The Athletic’s Mitch Sherman joined the Common Fan Podcast this week for a wide ranging discussion focused on the Nebraska football team’s spring practices, as well as the upcoming season. A large part of the conversation focused on the Huskers’ offense, from how offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen will put his imprint on the offense now that he’s had a full offseason with the team, to what we can expect from several of the position groups.
If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the episode yet, we’d encourage you to do so. But if you’re not a podcast person, fear not. Below are the top takeaways from the conversation with Mitch.
NOTE: Some answers have been edited for purposes of clarity and brevity.
On What Nebraska’s Offense Will Look Like Under Dana Holgorsen
I don’t think it’s going to be the same offense. Let’s start with that. I mean, it wasn’t the same offense really in the final four games of 2024. And I think as much as it changed, probably not the first week, but after (Holgorsen) had a little bit of time to get settled, you saw it change and probably just got more whittled down to the things that he found fit the players who were in the system. I think the change from the end of ‘24 until the beginning of August of 2025 is going to be quite a bit greater than what we saw over the course of late last season. The one thing about Matt Rhule that he doesn’t even try to hide at this point, is his only job–and he said this on Thursday–is to win football games. And other coaches in the past who have had other tasks, who have tried to do things other than win football games at Nebraska, have lost their jobs. So I don’t think there’s a lot of benefit for Matt Rhule to give away a whole lot of what Nebraska wants to do. I think, yeah, Holgorsen (has had) time to tinker, time to bring in some of his coaches, some of his pieces that he has through the portal and through recruiting. They’re going to do different things. I don’t know exactly what that’s going to be. They’re not going to go to the Air Raid, but I think you’ll see some two-back, which we didn’t get a lot of, (maybe) a bit at the end of the season. I think you’ll see more of that. I think you’ll see some four wide receiver stuff, three wide receiver stuff. You’ll see double tight ends. I don’t think the offense is going to look quite as gimmicky as it did at times in 2024, and what I mean by that is, it seemed like at times last year Nebraska’s bread and butter was like an end-around or you know a shovel pass or the kind of stuff that works if you do it once or twice a game and Nebraska was doing it eight to ten times a game. It’ll be different in the sense that they don’t do that, they don’t hang their hat on that. Whatever changes there are, I think when we get to the Michigan game, which is the Big Ten opener at the end of September, you’re going to look at the first three games probably and say, all right, yeah, that offense was different than what Nebraska ran in ’24.
On Whether Nebraska Will Look to Add Depth at Running Back Through the Transfer Portal
I think they’ll look. I think they (the coaching staff) are legitimately comfortable with the one-two punch, but it takes more than that, and they know that. The coaches know that better than anyone. I don’t know that they’re comfortable with what they have at three right now, and that would be Mekhi Nelson, most likely. I think if they’re making a depth chart today, it’s (Emmett) Johnson, (Kwinten) Ives, and then Mekhi Nelson, the redshirt freshman who was a late add to the recruiting class a year ago. He’s in the category of players who still need to get a lot of reps. So if you can go find somebody that you can plug in and be ahead of him, then I think they’ll explore that possibility. I don’t know if that back’s in the portal. If he is, I don’t know if he gives Nebraska the time of day. Maybe. Maybe he’s already there. Certainly took notice this week to see that Marty Brown, the former Omaha Creighton Prep back from North Dakota State, who was a top freshman, maybe the top freshman in the FCS last year, ran for 1,100 yards, went into the portal. But…if you were to pursue him and get him, is that because he’s an Omaha guy? Because at this point, I don’t think that matters. Like if you want him, you better want him whether he’s from Omaha or New York, whatever. So is he better? If you brought him in, would he immediately or could he by the time the season began, become the second or third option? That’s the question I think that these coaches have to ask themselves with the running back spot. I’m not entirely sold that they have all the depth that they need there, and they’re going to have to stay healthy. You just can’t afford to have an injury or two there. I think they’ll look, but I’m not convinced that they’re going to take action.
On Nebraska’s Wide Receiver Room
They feel good about the top four. I could see that by the end of August extending to the top seven. So you have Jacory Barney, Dane Key, in no particular order. I think Dane Key is the leader there just because of his college experience, three years at Kentucky. So you got Key and Jacory Barney. Nyziah Hunter has been a stock-up guy this spring who has really come a long way and he’s got size, and according to Holgerson, he plays like it. And then Janiran Bonner, people forget, he’s a Swiss Army knife, he’s back (and) they can run the ball with him if needed; he can block, he can play tight end, hybrid tight end, and he’s a receiver too. So those four are at the top of the heap for sure. And then you slot in the freshmen, and it’s a redshirt freshman in Quinn Clark who’s highly regarded in the program, and was one of the players that I think a lot of people expected last year, around the time of the bowl game or even slightly before that, would break out. And it didn’t quite happen. But he was getting good reps at practice, and they love his size and just the catch radius, that kind of stuff. And then we’ve mentioned the two true freshmen (Cortez Mills and Isaiah Mozee). I think there’s some others. There’s Keelan Smith, who’s been hurt this spring, son of Neil Smith. Quinn Clark, of course, is the son of Ken Clark, so talking about a couple of ex-Nebraska greats. And, you know, that gets you up to like seven, even potentially eight wide receivers. So they feel good. They feel good there. It’s not like they have this abundance of so much depth and talent that you can afford more things to happen, like what went down with Hardley Gilmore, but they’re still in good shape. And I like the mix of types of players they have in that group. I mean, if you just look at the top four, you have some size, you have speed, you have I think a slippery guy in Barney, somebody who can run a defensive player over in Bonner. Key and Hunter are more combinations of those things, and they’re sure-handed. It seems like an upgrade in what Dylan Raiola has to throw to. You know going into ‘24, we thought Jahmal Banks and Isaiah Neyor were the perfect combo for him. And while they both had moments of effectiveness, it didn’t turn out to be everything that we expected.
On Dylan Raiola
It’s pretty interesting that rival fan bases love to hate him. I guess it’s all about the Mahomes stuff. He wears Patrick Mahomes’ number…everybody knows the Raiola and Mahomes comparison. (He) trains with the same coaches in the offseason or away from Nebraska. Dylan’s 19, so he wants to kind of pattern some of his stuff after the best quarterback in the world. I struggle a little bit to understand that being the source of hate against him but that’s kind of the world we live in and what it’s like out there for college football players and college football fans, and some of it too is that he was a five-star and a high-profile guy, and he certainly struggled in moments last year especially in the middle of the season. Nebraska could not win games when it had opportunities to win games with its offense in the fourth quarter. So I think all of that kind of plays into the Dylan dynamic, which makes it even more notable, I think, that he has put himself out there and wanted to be all in, in the way that he has in such a public manner. He does a nice job, and he gets a lot of help here from the people around him. And, of course, I’m talking about his family, his dad, his uncle, and just the community of support that he has that goes back, that way predates his time in Nebraska. The Raiola team does a great job of seeing the big picture.
On the Contrast Between Raiola and Former Tennessee QB Nico Iamaleava
Like if you do it right and things work out the way that they are confident that things will, because of his talent, then…the big payday is down the road to come in the NFL. You don’t need to create division now. It’s extremely counterproductive and it’s going to cost you if that’s the way that you act while in college. All of the NFL eyes are on these college players now to see how they’re acting in the moment. If Nico goes on at UCLA, and it appears he’s going to be at UCLA for his next stop. If he goes on and wins the Heisman or is an All-American, NFL scouts are going to overlook what happened here in this holdout situation for lack of a better way to describe it. But if not, and he’s a marginal guy, you know, maybe he’s a first rounder, whatever, it’s going to be a factor in where he gets drafted and how teams view him. So the more you can do to just prop yourself up, to rise above all of that, and to act like an NFL quarterback is expected to act, like a 28-year-old might act as a 19-year-old, that’s all going to very much help Dylan down the road, assuming that he goes on and realizes his potential and at the end of his Nebraska career is somebody who’s viewed highly by the NFL teams. All that he’s doing now, it’s a long game that they’re playing. It’s going to help him down the road.