Coming into the season, Nebraska fans were excited to see how wide receivers Nyziah Hunter and Kwazi Gilmer would team up with Anthony Colandrea. Things started well enough as the Huskers' offense lit up the scoreboard during nonconference play. However, as the season has gone on, Gilmer has become Colandrea’s top target while Hunter hasn’t gotten the ball enough. That’s one thing that new offensive coordinator Glenn Thomas could fix now that he’s at the helm.
When Hunter does get targeted, he’s still the same wide receiver who caught 43 passes for 617 yards and 5 touchdowns last season. As NFL Draft analyst Newt Westen pointed out, Hunter is in a league of his own in contested target rate and contested catch rate.
The Nebraska wideout is all the way to the right on Westen's chart, showing that Hunter has a 100% contested catch rate. In other words, even when the defender is right on Hunter, he still manages to haul in the pass.
As Westen pointed out, Nebraska should be getting the ball to Hunter more, but that’s not the only thing that has made the Huskers’ usage of him head-scratchingly odd. For whatever reason, Hunter, who can be a serious deep threat, has been used almost exclusively on screens, flats, and outs.
Separation vs Contested Catch for this class of draft-eligible receivers. For me the only question I have is,
— Newt Westen (@NFLDraft_Westen) November 5, 2026
“Why does Nyziah Hunter not get the ball more!?!?”
Haven’t watched a lot of Nebraska football so I can’t comment on the actually play. Maybe some Cornhusker fans can… pic.twitter.com/7eZpsDRT1u
Glenn Thomas must unleash Nyziah Hunter after Dana Holgorsen limited Nebraska football receiver
That’s the biggest reason why a receiver who entered 2026 averaging more than 14.3 yards per catch and five touchdowns per season is averaging just 7.3 yards per catch and hasn’t scored yet this year.
According to PFF, Hunter has been targeted on a pass of 20+ yards just four times this season. He hasn’t caught a single one of those deep balls. On passes of 10 to 19 yards, he’s been targeted four times and caught three of them.
Holgorsen decided the way to use Hunter this year was to throw him a short pass and then let him use his speed to make plays. Hunter has 13 catches on 13 targets from 0 to 9 yards downfield. He’s also been targeted a whopping 14 times behind the line of scrimmage and caught 12 of those passes. Nobody on the Cornhuskers has been targeted behind the line of scrimmage more than Hunter. Jacory Barney’s 9 targets behind the LOS are the next-highest on the team.
On the flip side, Hunter is tied with Quinn Clark for just four targets on intermediate passes (10-19 yards), the fewest on the team. Clark has just 17 targets all season, while Hunter has 35.
So could one of the big changes in Nebraska’s offense over the last three weeks of the season be that the Huskers start looking for Hunter downfield more? Considering Gilmer leads the nation in dropped passes, it sure feels like that should be one of the new offensive coordinator's top jobs.
Nebraska can start revamping the offense against Rutgers on Saturday. How Thomas does that will go a long way toward determining if the Huskers can save their season and not just go bowling but finish better than 6-6.
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