledge. Where’s Sua Lefotu? Where's Preston Taumua? Where are those guys?

Josh: What did you just name, like 15-20 dudes?

Matt: It’s getting a little ridiculous.

Watch the entire clip below!

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