Dana Holgorsen’s offense at Nebraska still carries a little Air Raid DNA, but the label has become less important than the people who are actually running it.
That was the through line in his conversation this weekend on the Big Ten Network Bus Tour, where Nebraska’s offensive coordinator made it clear the scheme keeps shifting to fit the roster in front of him.
“I don't know what offense we run now. It's just been a constant change over the years,” Holgorsen said. “The way I was brought up in the Air Raid Offense is just so different in where we've pivoted to.”
He said Nebraska’s offense has already been reshaped since he arrived late in 2024, and that process has continued into this year. The changes, he explained, have come from the staff and the personnel, not from some need to stick a clean label on the system.
Holgorsen joked that Mike Leach and Hal Mumme kicked him out of the Air Raid club long ago.
“When I started running the ball at West Virginia 10 years ago, they wouldn't take my calls anymore,” he said.
Still, he said the roots are there.
“We still do want to throw that thing around a little bit.”
What Nebraska can actually do, though, is being driven by the quarterback room and the offensive line. Holgorsen said the team changed “a whole bunch of stuff this year too based on a new O-line coach and a new quarterback,” opening up the playbook in ways that suit both the staff and the players.
The quarterback dynamic has changed, too. Holgorsen pointed out that Nebraska has gone from “a non-mobile quarterback to a couple guys that are very mobile quarterbacks,” and that naturally alters what can be called.
He repeated a point he made to local media on Friday: it’s rare to find a team with three quarterbacks who have Power Four experience.
Anthony Colandrea has especially impressed him with how quickly he processes the game.
“Within the play, he processes reads as quick as I've seen,” Holgorsen said. “Whether that's in the run game or whether that's in the pass game.”
He also noted Friday that sometimes the only thing he has to rein in with Colandrea is how fast he talks in the huddle.
TJ Lateef earned a different kind of praise.
Holgorsen called him “a gym rat.” Lateef’s résumé already includes starts against UCLA, Penn State, Iowa and Utah after one year, and Holgorsen said that experience matters. He also said Lateef has made progress in speeding up his game.
“He's an athletic kid, he throws a good ball, but he's got to speed everything up,” Holgorsen said. “Having Anthony there in the room has sped everything up.”
Holgorsen added to local media that Daniel Kaelin may have the highest completion percentage of the group.
Asked by Gerry DiNardo whether the game plan changes much between Colandrea and Lateef, Holgorsen said it does not. What’s on the sheet, he said, can be called with either quarterback.
That flexibility only matters if Nebraska’s front can hold up, and DiNardo made it clear where his eyes go first on campus visits.
The former Indiana and LSU head coach said the Huskers’ offensive line stood out to him.
“Because really that's where it starts in this conference,” DiNardo said. “And when I got to the offensive line today, that's the deepest it's been and looks like the most talented it's been that I can remember in the last four or five years.”
Holgorsen highlighted center Justin Evans as a leader and called him as good a center as he’s been around.
“He makes things go.”
He also said getting Gunnar Gottula back has been important, calling him possibly the most versatile player in the group. At left tackle, Elijah Pritchett drew strong words from Holgorsen, who said he “looks like he's a fifth-year guy that they should talk about on draft day.
He just looks like it to me. That's what they always said about him.
Hasn't always looked like it.”
Holgorsen said Year 2 gives Pritchett a chance to turn the look into the play.
From a coordinator’s standpoint, he said the key is how the line functions as a unit.
“What I look for in the coordinator perspective is just the cohesiveness of the unit,” Holgorsen said. “How they work together, how they get along, how they communicate with each other. And I'm very happy with that.”
He added that O-line coach Geep Wade and Lonnie Teasley are doing an outstanding job, and called the group’s chemistry “refreshing.”
Holgorsen, for his part, sounds settled in, too. He said he has a loft now instead of the hotel he lived in when he first got to Nebraska.
“I'm settled in and just really like the vibe,” he said. “Coach Rhule is awesome to work for.
I'm having so much fun just being the offensive coordinator. It's challenging because these Big Ten defenses are different, and these Big Ten teams are different.
“It’s a challenging league and that's what I want to be a part of.”
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