Nebraska Football: 3 reasons for optimism after Minnesota

There are a couple of things to be optimistic about even if the Nebraska football team didn’t come out of Minnesota with a victory.

After the 13-10 loss to Minnesota, it’s not all that surprising that some Nebraska football fans are a bit frustrated by another last-second loss. However, the fact of the matter is that there is reason to be optimistic about the rest of the season.

There’s reason to be optimistic even if the next Nebraska football opponent looked very, very good against TCU. There’s a couple of different reasons because the the Huskers are already looking better in a couple of different areas than they did a year ago.

Nebraska football saw better offensive line play

The chief aspect that did indeed see a bit of improvement was the offensive line. This is especially good news considering that the Husker coaches have talked a lot about how important the front five are going to be for success this season.

There’s also be a ton of talk about how tight-knit this group is. The inference is that the closeness of the players should lead to better play.

Because it’s only one game, its hard to know whether improvements are permanent, or simply a year removed and different players being featured, but when you compare Nebraska football’s game against Minnesota to their game against Northwestern, there’s reason for optimism.

One spot that saw definite improvement, according to PFF’s grading system was left guard. Last year, Turner Corcoran started there and rated just a 51.1 grade. This year, Corcoran moved over to left tackle, giving way for Ethan Piper’s 63.2 grade.

At center, Ben Scott, who got most of the snaps, graded slightly better than last year’s starter, Trent Hixson. Nouredin Nouili posted a 63.7 grade at right guard compared to last year’s Broc Bando who had a 59.7 grade.

Nebraska football faithful can also take heart that right tackle Bryce Benhart saw massive improvement in his own play from one year to the next. Against Northwestern, he scored just a 59.4 rating. Against Minnesota, an obviously better defense, he scored the best grade of the offensive line with an even 66.0 grade.