Nebraska football fans might not be thrilled about the job head coach Matt Rhule did in the transfer portal this winter. Still, Pro Football Focus believes they should be quite excited about their new quarterback, Anthony Colandrea.
The site recently released a ranking of PFF's highest graded transfer quarterbacks from this offseason. The site is very high on Colandrea. That's not a huge surprise, considering he was the Mountain West Player of the Year. However, just how high the site is on the quarterback might surprise some Husker fans.
PFF has the new Nebraska quarterback as the No. 3 graded transfer QB of the winter. They gave Colandrea a 90.1 overall grade. That puts him behind only former USF quarterback Byrum Brown's 91.5 grade (he's now at Auburn), and former Cincinnati star Brendan Sorsby's 90.5 grade (he's now at Texas Tech).
Highest Graded Transfer Quarterbacks This Offseason🔁 pic.twitter.com/eI8K89tOZr
— PFF College (@PFF_College) February 9, 2026
Why PFF ranked Nebraska's Anthony Colandrea so highly
In all, PFF showed the grades of the eight highest graded quarterbacks. The rest of the list included Oklahoma State's Drew Mestemaker (88.3 at North Texas), Miami's Darian Mensah (84.1 at Duke), Illinois' Katin Houser (84.0 at East Carolina), Penn State's Rocco Becht (80.0 at Iowa State), and Wisconsin's Colton Joseph (78.9 at Old Dominion).
Kenny Minchey, Nebraska's first Transfer Portal quarterback commit, who ended up signing with Kentucky, is not listed. Granted, most of that is because he simply didn't get enough snaps to qualify for the list. Still, it shows that the Huskers came away from that soap opera in better shape.
Anthony Colandrea's grade is also the highest of any transfer quarterback who found a new team in the Big Ten. That alone should make Husker fans rest easier about the staff and give head coach Matt Rhule some benefit of the doubt.
It's possible the new Nebraska quarterback's grade was propped up by playing in a Mountain West conference not well known for offense. Still, most of the other top transfer QBs also came from smaller programs and jumped to the Power 4. Colandrea's grade is good news, heading towards spring practice.