Historic College Football Program Ready for Breakthrough Season in the Big Ten

The Nebraska Cornhuskers are considered one of the best programs in the history of college football.

However, they have fallen on tough times, and now programs don't want to be compared to the Cornhuskers. Nebraska has won five national championships, including three in four years in the 1990s. It also made a national championship game in the early 2000s.

Nebraska Still Searching For Answers

Nebraska then made the difficult decision before the 2010 season to leave the Big 12 and head to the Big Ten. Since then, the Cornhuskers have had two double-digit win seasons and eight losing seasons. That is what teams don't want to be compared to when they switch conferences.

Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach Matt Rhule watches the game. | Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Matt Rhule took over before the 2023 season. He's known as a program builder, and the hope was that he could get the Cornhuskers back to elite status. In his first season, they went 5-7. His next two, he went 7-6, the first winning season since 2016.

Bill Connelly Predicts A Breakthrough

ESPN's Bill Connelly appeared on "Josh Pate's College Football Show," where he said that he thinks Nebraska could be ready for a breakthrough season in 2026.

"Matt Rule was so predictable, like we're going to just stink out loud in Year 1," Connelly said.

"I'm just going to lay the foundation. I'm not even going to try here to win games. I'm sure he tried. We're going to lay the foundation. We're going to improve quite a bit in Year 2. We're going to be awesome in Year 3. He's a culture-building guy. Can you build a culture effectively when you know 60 or 70% of your roster is changing every year? So far, not really. But they've gotten better steal... They were held back by the quarterback position last year. They might not be quite as much next year."

To Connell's point, Year 3 is typically when Rhule's teams take a big jump. In Year 3 at Temple, Rhule took the team from 6-6 to 10-4. In Year 3 at Baylor, they went from 7-6 to 11-3. However, that wasn't the case last season; instead, they stayed the same, going 7-6 again.

New QB Could Change Everything

A big part of that was due to the loss of quarterback Dylan Raiola to an injury. He threw for 2,000 yards, 18 touchdowns and six interceptions, while completing 72.4% of his passes. After the season, the Nebraska legacy elected to transfer to the Oregon Ducks.

He will be replaced by former UNLV Rebels quarterback Anthony Colandrea. The senior has thrown for 7,542 yards, 49 touchdowns and 29 interceptions, while rushing for 1,151 yards and 12 scores.

If he can be an improvement from last season's quarterback play, the Cornhuskers could be a team that could contend in the Big Ten.

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