Nebraska is betting big on Anthony Colandrea, but the wider football world isn’t ready to buy all the way in.
The Cornhuskers have loaded plenty of optimism onto their new quarterback after a 2025 season in which he won Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year. On paper, that kind of production should travel. In reality, the jump from UNLV to the Big Ten is exactly where the uncertainty starts.
That skepticism showed up in The Athletic’s annual survey of three dozen coaches, general managers, personnel directors, scouts and front office staffers from across the country. The survey ranked every FBS quarterback and split them into tiers, with Tier 1 reserved for the very best and Tier 7 for quarterbacks who are “QBs are unproven at the FBS level or journeymen who have experience and have made multiple stops in their careers.” Colandrea landed in Tier 4.
That placement says a lot. It puts Nebraska’s starter in a group with real upside, but also with plenty of volatility - the kind of quarterbacks who can flash big-time ability while still leaving evaluators uneasy about the full package.
The reason is pretty simple: Colandrea can do a little bit of everything, and sometimes that includes hurting his own team. He has the arm strength, the speed and the playmaking burst to stress defenses both on the ground and through the air. But the turnover issues are part of the conversation, too.
“He’s going to make plays outside of the system but he’s going to make mistakes outside of the system,” a Mountain West head coach told The Athletic. “ You don’t get one without the other.”
His 2025 numbers at UNLV explain why Nebraska is intrigued. Colandrea threw for almost 3,500 yards with 23 touchdowns and 9 interceptions, then added 649 rushing yards and 10 scores. That’s the profile of a true dual-threat quarterback, the kind who can change a game with one snap.
But the earlier stops at Virginia are what keep the caution lights flashing. In 2024, Colandrea passed for 2,125 yards, 13 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, while rushing for only 227 yards.
His 2023 production was similar, especially when it came to the touchdown-to-interception ratio. Over those two seasons in the ACC, he never got close to the rushing output he posted in one year at UNLV.
Maybe that was a matter of fit. Virginia didn’t run the same offense or lean into his strengths the way UNLV did. Or maybe the ACC defenses simply kept him bottled up in ways the Mountain West couldn’t.
Either way, the picture is clear enough entering Matt Rhule’s fourth year at Nebraska: there are big questions around the program, and just as many around Colandrea. Even the people who evaluate quarterbacks for a living don’t seem fully settled on what he’ll be once the lights come on in the Big Ten.
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