Nebraska is about to find out whether the glow of a promising offseason means anything once the games actually count.
That’s the central question hanging over the Huskers as they open the 2026 season Saturday against Ohio University. The summer chatter has been upbeat, and Nebraska’s coaches have sounded confident about where this team stands.
But confidence in shorts and helmets is one thing. Proving it over 12 games is another.
The Huskers are coming off a 7-6 season in 2025, and Matt Rhule made it clear he wasn’t interested in excuses when he spoke at Big Ten Media Days. Nebraska’s schedule is still every bit as demanding as advertised, and Rhule didn’t want to hear otherwise. “If I hear one person in this building talk about our schedule, get out,” Rhule said in Chicago.
“We understand we have to take a step this year. We’re excited about that. I hope you can hear in my voice that I believe we will because of the young men in our program and the work they’ve done.”
Nebraska did not overhaul everything after last season’s disappointing finish, but it did make real changes. The staff has new faces. The roster does too, especially in spots where the Huskers were exposed late last year.
Offensively, the line was a major issue, so Nebraska attacked it with three Power 4 transfers and also got tackle Gunnar Gottula back and making major progress after an injury. That should help, but the Big Ten will be the final test of whether those fixes hold up when the pressure gets real.
Quarterback is the other huge storyline. Anthony Colandrea arrives from UNLV after winning Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year honors, and he takes over for Dylan Raiola, who started for two years before suffering a fractured fibula on Nov. 1 against USC. Raiola transferred to Oregon in December.
Since his departure, Raiola has drawn criticism for his mobility, his tendency to hold the ball too long and the way his exit from Lincoln unfolded. Some of that came with the territory, some of it may have been hindsight talking. Either way, Nebraska has moved on.
And there’s a case that the Huskers were in position to do more before the injury hit. When Raiola went down, Nebraska was 6-2 and leading USC 14-6 at halftime. Win that night, and the College Football Playoff was still in play, along with a better finish overall.
Colandrea brings a different profile. The optimism around him is easy to understand: he’s a dynamic presence, he can extend plays, he has a big arm and he can hurt defenses with his legs.
The concerns are there too. He can be risky with the ball, and turnovers have followed him.
The bigger question is how that game translates to the Big Ten, where the speed and physicality rise fast.
Nebraska also has to replace Emmett Johnson, who is now in the NFL playing for Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs. The Huskers have depth in the running back room, and the expectation is that one or two players will emerge. Whether anyone can match Johnson’s production is a fair question.
At receiver, Nebraska looks like it has a real weapon group. Jacory Barney Jr., Nyziah Hunter, Kwazi Gilmer, Quinn Clark, Janiran Bonner and Cortez Mills Jr. give Colandrea a deep set of targets, and they should be able to help him if he wants to trust those 50-50 throws. Senior tight end Luke Lindenmeyer will also be leaned on for both blocking and pass catching.
Defensively, the biggest leap still needs to come there. Rhule moved on from John Butler in December and hired Rob Aurich, who was successful as a defensive coordinator at San Diego State.
There’s no shortage of familiar names on that side of the ball. Cam Lenhardt, Riley Van Poppel, Williams Nweneri, Vincent Shavers Jr., Andrew Marshall, Donovan Jones and Jamir Conn are all back, and Nebraska fans know them well. The hope is that this group can finally make the jump from solid to special.
Linebacker Owen Chambliss has also been a major offseason talking point. He followed Aurich from San Diego State, and there’s been plenty of buzz about him as both a leader and a potential difference-maker.
Still, the 2025 defense left obvious problems on the table. Nebraska handled the pass reasonably well, but it couldn’t stop the run and couldn’t keep teams out of the red zone. The end of the season only sharpened that memory, with losses to Penn State, Iowa and Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl.
So Nebraska enters the season with real questions at quarterback, in the backfield and on defense, even after a summer that looked encouraging from the outside. The first answers arrive this week. The harder ones come later, when Big Ten play begins on Sept. 26 and the stretch Rhule doesn’t want to hear about starts in earnest on Oct. 10 against defending national champion Indiana.
That’s football, though. Every offseason brings hope.
Every season brings the truth. Nebraska has clearly tried to address what went wrong a year ago.
Now the Huskers have to show that those fixes actually travel.
In Other News...
Nebraska Got Some Rare Star Power As One Commit Keeps Turning Heads
Nebraskas opener against UNLV already had a little extra shine to it, but the presence of Tom Brady made the scene feel bigger than a typical season-starting match. The Las Vegas Raiders part-owner was on hand during the Spikes Under the Lights tournament and spent time around the Cornhuskers, including interactions with Harper Murray and Lexi Rodriguez, giving the program a rare dose of star power in a setting that usually belongs to the players and coaches.
And while that cameo drew plenty of attention, Nebraska commit Trae Taylor kept building his own buzz with another notable high school football performance. There was also a leaguewide wrinkle to keep an eye on, with the Big Ten announcing a new injury report policy for the 2026 season, a change that could alter how teams handle information going forward and add another layer of interest for a program trying to keep momentum rolling on and off the field. [Read more 🡒]
Nebraskas Top QB Commit Is Already Facing An Unwanted Distraction
Trae Taylors commitment gave Nebraska a marquee arm for the future, but the chatter around the five-star quarterback has already drifted into an area no program wants to manage this early. A heavy rushing workload in a recent high school game drew concern from Nebraska staff and Taylors father, adding a layer of attention around how the prospect is being used on Friday nights while the Huskers try to keep their top quarterback pledge on track.
The issue only grew louder when Taylors father said Nebraska coaches planned to reach out to the high school about the quarterbacks usage, a claim the schools coach pushed back on. Now the situation has spilled into public view, with Taylors performances and workload getting a closer look than Nebraska would prefer for a committed recruit still finishing out his prep career. [Read more 🡒]
Nebraskas Timi Aliu Just Raised A Bigger Recruiting Question
The recruiting buzz around Timi Aliu got a little louder after the four-star offensive lineman made a recent trip to Florida State, but the Nebraska pledge did what the Cornhuskers wanted to see publicly: he reaffirmed his commitment on social media. Aliu, one of the more coveted linemen in Nebraska's 2027 class, is ranked No. 267 nationally and has already pulled in more than 30 offers, which tells you how widely his name is circulating across the Power Conference landscape.
For Nebraska, the bigger question now is not whether Aliu is a respected prospect, but how firm that commitment stays as other programs keep pushing. He has built strong relationships with Nebraska coaches and other recruits, and those ties matter, yet his connections in Tallahassee give Florida State a real foothold too. In a cycle where blue-chip linemen can shift quickly, this is the kind of tug-of-war Nebraska will be watching closely all the way down the road. [Read more 🡒]