Nebraska Cornhuskers Preview 2023: Breakdown, Prediction, Top Players, Win Total
by Pete Fiutak, CollegeFootballNews.com
2022 Record: 4-8 (3-6 Big Ten)
Head Coach: Matt Rhule (1st year, 0-0 | 8th year overall, 47-43)
Not yet, Husker fans. It's coming, but give it just a wee bit longer before the success finally returns.
The world is a better place when the schools with superpower football bloodlines are great. USC, Michigan, Texas, Tennessee, Notre Dame -- college football needs programs that have a rich history of success, especially when there's a powder keg base of generational fans just waiting to explode.
Welcome to Nebraska.
Husker fans aren't asking to party like it's 1995. For now, they just want a team that can show a glimmer of hope that the wins and success might be returning again.
It's been six LONG years without a winning season, and the weirdest-worst part about it all was that Nebraska wasn't totally awful over that run. Over and over and over and over again it seemed like a moment was there when just one play or right break could turn the corner, and every time.......yoink.
Now the six-time defending national champion at inventing new and creative ways to lose close games has a coach who might be able to change all of that. It should've worked with Scott Frost, didn't, and now Matt Rhule takes over as a prize hire to restore the glory.
But again, be patient. The guy is being paid more than $9 million a season over the next eight years to get this right.
Rhule took over Temple in 2014 -- and went 2-10 and 6-6 before leading the way to two straight ten-win seasons and an American Athletic Conference championship.
He left for Baylor when it was in reboot mode after one of the most horrific scandals in college football history -- and went 1-11 and 7-6 before guiding the team to an 11-win season in 2019 with an appearance in the Big 12 Championship.
(By the way, Baylor didn't beat anyone who was that great in Rhule's three years, and the Carolina Panthers are paying him over $30 million for him to not be their head coach, but let's not yuck the yum because........)
College football will be more fun when Nebraska is terrific, and everything is banking on Rhule to make that happen.
Nebraska Cornhuskers Preview: Offense
This is hardly going to be a ground-and-pound attack under new offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield, but the Huskers couldn't generate a push against anyone over the second half of last year, failing to hit 100 rushing yards in five of its last seven games.
There's a reshuffling happening up front with a slew of new starters around veteran tackle Turner Corcoran -- who might work at guard -- and with a potentially strong anchor in Arizona State transfer Ben Scott at center. It also helps that the Huskers have a few nice backs in Anthony Grant and Gabe Ervin -- they just need a little room -- and........
The new starting quarterback can move. Casey Thompson is now at Florida Atlantic -- he was a decent passer, but didn't add anything to the ground game. Coming in to take over from Georgia Tech is Jeff Sims, a tall, slippery playmaker who threw for close to 4,500 yards with 30 touchdowns and ran for 1,152 yards and 11 scores in his three years. He's dangerous, but he also has to stay healthy after playing in 15 games over the last two years.
The Huskers have a No. 1 wide receiver. Top target Trey Palmer is gone to Tampa Bay after catching 71 passes and nine of the team's 17 touchdown throws, but No. 2 receiver Marcus Washington is back on the outside and a slew of fantastic prospects are coming from the recruiting class -- remember the name Malachi Coleman. Ready to take over as the new star is Billy Kemp, a sixth-year senior who might not be the big play guy Palmer was, but he's about to catch a whole lot of throws.
Nebraska Cornhuskers Preview: Defense
When Matt Rhule turned it around at Baylor he did it with the defensive side. His offenses were okay, but the Ds were great at forcing mistakes and shutting things down in key spots. Last year's Nebraska defense suffered the indignity of getting rolled by a miserable Northwestern team for 528 yards in its only win of the season, and it didn't get a whole lot better from there.
New defensive coordinator Tony White will have some work to do up front. The D line is in need of a major overhaul, and this is where the patient side of things has to come in. Ty Robinson is a good-sized veteran nose tackle who should be able to hold up, but top pass rusher Garrett Nelson and and Ochaun Mathis left early for the NFL. Here comes the youth movement with true freshman Princewill Umanmielen and Cameron Lenhardt about to get very, very long looks at starting jobs.
The linebacking corps also has a few changes to make, but Luke Reimer is the team's most productive returning player making 194 tackles with 11 broken up passes over the last two years. He'll be a force inside, and with Ernest Hausmann off to Michigan, Georgia transfer MJ Sherman and Florida's Chief Borders will play big roles around the main man.
The front six might need a little adjusting, but the secondary has the parts to be far better right away. Quinton Newsome is a good playmaking corner to handle one side, and the safety combination of Myles Farmer and Isaac Gifford -- the team's second and third leading tacklers, respectively -- will be stat sheet fillers.
KEY TO THE SEASON
Stop the run, and then stop it again, and then stop it one more time. Absolutely everything else revolves around Nebraska being better on the defensive front after getting plowed over way too easily. There's a reason why the team went 0-8 against FBS teams that ran for 125 yards or more -- too often the other teams dictated the tempo. To take this a little higher, the program is 0-13 over the last two years when allowing more than 175 yards.
TOP TRANSFER, BIGGEST LOSS
TE Arik Gilbert in from Georgia, LB Ernest Hausmann to Michigan. Hausmann didn't do too much behind the line, but he's a very tough, very talented young linebacker who's about to fit into the Wolverine defense and potentially be one of the team's top tacklers. For a Husker D that needs to be better against the run, he would've been a huge help.
From QB Jeff Sims (Georgia Tech) to WR Billy Kemp (Virginia) to C Ben Scott (Arizona State), there are several sure-thing transfers who'll make a major impact. The star tight end transfer is hardly a lock to be a massive factor. However.......NFL tools-wise, Arik Gilbert is out of central casting.
The former superstar recruit only caught two passes in his two seasons at Georgia after making 35 grabs for 368 yards and two scores as a freshman at LSU. If he's able to get a transfer waiver from the NCAA -- the odds seem pretty good that he will -- and if he puts it all together under a coaching staff that will push to make this work, he's a potential three-run home run of a get who can change the Nebraska offense.
KEY PLAYER
Princewell Umanmielen, EDGE (FR). It's totally unfair to put the pressure on a true freshman to be special enough to be one of the team's biggest difference-makers right out of the gate, but that's the deal.
Nebraska desperately needs to find someone on the outside who can get to the quarterback, and if the 6-4, 230-pound superstar recruit out of Texas can do that and nothing else in his first year, fine.
KEY GAME
at Colorado (Sept. 9). Both the Buffs and Huskers have big-time new coaches, both are rebuilding, and the national spotlight will be on this Week 2 game.
No, it's not 1989 and Colorado and Nebraska aren't in the Big 8 anymore, but this could be an early big moment for the Husker season as a key tone-setter. And no, it's not an indicator of anything regarding the Matt Rhule era win or lose. But win, and with Northern Illinois and Louisiana Tech coming up next, there's a great shot at starting 3-1 at worst with a win in Boulder.
TEN BEST PLAYERS
1. Luke Reimer (LB, SR)
2. Jeff Sims (QB, JR)
3. Billy Kemp (WR, SR)
4. Quinton Newsome (CB, SR)
5. Isaac Gifford (S, JR)
6. Ben Scott (C, JR)
7. Myles Farmer (S, JR)
8. Arik Gilbert (TE, JR)
9. Malachi Coleman (WR, FR)
10. Princewill Umanmeilen (EDGE, FR)
2022 FUN STATS
- Time of Possession: Opponents (33:06) | Nebraska (26:44)
- 4th Down Conversions: Opponents 10-of-15 (67%) | Nebraska 3-of-7 (43%)
- Points Allowed: 1st Quarter (64) | 2nd Quarter (121)
SEASON PREDICTION, WIN TOTAL, WHAT WILL HAPPEN
Set the Win Total At: 6.5
Nebraska lost three games last year by three points or fewer and dropped two others by a touchdown or less. However, it squeaked by Buttgers by one and beat Cockeye 24-17. The schedule isn't exactly easier this time around, but there are more than enough winnable games to be on the right side of more of those close battles.
Start with the basics. Be better at controlling the clock, come up with more third down stops, be better at running the ball, be better at stopping the run, and just start to do all of the little things a wee bit better.
Again, to keep preaching this from before, be patient. This is a more talented Nebraska team than last year -- that includes the coaching staff, too -- but it's young and it might take a little bit.
Beating Colorado in Boulder wouldn't be asking for the world, and taking down Northern Illinois and Louisiana Tech are a must. There's no Ohio State or Penn State on the schedule, but there's no Buttgers or Indianus, either -- take the deal.
Once the team starts to figure some things out, it can get past Northwestern and Purdoodoo at home. Do all of that, sneak in a win against -- maybe -- a Maryland here, or at Michigan State there, or maybe even take out Cockeye for a second year in a row, and this might just be a very good season.
Michigan, at Minnesota, at Wisconsin, at Illinois. Those are the four big problems, and if there's a win in that bunch, assume a bowl game is close to a lock. If there are two or more, then it's on.
But no matter what, enough is enough. The program is going bowling, it'll come up with a stunner somewhere, and even though it'll be a wildly inconsistent season, it'll give the Husker faithful a vision for what's to come.
