LINCOLN — Tempo. Speed. A deep bench of receivers. A downhill run game between the hashmarks and a pass game that worked the edges of the field. And good blocking all over the place.
There. We described Nebraska’s offense in the spring game without once mentioning the star of Saturday’s matinee.
Dylan Raiola spun it nice. Handled seven minutes afterward with the media pretty well, too.
He says he had nerves, but they didn’t show.
He looked quick with his release without hurrying it. He’s 6-foot-3, 220 pounds, but didn’t lumber on his scrambles. Some throws had touch. Others had smoke. And two lasers into tight quarters were thrown confidently, where only his guys could get them.
“He’s got a great feel for the game, he’s got a big arm,” coach Matt Rhule said. “He’s calm.”
The five-star freshman also appears to have more options at his disposal and an offense that operated better on Saturday than it did for most of last year. The spring game remains a glorified scrimmage. But of the things quarterbacks Raiola, Heinrich Haarberg and Danny Kaelin could control, they looked good, and so did the offense.
“I thought there was a lot of positive energy in terms of the way the offense conducted itself — got in and out of the no huddle, sometimes got in a huddle,” Rhule said. “Just the overall feel from the field felt really good.”
For one thing, Nebraska looked prepared to use the in-helmet microphone communication. All three scholarship quarterbacks got access to their coaches’ thoughts right up to 15 seconds on the play clock, and the crispness of their play was evident. On quick throws to flats — stop routes to receivers, playaction flips to crossing tight ends — the ball got out, and NU’s pass catchers generally took good after-the-grab paths through the defense.
There’s an art to it, and that takes some time — and ability to read blocks — to navigate. NU’s interior receivers blocked so effectively that receivers routinely had outside lanes in which to run. Four-yard plays turned into 15-yard gains.
“Completions — just getting the ball in play outside the box,” Haarberg said of throws to players like Thomas Fidone and Nate Boerkircher. “Anytime you can do that there’s a chance of getting a corner trying to tackle Thomas or trying to tackle Nate, things are going to happen. That’s a first down, move the chains, start all over again.”
And draw defenders out of the box toward the sidelines. Do that enough times, and you can hammer backs into the middle of the field on basic zone plays. Think of it like an accordion in full extension, only the accordion has holes in it. Wherever the holes are in the accordion, wherever air escapes, attack.
NU’s run game, basic as it might have been, still had an edge to it. Interior blocking was often good — particularly from Justin Evans, Henry Lutovsky and former Florida/Baylor starter Micah Mazzccua — and backs ran hard, unafraid, downhill. The various Husker defenses, many of its best players sitting, looked a little undersized and inexperienced, catching blocks instead of taking them on, but that could have been the offense, too, taking charge.
Either way, one unit was often on its heels — and not the one you’d expect.
Raiola’s presence doesn’t hurt. But he had help — and knew as much.
“I love it,” Raiola said. “There’s many different variables to it, whether it’s checks, getting us in the right play, or the coaches putting us in a position to be successful. But I think based on our playmakers. We have a lot of those and we want to use them. We’re just trying to find ways to push the ball to our guys and watch them go to work.”
The young man believes it, and has no reason, based on his experience, to think differently.
But Nebraska has struggled mightily, in recent years, to surround the quarterback with enough weapons.
That’s why, in five of the last six years, NU has asked its quarterback to be a running weapon, averaging at least 12 carries per game. A quarterback who runs correlates to — and may well cause — more fumbles. It creates more yards, too — of the nation’s top 10 rushing offenses in 2023, seven had QBs with more than 100 carries. But those seven offenses averaged 17 fumbles, too. Air Force and Army each had 21.
Nebraska had a nation-high 31. Haarberg took at least that many blasts to his upper body. I question whether, in this burly version of the Big Ten, where defenders are likely to stay extra years due to NIL money, a team can expose a quarterback to 100 carries and win more than nine games.
NU’s offseason pursuit of Ohio State transfer Kyle McCord indicated that Rhule understood triple option football had its limits. And while Raiola can run, his NFL model is the run-on-occasion Patrick Mahomes, not run-often Lamar Jackson.
“We're going to run NFL-style plays,” running backs coach EJ Barthel said April 23.
In 2017 and 2022, when Tanner Lee and Casey Thompson quarterbacked the respective teams, Nebraska averaged 25.8 and 22.6 points per game with NFL-style plays. That ranked 84th and 102nd nationally.
Either figure probably wins Nebraska two more games in 2023, when it averaged 18 points per game. And both the 2017 and 2022 teams had better receiving weapons, too.
How about 2024? It’s looking up. Wake Forest transfer Jahmal Banks may well be a key possession receiver who provides a big red zone and third down target, but Isaiah Neyor glides with speed on those shallow crossing routes. Jacory Barney is quick and tough, and Jaylen Lloyd has taken a jump in his play, too.
Perhaps no other player personifies Rhule’s vision for the program — the kinds of guys he wants and the development he believes in — more than Lloyd, who was headed toward a track scholarship before Rhule, brand new to the Husker job, offered the Omaha Westside product a scholarship.
That decision looks wise now, doesn’t it? Lloyd had six catches for 237 yards and three scores last season, and could easily be NU’s No. 1 or No. 2 receiver in 2024 — as a true sophomore.
“I want to take a step toward being more of a complete receiver,” Lloyd said after a spring game in which he had a 64-yard touchdown. “I would say, last year, I was a little bit raw — I was just a speed guy. I (wanted) to work on my route running.”
Lloyd got pressed into service last year after a glut of injuries — plus Zavier Betts’ decision to quit midway through camp — left an untested true freshman as one of the best available options. He and fellow true freshman Malachi Coleman made their share of mistakes, but they’ll grow from it.
How far they — and the line, and Fidone, and running back Emmett Johnson — develop by August helps shape how much Raiola, Haarberg, Kaelin or some added-for-depth transfer have to do to win games. Last year, the onus often sat squarely on the shoulders of Jeff Sims, Haarberg and Chubba Purdy, and you saw what happened.
This spring game, NU’s offense seemed more cohesive, coordinated and in control.
Of course, it’s two hours on an April Saturday. A teaser trailer, especially when it comes to Raiola, who seemed in charge after just three months on campus.
Imagine what he might be in six months. Or 18. Or 30 months, just before his third year on campus.
The trailer looked pretty good on Saturday. The trilogy might be even better.
There’s so many similarly-sized guys darting on, and defensive coordinator Tony White is creative.
Watching it again, the defense could have used a little more edge to it, and it struggled to cover scissors routes (where receivers cross each other’s path early) or tackle near the sidelines.
Special teams is a question mark
Quarterback play overshadowed Tristan Alvano’s missed field goals from 32 and 43 yards.
Alvano kicked both from the right hashmark.
The placekicking and punting units are question marks for me.
Where Dowdell fits
Johnson’s going to be hard to unseat at running back, but Dante Dowdell makes sense as a short-yardage or red zone guy.
Runs a little high, but runs hard.
Grass field coming?
After two more Huskers tore up their knees on FieldTurf, you wonder how much of an urge Rhule has to tear it out and install grass.
Penn State, Iowa State and Michigan State all have grass fields.
It’s cold in those places, too.
New additions to Tunnel Walk
Nebraska appeared to add more voluminous smoke and two rows of lights to the Tunnel Walk entrance.
The former stood out in daylight; the latter will be prominent at night.
Having moved the walk to the northeast tunnel, NU’s entrance seems pinched by recruits amassed nearby.
Osborne Legacy Complex update
Workers continue to put finishing touches on the Osborne Legacy Complex — Nebraska’s new football building — especially in the front lobby that can be seen from the East Stadium loop.
But Nebraska A.D. Troy Dannen said on Big Ten Network that NU got the green light to move into the now-functional parts of the building.
By all accounts, the 315,000-square foot building is a standout in function.
Visually, it’s a standout, too, a series of glass-and-steel black boxes that contrast from Memorial Stadium’s brick-and-stone exterior.
It looks foreboding and like a research lab; maybe that was the point.
Women's basketball visitor on sidelines
NU women’s hoops had a notable transfer visitor on the sidelines in Massachusetts forward Lilly Tauleilei, who averaged 6.7 points and 2.5 rebounds as a freshman last season.
She had a 14-point, five-rebound game against Maryland.
Nebraska men’s hoops did not appear to have a transfer visitor.
Takeaway from Rutgers' spring game
Caught part of Rutgers’ spring game, played after Nebraska’s event.
To attract fans, RU constructed a ferris wheel inside its stadium and had food truck options.
The Scarlet Knights visit NU on Oct. 5 and appear to be every bit the Huskers’ equal — good run game, speed on defense.
Rutgers avoids Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State while drawing Washington, UCLA and USC.