Alex Davis

Nebraska Football: Position Groups that Need to Step Up in 2017

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 7:02 p.m. ET

Fansided, Kraig Lundberg/FanSided via Husker Corner

The Nebraska football team made a big jump in head coach Mike Riley’s second season, going 9-3 in 2016 after finishing the previous regular season 5-7.

However, the Huskers were left with a bitter taste in their mouths after sputtering to the finish line. Blowout road losses to Ohio State and Iowa spoiled a promising 7-1 start.

Nebraska fans have plenty of reason for patience given the improvements in the win-loss column and on the recruiting trail. As we saw with the previous staff, 9-3 records will only cut it for so long.

The program continues trending upward, but the Big Red will need to see significant improvements on the field if it intends to move into the upper echelon of college football.

Here are five position groups that need to take their play to the next level in 2017 for the Huskers to start playing championship-caliber football.

Offensive Line

Nebraska offensive line coach Mike Cavanaugh has been a treat for fans and media alike since he arrived at Nebraska two seasons ago. His personality seems befitting of a man holding the same position as Milt Tenopir once did.

His line had a rough 2016 season, though.

The fall hype for this young-but-promising group may have been a bit premature. Some of their struggles can certainly be blamed on injuries, but even when guys became healthy toward season’s end, it didn’t look like the strong unit fans thought it might, particularly in the run game.

To their credit, Husker coaches consistently committed to running the ball this year, but this didn’t always look good. Against Wyoming, Oregon, Illinois, Purdue, Maryland and Iowa, Nebraska averaged almost a yard per carry less than those teams allowed on average over the course of the season.

While Nebraska lost only one of those games, an effective, clock-milking run game could have put several of those contests away much earlier. Better offensive line performances also might have flipped the script in a nail-biter against the Badgers and made a game out of the laugher in Columbus.

Some might argue that the lack of an elite running back was more to blame. However, according to Football Outsiders, the Huskers consistently ranked below average in advanced statistical categories that specifically measure offensive line performance. No matter how good your backs are, there has to be a quality line to block for them.

With guys like Nick Gates, Tanner Farmer and Jerald Foster leading the way, Nebraska seems to have enough youth and talent across the line to make a jump in 2017.

Bruce Thorson-USA TODAY Sports

Running back

Terrell Newby was a major bright spot for Nebraska in 2016, especially considering the marginal play of the offensive line. However, even Newby had his struggles (his goal line fumble against Northwestern comes to mind), and the senior won’t be on the roster next year.

The race to win the starting spot should come down to Tre Bryant and Devine Ozigbo, but neither has locked down the lead role.

Bryant showed flashes of brilliance as a true freshman but also had some early-season fumbling issues and averaged a modest four yards per carry on 43 attempts. The talent is there, but not a lot of production yet.

Ozigbo essentially began the year as a co-starter with Newby, but after an ankle injury sidelined him for a few games, he saw the field sparingly even after returning to health. He ended up getting fewer than half the carries Newby received and wasn’t able to average even four yards per rush.

Which of these guys will step up? Can Mikale Wilbon, a former 4-star recruit with speed and agility to burn, finally climb the depth chart? He has been inconsistent so far in his career but is a dangerous weapon when on the field. If Bryant and Ozigbo can’t take control of the top spot, don’t count Wilbon out.

Regardless of who ends up winning the job, one of these guys ideally needs to stand out from the others by the beginning of the 2017 season. It’s time for Nebraska to have The Man at running back again.

Bruce Thorson-USA TODAY Sports

Quarterback

Senior quarterback Tommy Armstrong improved drastically from 2015 in a couple of areas, most notably by cutting his interception total in half.

However, Armstrong and fellow senior Ryker Fyfe combined to complete just 50.8 percent of their passes. That kind of number is not going to keep defenses from selling out to stop the running game in 2017. It probably contributed to some of this season’s below-average rushing numbers. The offensive line and running backs had their issues, but life gets harder for those guys when the offense completes only half its passes.

The quarterback position is inherently high-pressure, but the winner of the 2017 Big Red quarterback battle — most likely junior transfer Tanner Lee or redshirt freshman Patrick O’Brien — may have an even bigger load on his shoulders than many other college quarterbacks.

Not only will either Lee or O’Brien be getting his feet wet as the new starter, they’ll be doing so while the staff transitions away from a style tailored to Armstrong’s running ability. The change will be much better for both players in the long run, but there could be some wrinkles to iron out at first. On top of that, the winner will have a lot of new faces to throw to, as three of the Huskers’ top four wideouts will be graduating along with the top three tight ends.

Stanley Morgan Jr. and De’Mornay Pierson-El are proven targets, but while the receiving corps does not lack talent behind them, it does lack experience.

The new starting signal-caller must dramatically improve the efficiency of the passing game in short order while throwing to a fresh crop of receivers. If successful, Nebraska’s new guy will become and instant fan favorite. If not, critics will be coming out of the woodwork immediately. Either way, the team will go as its quarterback goes yet again.

Bruce Thorson-USA TODAY Sports

Defensive End

While Nebraska was surprisingly effective at getting after the quarterback in 2016, the Huskers’ top two sack artists (Ross Dzuris and Kevin Maurice) are both seniors. One is not even a defensive end.

The lone returning starter, Freedom Akinmoladun has recorded 7.5 sacks, 13 quarterback hurries and a forced fumble in two seasons. There are no other ends on the roster with even one career sack. Akinmoladun may be a breakout candidate for 2017, but he won’t be able to do it alone.

The question is, who will step up? The Huskers have three talented young ends in redshirt freshmen Alex Davis and DaiShon Neal along with sophomore Sedrick King. Each will get a long look. Ideally, one or two of them would make a big jump during the upcoming offseason. 2017 could also be the year AJ Natter comes into his own as a senior, but he’s been hampered by injuries for much of his career and didn’t play much this season.

It doesn’t help that the Big Red just lost the commitment of defensive end Robert Porcher IV, who may have the size to play early in college. No matter who ends up starting, defensive line coach John Parrella will be tasked with developing some raw talents into difference-makers right away.

Nebraska does have pass-rushing skill at DT and proved it can manufacture pressure with blitz packages this season. If the defense wants to go from good to great in that category, it will need some defensive ends to separate the Blackshirt defense from the pack and prove they can put heat on opposing quarterbacks while holding down the fort against the run.

Bruce Thorson-USA TODAY Sports

Special Teams

When a coach who is making almost half a million dollars per year to put all his time and energy into special teams is relieved of his duties, a message is sent is loud and clear.

That’s not to say Nebraska’s special teams were bad across the board.

The Huskers got a great performance from kicker Drew Brown, who nailed all 35 of his extra point attempts and made 11-of-13 field goal attempts. Freshman punter Caleb Lightbourn also performed admirably, if not consistently, in the wake of the devastating loss of Sam Foltz.

Tre Bryant proved to be a capable kick returner, and we even saw glimpses of the lightning De’Mornay Pierson-El flashed during his true freshman year before being perplexed by injuries the following season.

Those things aside, Nebraska got consistently average play from a group that needed to be an X-factor week in and week out. That, combined with various untimely miscues throughout the season, culminated in Bruce Read’s dismissal as special teams coordinator.

The punt team allowed over 11 yards per return and was one of just five teams nationally to give up three blocked punts. Even with Pierson-el waiting deep, the punt return unit averaged only seven yards per attempt. Those ugly numbers highlight the struggles the special teams faced in 2016.

Riley is shifting philosophies to adopt an all-hands-on-deck approach for 2017. Nebraska needs the new style to result in marked improvement (in the punt coverage and punt return units in particular) if it wants to beat elite teams and take home hardware on a consistent basis.