Why Dane Key Is Going to Have a Big Season at Nebraska! Plus, What Else Do We Know About the 2025 Huskers?

With barely a month to go until Nebraska kicks off its 2025 season, Josh and Jack continue to look ahead to it all. What do we know about the 2025 Cornhuskers? It's a question they attempted to answer on this week's Saturday Morning Coffee Show.

Josh presents an argument to buy into one of the transfer wide receivers. Are we sure this is different than the same discussions we were having a year ago? Plus, what kind of ceiling could Nebraska be looking at?

Below is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.

Dane Key is going to have a major impact on the 2025 Nebraska football team

Josh: What do we definitively know about the team? Camp starts in two days. What do we actually know about them? Because I was listening to [Steven] Godfrey and Bill Connelly this week, and they were just talking about college football at large and how little they know about rosters now because how college football is. But it got me going; if I did this exercise about Nebraska football, what things do I know definitively – and it can be positive or negative – what do we know definitively about the 2025 team?

Jack: Dylan Raiola has a high ceiling, but we don't know if he can reach it. But we know that he has that.

Josh: So even the "definitive" there is like still kind of a question mark.

Jack: We did this whole exercise before, where we're like, “what players are we very confident in?” And it's a very small list, right? What will determine whether or not this year’s a success is those guys who have either played part-time or had success elsewhere, if they have full-time, extensive success here.

Vincent Shavers should have a big 2025 season. — Vincent Shavers could have a big 2025 season. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

And who am I talking about? Willis McGahee Jr., Vincent Shavers, [Riley] Van Poppel, [Rocco] Spindler, [Dane] Key, Heinrich Haarberg at tight end. I mean, you can go on and on; those are the guys who are going to determine. [Elijah] Jeudy.

We think we can do it. We've seen them do it a little. They haven't been thrust into this role here ever. There's a huge group of those guys. There are so few guys where it's like,” I've seen them in their role that they're at here having done that for a long time, and I know what they're going to do.

Honestly, who's that? Really the defensive backfield. That's who that is. I mean, all of them, almost to some degree. Ceyair Wright and especially [Marques] Buford, right? Malcolm Hartzog. [DeShon] Singleton. Those guys and Emmett Johnson, although we even kind of think with him, he may be able to do something we haven't seen before.

Josh: We've had a million conversations about him because I was thinking about that question with him. I don't know if I can definitively say anything about EJ, even though I like him. But mainly it's because where you and I are excited about him is based on a four-game sample size. So it's not based off of a 12-game sample size.

Jack: Well, it just gets back to him. This is the case with a lot of teams, as you pointed out, but how many players do you feel like you know who they are in terms of being a full-time contributor? And outside of the defensive backfield, I can't think of many.

Dane Key isn't afraid of making contested catches. | Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Josh: Could I talk you into Dane Key being a sure thing or is that scary because he's a transfer?

Jack: I grouped in transfers, saying we haven't seen this person do it here. And the reason I did that is largely because of the transfers last year.

Josh: 100%. And so that's why it's a question, because last year, July 26th, if you and I were doing a podcast, we were talking about Jahmal Banks as like this obvious sure thing, right? I will present the case, and [subscriber] Bruce points it out, “but only two touchdowns, Josh.”

Jack: Let me just fully explain. It's a group of people at Nebraska who haven't contributed full-time consistently, even though they've had bright spots and people have done it, but have done it elsewhere. And so, it goes back to what you were saying about the rosters generally, right? People don't feel like they know exactly when you plug a transfer in; it's less of a sure thing. I'll just say that. It's less of a sure thing than when you did it at the place you are.

Josh: Jack, I watched [his highlights]. Because at some point over the last week, I realized, you know what? I haven't watched Key or [Nyziah] Hunter stuff since they committed. So it's been months. I'm getting to the point now where I want to start rewatching chunks of games. And shout out to [Matt] McMaster because he's been just going back watching games from last year. Nebraska games, which is a great exercise. I think it's really important to remind yourself. He rewatched the Iowa game recently, and he's like, “wow, that was a [crap] show.”

And so anyway, I realized I didn't watch those guys. So I was like, I'm going to watch Hunter highlights, and I'm going to watch Key highlights. And Jack, I am now insanely bullish on Dane Key. [He] is better than Jahmal Banks. First of all, he's doing it in a tougher conference. He is doing it in a tougher conference. This is inarguable. We cannot argue about this. SEC is better than the ACC, right? He did it at Kentucky.

Jack, there is more athleticism there. There's more quick-twitch stuff there. And some of the catches that he makes along the sidelines, where he's battling, is unlike what we saw. Like Jahmal Banks, especially in hindsight, and maybe this is more of a hindsight thing, Jamal Banks' successes were just kind of based on him being tall. You know, he used his size to his advantage. Dane Key, he uses athleticism to his advantage, which I like more than using just raw size to your advantage. He catches the ball. He makes guys miss. He runs after the catch, and he battles for receptions. Bullish. Insanely bullish.

Which unknown has the highest ceiling?

Jack: Of the unknowns, where is the highest ceiling? Whether it's individual players or whether it's coaching, or a unit or a concept, where is the highest ceiling in your mind? I think obviously in terms of transfers, Key, that's probably number one. I think Raiola as well, right?

Josh: I was just gonna say, is the answer offense actually? Because the offensive side of the ball is a huge unknown. I mean, is there a world, Jack, where we're talking in November and we're like, “Holgorsen did what we thought he could do with a lot of question marks and he made them a whole lot better?”

Jack: If everything goes well, what is going to be the biggest thing that goes well? I feel like it's probably Raiola to Key in particular and Emmett Johnson.

Josh: Jack, there is a world there is a world where we leave this season and say, “oh, yeah, there’s a reason that Dylan Raiola is ranked as the number one quarterback,” you know? That's possible. I was watching one of the ESPN channels, and they were doing conference previews for the ACC, and they were showing Cade Klubnik’s numbers, and pretty interesting, Jack, because a couple of years ago it was fine, and then last year he broke through in a huge way.

Jack: I was just reading that he was the number one PFF quarterback. And then I was like, “man, he really is taking a jump in terms of the perception of him.”

Could Dylan Raiola have a Cade Klubnik-like jump in 2025? | Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Josh: In 2023, he had 19 touchdowns, so more than Dylan. He had nine interceptions, fewer than Dylan. He only averaged 6.3 yards per attempt and completed only 64% of his passes. 2,844 yards. Last year, 36 to six touchdown-to-INT ratio, 3,600-plus yards, 63.4% completion. Is that the world that Nebraska could be living in?

Jack, Sam [McKewon] said it to us a couple of weeks ago; “[at] quarterback, you gotta up the touchdown numbers.” I'm not going to call for a 36-touchdown season from Dylan, but if he could get that number into the upper 20s, that is a world where Nebraska is actually taking advantage of the schedule for the first time in a while.

Jack: I like it. Painting the picture of what it looks like if some of the unknowns work.

Watch the entire episode below!

Want more from the I-80 Club? Consider becoming a paid subscriber today for as low as $5 a month! You'll get bonus episodes of the Groin Kick Chronicles, Volleyball State, and more: patreon.com/i80club

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

More From Nebraska On SI

Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, subscribing to HuskerMax on YouTube, and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.