There was a time when the Nebraska football team thought it was going to have a record-setter on its squad in Trey Palmer. There was even a chance that the Huskers were going to have an All-American receiver on the team. That certainly would have been a welcome highlight for a season that’s spinning out of control. Well, technically, it’s already spun.
For a while there, it felt like Trey Palmer was going to be the bright spot. He was taking games over all by himself. Especially the Purdue game. That was the game he had 7 catches for 237 yards and 2 TDs. It was also the last game where the receiver has looked anywhere close to an All-American or All-Conference pass catcher. His slide has been the latest concerning trend for a Nebraska football team desperate to hold onto anything positive.
That game against Purdue was the culmination of a heck of a first half of the season. Was it also the end of the fairy tale?
Trey Palmer has 5 touchdown catches this year, and after having zero in the first three games, the Boilermakers’ game was the last of four straight contests in which he found the end zone. It was also the last time he’s had more than five catches in a game. And the last time he had more than 40 yards.
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Trey Palmer and Nebraska football sliding together
The drop in numbers isn’t really the concern though. After all, he’s dealing with the loss of Casey Thompson and trying to play with two quarterbacks who the coaches clearly don’t trust. The drops, in general, should be a little concerning.
Through the game against the Boilermakers, Trey Palmer had four drops all season. That stood out, especially because the Cornhuskers have had some drop problems this year. He stood out as the sure-handed receiver for a team that needed that to have any chance of success.
Since his stand-out performance, the LSU transfer has four drops. Two each in the last two games. PFF has his drop percentage for each of the last two games as 28.6 percent. Those are tied for the season high. The previous high was 20 percent against Northwestern.
Some of the receiver’s drop in production can be blamed on the quarterbacks. That’s for sure. It’s hard to watch Chubba Purdy especially throw the ball and think it’s an easy catch. But especially against Minnesota, Trey Palmer not making the tough catch could be blamed for the loss. He had five catches for 37 yards against the Golden Gophers. 7 catches might have made a big difference.
The big question, and the most concerning one, is why has he started to struggle like this? It’s a question that needs answering if it’s going to get fixed for the Nebraska football team. And they’re going to need him to step up and play big against Wisconsin and Iowa.