Nebraska football: 10 best seasons by Huskers wide receivers

When talking about former Nebraska football receivers that had great seasons which came out of nowhere, the conversation begins and ends with Todd Peterson.

It’s not just that Peterson’s 2008 season was unexpected, it’s that his 2008 season was totally unexpected. In his first three years with the Huskers, the receiver had nine, 19 and 18 catches.

Those 18 catches in 2007 might have been a bit of foreshadowing considering he was able to find the end zone five times that year. Still, when he hauled down 62 passes in 2008, it’s safe to say very few people saw it coming.

Along with those 62 receptions, Peterson managed 786 yards and four touchdowns. Oddly enough, Peterson had his lowest career yards per reception at 12.7 YPC.

That was quite the dropoff from the 19.9 YPC in 2007. While he exchanged the ability to go long, for the number of catches, it certainly helped an offense that struggled at times.

Unlike Purify the year before him, Peterson didn’t have any truly awesome games. He was actually more the picture of consistency. While Peterson didn’t have a great YPC for the Nebraska football team, he managed to show off his wheels in the team’s impressive bowl win over Clemson. In that game, he had four catches for 96 yards and a touchdown. That capped a turnaround season in Bo Pelini’s first year at the helm.