These Nebraska football stats shows how veteran defense is leading to wins

I wrote about the youth movement on the Nebraska football offense a few weeks ago. The Huskers are still one of the youngest offensive teams in the country and finally played more like their age against Rutgers. Fortunately, a defense filled with veteran players made this difference with some huge stops against the Scarlet Knights. Despite the veteran leadership on the Nebraska football defense, it's by no means an old unit. The Blackshirts have been great but have more arduous tasks coming up against some of the Big Ten’s best offenses.

I don’t have true “age” data for this analysis, like the Nebraska football player’s birthday. “Age” in this article will refer to the player’s year of eligibility, where Freshman = 1, Sophomore = 2, Junior = 3, and Senior = 4. For the team’s “age,” I consider any play that’s a stop for the defense: tackles, interceptions, or fumbles recovered. This also ignores any redshirt information or extra COVID years, so fifth-year senior MJ Sherman is still counted as 4. A team’s weighted age of tackles is calculated as follows:

Nebraska football Sum(Player’s Tackles * Player “Age”) / Team’s Tackles

Nebraska football’s defense is more veteran-laden than its offense, but overall, it is still in the middle of the pack across college football. The average age of a Huskers tackler is 3.08, ranking as the 66th youngest in college football. Juniors and seniors make up the top 12 tacklers for Nebraska, but James Williams is emerging as a big playmaker among younger players. While I don’t expect a significant shakeup, I see Williams finishing higher up on the tackle list for Nebraska by December.

The average age of Nebraska’s players with interceptions is precisely three. Eighteen teams in college football are tied with the Huskers at 53rd. Rahmir Steward helps the average as a freshman with an interception, with the remaining picks coming from juniors and seniors. I don’t see many younger players impacting here for the rest of the season, especially with Tommi Hill likely returning. It may be possible for Sophomore Blye Hill to see some action in four games this season, but I wouldn’t count on him making an interception.

Nebraska football’s three fumble recoveries have all come from veteran players - Mikai Gbayor, DeShon Singleton, and Jimari Butler. The Huskers are “old,” tied with Washington State and Northern Illinois as the 90th youngest teams by average age of fumble recovery. A guy like James Williams could, again, make an impact here if he continues to see more playing time aside veteran defensive lineman who could force more fumbles.

Due to the youth of the offense, there could still be room for pleasant surprises in their play this season. I don’t expect much difference from the defense from what we’ve seen through six games, given their weighted average age of a stop at 66th in the country. Nebraska football does face some significantly better offenses, so I would expect some drop-off in the defense's bottom-line numbers. Despite this, I still think they finish the season as a top-20 defense and help propel the Huskers to a good bowl game.

 Week 1 Arbitrary Stat of the Week Update: Nebraska and Louisiana Tech both have sixteen players with a carry leading the nation

Week 2 Arbitrary Stat of the Week Update: Nebraska is unranked for the 4th straight week. A win this week would surely return Nebraska to the AP Top 25

Week 3 Arbitrary Stat of the Week Update: Eight players in college football have a completion percentage of at least 70% and 8+ YPA (minimum 150 attempts). Dylan Raiola is not among them

Week 4 Arbitrary Stat of the Week Update: Nebraska’s offense is the third youngest in the country based on the weighted average of passes, carries, and catches

Week 5 Arbitrary Stat of the Week Update: Nebraska’s win vs. Rutgers improves its record vs. teams with 4+ wins and no losses to 2-9 in the Big Ten era. Nebraska can improve that number again against Indiana.