Tad Stryker: Look to the Lines for Vital Signs

Benhart, Robinson, Corcoran and Hutmacher will have a lot to say about Nebraska’s success in Rhule’s first season

Kenny Larabee photo, KLIN

The Nebraska football program needs a national identity reset. Coach Matt Rhule aims to do just that, but is it reasonable to expect it to happen in his first season?

Certainly not, but if a healthy recovery is under way, there will be early evidence. Those who care about the program’s long-term welfare will be watching for vital signs, and it won’t take too long to pick up on possibly the most important one. This will quickly become evident on Thursday, Aug. 31, during what likely will be a hot, humid game in Minneapolis.

Rhule is saying the right things, but we’ll have to wait to discover how much buy-in he’s really getting on that foundational concept known as “running the ball and stopping the run.” It’s a notion as old as Nebraska's “Jumbo” Stiehm and Minnesota's Bernie Bierman, but one that Nebraska football was flunking by the end of Scott Frost’s era of reckless disregard.

Once known nationwide for its physical style of play, but lately chided by national sports radio personality Colin Cowherd as an elite program that has “disappeared,” Nebraska needs to least look like it belongs at the line of scrimmage against a Gopher team that lately has done a much better job developing its linemen. Opening night will be a good test.

The Cornhuskers gained entrance into the Big Ten partly because, for decades, they had a firm grasp on the concept. The transition from the Big 12 to the Big Ten would not be easy, it seemed, but the Huskers were well known for being strong up front, and they would find a way.

How long ago and far away that notion seems now. That the Huskers lost the connection to their own DNA and degenerated into a poor imitation of a 7-on-7 league team has been among the worst developments of the 21st century in all of major college football. You couldn’t blame Jim Delany for having buyer’s remorse. NU ran the ball well under Bo Pelini, but in the back half of the Pelini era, the Huskers started to slip on run defense. That downward trend stabilized during Mike Riley’s first two seasons but became a freefall in 2017. Under Frost, Husker running totals were artificially inflated by sporadic big-play scrambles by Adrian Martinez, and meanwhile, the Blackshirts’ rushing defense sank to new lows.

Certainly Frost’s d-line coach, Mike Dawson, inside linebacker coach Barrett Ruud and defensive coordinator Eric Chinander were accountable for the persistent problems Nebraska had getting off the field on defense, but ultimately it comes back to Frost’s unwillingness to enforce physicality.

With Frost out of the way, 2022 ended on an upward stroke. The streak-busting 24-17 win over Iowa provided hope, when outgoing interim defensive coordinator Bill Busch, and a bunch of seniors, including Garrett Nelson, Caleb Tannor, Eteva Mauga-Clements and Chris Kolarevic, held down the Hawkeyes, who rushed the ball only 33 times for 124 yards and threw the ball 39 times as they tried to come from behind.

Can Rhule, along with defensive coordinator Tony White and a new crop of players, provide a physical Nebraska football team again, one that we can recognize? And if so, how much of that can we reasonably expect to witness this fall?

Rhule promises to emphasize the ground game. Last season, Nebraska averaged less than 4 yards per rush (3.5) for only the third time this century (2.7 in 2005 under Bill Callahan and 3.5 in 2017 under Riley). But will White’s new 3-3-5 defense will be able to stand up to the 50-carries-per-game ground assaults of Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin? In the four consecutive pre-Iowa games last fall, those teams took control at the line of scrimmage in the second half. Not at all what Delany envisioned. No wonder he said that Nebraska “has to get back to being Nebraska again.”

To achieve national identity reset, player development matters at least as much as scheme. Quarterback Jeff Sims may be the single most important player on the Huskers’ roster, but Nebraska would be best served if at least one offensive and one defensive lineman find a way to crash the All-Big Ten squad this fall.

About that new crop of players. I say Nebraska wins seven games if its most improved players in 2023 are junior linemen. Take your pick. Offensive tackles Bryce Benhart and Turner Corcoran (who may switch to guard). Defensive tackles Ty Robinson and Nash Hutmacher. It’s the fifth year in Lincoln for Benhart and Robinson, and the fourth for Corcoran and Hutmacher. None has provided any consistent excellence thus far. The Huskers need it from them now. It’s time to produce for all four, each who came into the program as a highly touted recruit with multiple big-name Power Five offers.

Rhule’s first season in Lincoln may well be a story of slow, steady growth, and all Husker Nation will rejoice if that happens, but I think the first major indicator will be evident by halftime on Aug. 31, when it becomes evident how well these veteran Huskers hold up against the Gophers, whose linemen have learned to grow up quickly under coach P.J. Fleck. The second major indicator — stamina —will show up in the fourth quarter, when we find out how well conditioned the Huskers are.

The Huskers won’t dominate, but if they can battle the Gophers to a stalemate at the line of scrimmage early, and gain confidence and momentum as the game goes on, they will have passed a major test.