Over the offseason, there have been plenty of words written about the things that new Nebraska quarterback Anthony Colandrea can do. There have also been plenty of items written about his shortcomings, including his propensity to turn the ball over more often than his coaches would like. However, one area of his game that could be a massive boon for the Huskers hasn’t been discussed enough yet this summer.
Colandrea will certainly make mistakes at one point or another this year, and it will be incredibly frustrating when it happens. It will be especially frustrating if a big turnover comes when the game is on the line. What should be a breath of fresh air is that when the gunslinger is pressured, he more often than not finds a way to make a play.
In fact, according to Pro Football Focus, the new Nebraska quarterback is one of the top returners at his position in the Under Pressure grade. Last year, he scored a 59.2 rating when he felt pressure in the pocket. Unsurprisingly, more often than not, this is when he decided to pull it down and take off, and his 68.3 run grade shows it went for a positive play more often than not.
Colandrea’s overall grade when under pressure puts him fifth in the B1G behind only Washington’s Demond Williams (69.1), Michigan State’s Alessio Milivojevic (68.0), Ohio State’s Julian Sayin (67.1) and Illinois’ Katin Houser (64.5).
Anthony Colandrea gives Nebraska football a major edge under pressure
The Nebraska quarterback is well behind those top four, but he’s also a decent bit ahead of the guys who trail him. He’s better than UCLA’s Nico Iamaleava (56.8) and Wisconsin’s Colton Joseph (54.8), and Rutgers’ Dylan Lonergan (53.3) most notably.
2026 Husker opponents are mostly behind Colandrea as well, including Penn State’s Rocho Becht (52.6), Indiana’s Josh Hoover (51.1), Iowa’s Hank Brown (48.3) and Oregon’s Dante Moore (47.2). Obviously, Nebraska will need to find a way to get pressure on those quarterbacks in order for those grades to matter, but at the very least it shows the NU quarterback keeps his head when he’s under hot pursuit better than most.
Even more notable for Big Red is that Colandrea was worlds better than last year’s starting quarterback, Dylan Raiola. It will surprise no one who watched Raiola play that he didn’t perform at all well when he felt pressure. It’s a little surprising just how bad he performed, as he earned a 33.6 grade.
To put that into context, if Raiola were still the starter for Nebraska, he’d rank 17th in the conference among projected starters ahead only of Northwestern’s Aidan Chiles (31.6) and just below Michigan’s Bryce Underwood (35.2).
There is, in fact, no statistic, according to PFF, in this genre where Colandrea wasn’t quite a bit better. When Raiola was blitzed, he scored a respectable 59, but the former UNLV QB garnered a 91.1 grade. When Raiola was kept clean in the pocket, he scored a 72.9 grade compared to Colandrea’s 91.9 rating.
The most interesting part of this comparison is that it’s weighted far less heavily based on the kind of defenses the quarterback faced. Certainly there would be some variations based on the coverage once Raiola or Colandrea escaped the pressure, but this isn’t as clear a Big Ten vs Mountain West as other numbers. If Nebraska’s newest quarterback can continue to have poise in the pocket as he did in 2025, it’s going to be very good news for the Huskers.
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