Does Nebraska’s Offense Have As Many Weapons As We Think It Does?

Optimism is high, but the pain of recent years leaves some nagging doubts about whether the Husker offense can turn a corner this year.

It’s that time of year. Fall camp is well underway. All Common Fans are frothing at the mouth, desperate for football season to get here and clinging to any and all scraps of information, practice reports, message board rumors, and Big Red tidbits we can find. Football season is so close, and yet the two weeks before kickoff feel like an excruciatingly long way out. 

In the run-up to the real season, prognosticating and previews will have to tide us over. Position group reviews abound. In-depth analyses of Nebraska’s offense, defense, special teams, sleeping arrangements, dietary habits, clothing choices and more are being consumed like corn on the cob at a summer picnic. 

Today, for the Common Fan version of preview season, we will examine the question: “Does Nebraska’s Offense Have As Many Weapons As We Think They Do?” For purposes of this exercise, we’ll look both at reasons to believe, as well as reasons for concern. Let’s get to it. 

Does Nebraska’s Offense Have As Many Weapons As We Think They Do?

There’s been so much heartache in Husker Nation the last several years, it’s hard to let yourself believe good things are going to happen. So let me say this: I genuinely believe we have MANY reasons to be optimistic this year. I believe things will turn a corner in 2024. I believe we'll get back to a bowl game and Husker fans will be dancing in the streets from Omaha to Scottsbluff, from Falls City to Valentine, from McCook to O’Neill. On the Common Fan Podcast, we’ve said it more than once: it’s time to believe in Husker football again. If that’s going to happen, we’ll need the offense to take a big step forward. 

Reasons to Believe

• The Wide Receivers. During one of our recent episodes, 1620 The Zone’s Josh Peterson listed the wide receiver group as one of his main reasons for optimism about the 2024 season. During the offseason, the Huskers brought in two tall, speedy wide receiver transfers in Jahmal Banks and Isaiah Neyor. Josh told us he believes Banks, who had 59 catches for 653 yards and four touchdowns as a junior at Wake Forest in 2023, has the chance to be a 1,000-yard receiver. Neyor put up good numbers at Wyoming in 2021, where he caught 44 balls for 878 yards and 12 touchdowns, then transferred to Texas where he dealt with injury issues. Reports out of fall camp are that he is looking healthy again and ready to contribute. Factor in the young guys who showed a lot of promise last year (Jaylen Lloyd and Malachi Coleman in particular), the return of veteran Isaiah Garcia Casteneda from injury, and true freshman Jacorey Barney who looked like a speed demon in the spring game, and the picture starts to look pretty good. On top of that, let’s not forget Ainsworth’s finest, true freshman Carter Nelson, who projects to be a tight end in the long term but this season has been moved to wide receiver because he’s so athletic that Matt Rhule’s staff just wants to get him on the field. There’s also versatile fullback/wide receiver Janiron Bonner, and true freshman Quinn Clark, a 6’5” true freshman from Bozeman who could see early playing time. Finally, let’s not forget about tight end Thomas Fidone, who had a solid 2023 season, and looks poised for a massive breakout in 2024. He was recently named to the Mackey Award Watch List as an early candidate for the nation’s top tight end. You start to add up all the pass-catching options, and it’s easy to get excited about this group. We don’t even need all of them to break out to have a more dynamic passing game than last year. And with a quarterback who can get them the ball? The imagination starts to run wild. 

• Running Back Emmett Johnson. The running back situation is the one you probably hear the most concern and consternation about from media types who cover the team. And that’s probably fair: Rahmir Johnson and Gabe Ervin have both been with the team for years (Rahmir since 2019!), showed flashes of promise at times, but struggled to stay healthy. Dante Dowdell, who transferred from Oregon in the offseason, is an intriguing back who looks like he could be a Big 10 bulldozer. Offensive Coordinator Marcus Satterfield had high praise for Dowdell recently, but the sophomore still needs to prove it consistently at the college level. There are some young guys we know the coaching staff is excited about–Quinten Ives in particular–but they may need a little more seasoning before being ready for prime time. Having said all of this, let me put a big hay bail on the scale for Emmett Johnson. I’m a true believer that EJ can be a go-to, every-down back for the Huskers this year. He looked good in the spring game. He had decent numbers in 2023–411 yards on 90 carries with two touchdowns, along with seven receptions for 46 yards mixed in–but let’s face it, the Nebraska offense was such a dumpster fire last season, it was hard for them to get anything going consistently. There were times when Johnson looked like the type of back who could take over a game. He’d rip off runs of 6, 8, 10 yards at a time, and then the Husker offense would inexplicably move away from the run (or turn the ball over). If the offensive line can take a step forward, and defenses have to respect the passing game in a way they didn’t in 2023, I believe Emmett Johnson can bust out as one of the best backs in the Big 10 this year. 

• Quarterbacks Coach/Co-Offensive Coordinator Glenn Thomas. OK, he’s not exactly an offensive weapon in the sense of someone who can play on the field. But we should not underestimate the importance of Glenn Thomas to this year’s team. Most recently an offensive assistant for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Thomas previously served on Matt Rhule’s staffs at Temple and Baylor. He has worked with both Rhule and offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield. As bad as the offense was in 2023, it’s encouraging that Rhule went out and got someone to help Satterfield design the offense for the coming season. And we shouldn’t overlook the importance of an NFL-level coach to work with Dylan Raiola and the other quarterbacks. That’s huge for the development of a fairly inexperienced quarterback room. Beyond that, Satterfield has a mixed record as an offensive coordinator, but his best offenses have historically been when he was not coaching the QBs. Add it all up, and it sure looks like Glenn Thomas can be a major reason for an offensive upgrade in 2024. 

• QB1. Come on, you didn’t think we would leave this one out, did you? Dylan Raiola has not officially been named the starting quarterback, but belief around the program is sky high in the young Raiola. From what we’ve seen of him in the spring game and in clips of practice, he looks smooth, composed, confident…in short, he looks ready for the job. Coaches and media alike rave about his maturity and talent. He was a 5-star recruit for a reason. We can expect a true freshman to make true freshman mistakes from time to time, but the massive upside is undeniable. And hopefully, with an increase in playmakers around him, he won’t be asked to do too much as he learns the rigors of Big 10 football. I believe one of the shortcomings of the previous staff was that they never surrounded Adrian Martinez with enough weapons, and as a result put way too much on his shoulders. That doesn’t appear to be the case in 2024, and it should be to Dylan Raiola’s benefit.     

Reasons for Concern

Nebraska finished the 2023 season tied for 117th in total offense. They could trip over their overalls this season and still improve on offense. This isn’t Iowa, after all. But, Husker fans are in I’ll-believe-it-when-I-see-it mode, and rightly so. Let’s take a look at some concerns for the offense.

• Recent Experience. How many times have the Huskers landed a big time recruit or prized transfer that just…didn’t materialize? There are plenty of examples, going back over multiple coaching staffs, of players who were big names when they were recruited, but didn't end up having the results on the field. Was this an issue of unrealistic fan expectations? Lack of development by the coaching staff? Some sort of curse that we're not aware of? We could drive ourselves crazy trying to dissect the what-ifs of the last couple decades of Nebraska football. But as Husker fans, it’s hard not to have that nagging feeling of doubt based on the pain of recent years. 

• The Turnover Question. It’s been well documented. In the post-Osborne era of Nebraska football, the Huskers have been snake bitten by the turnover bug in a way that pretty much no other program has. In recent years especially, it has felt like the turnovers tend to come at the absolute worst possible, most back-breaking moments. The 2023 Nebraska team turned the ball over 31 times, with a brutal turnover margin of -17. Fixing that problem has been a huge emphasis for the coaching staff during the offseason, but we’ve heard that before. Can the Huskers stop turning the ball over so much? 

Final Verdict

Here’s the deal. We don’t need this offense to be the 1983 Scoring Explosion. We don’t need them to shatter any records. With the defense expected to be as good or better than their top 15 showing in 2023, even an average offense will probably lead to two to three more wins. I think they’ll be better than average. Will there be bumps in the road with a true freshman quarterback and some new names on the roster? Probably. But the young Raiola promises to be an upgrade at the position overall, and he will be surrounded by more weapons than a Nebraska offense has had in a long time. 

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