Nebraska football's offseason could be summed up quite succinctly as "up and down." In fact, ESPN recently ranked the Huskers' winter and spring, and it believes Matt Rhule and Co. are right in the middle of the Big Ten rankings.
Analysts Eli Lederman, Max Olson, and Adam Rittenberg put together a ranking of all 64 Power 4 teams. They put together a national Top 10 and then ranked every team inside their respective conferences. The good news is that the Huskers weren't among the worst teams in the B1G; the bad news is they also weren't among the best. However, they were technically in the top half of the conference.
Matt Rhule has Nebraska football stuck between progress and pressure this offseason
Nebraska ranked No. 8 in the Big Ten for the quality of its offseason. That put them behind Indiana, Oregon, USC, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, and Iowa. In other words, the Huskers have to play four of the top seven teams in the Big Ten on this list. Ohio State and Oregon also made ESPN's national Top 10 for best offseasons.
So why did the Cornhuskers get ranked where they were? The insiders believe quite a bit of the ranking is about the team's quarterback situation.
"The Huskers had much higher hopes when Raiola signed, but ultimately didn't get the results. Their initial target for Raiola's replacement, Kenny Minchey, flipped to Kentucky, an unthinkable choice not long ago," the analysts wrote as part of what went wrong.
Matt Rhule gave Nebraska football a portal answer, though doubt still follows
However, the man Nebraska found to replace Minchey was a big part of "what went right" according to the ESPN trio.
"The Huskers emerged from Minchey's flip with an experienced and talented quarterback in UNLV's Colandrea, the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year, who brings 31 career starts, 7,542 passing yards and 49 touchdowns to Lincoln."
Other uncertainties, such as how the new staff will mesh and how the Huskers spent the last two years going to bowls, but seemingly underperforming as well. Matt Rhule has been a rather polarizing force for the fans as well.
Nebraska's No. 8 ranking in the Big Ten does mean they beat out quite a few teams that seemingly had worse offseasons. They surpassed Minnesota, Illinois, UCLA, Washington, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Maryland, Rutgers, Purdue, and Michigan State. The Huskers take on five of those bottom 10 teams.
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