The 2025 football season is here, and if you’re a Husker fan, you’re ready. This is Rhule’s year three and now is when the jump is supposed to be made. But has there ever been a season when you felt like you knew less about the Huskers? If 2025 Nebraska was a poker game, the one-eyed Jacks and Jokers would be wild. Wild cards can change the game and make all the difference when one pops up unexpectedly. That’s how I feel about Nebraska football going into this season.
What am I calling a wild card? A player who is going to contribute in unforeseen ways. A difference maker, someone that can’t be kept off the field. This coaching staff knows they have players who fit that bill. So, what do they do? They go to the draw when needed and hope the difference makers show up.
Nebraska has multiple wild cards on this team so it’s difficult to know where to start. But I’ll give you four potential wild cards on each side of the ball and two on special teams.
Let’s start with Quarterback. Last season Dylan Raiola got dinged up in the UCLA game and came out, but otherwise he started all thirteen games. I’m not a doom and gloom kind of guy, but it’s highly unlikely that it will happen again. No matter what the SEC tells you, this is the Big Ten, it’s a physical conference, and with Raiola wanting to run more, you just never know. There are two real candidates behind Raiola and it’s going to depend on the game and at what point of the season you must go to the draw. If it’s early in the season and you’re up in the fourth quarter, and it looks like Raiola could be back the next game, you play it safe and go to Jayln Gramstad. Right now, he’s number two. He’s experienced, a proven winner, and is solid. However, if you’re down, and it looks like you may lose Raiola for multiple games, you go to TJ Lateef. He’s the long-term answer and you’ll need to get him up to speed. Yes, he’s young and inexperienced but he’s stood out in practice. He moves well and spins the ball well, and since when is Nebraska scared to start a freshman QB. Right now, no one in the Big Ten knows who Lateef is. If for some reason he gets on the field, they soon will. Lateef is the wild card in the QB room.
There is one wild card in the running back room. Before Kwinton Ives’s hamstring injury, he was the clear number two behind Emmett Johnson. Or was he? Mekhi Nelson was on Holgorsen’s radar at the end of last season and with his comments this week my chips are on Nelson. Holgorsen saw something in him from the start. Nelson is a homerun hitter and a receiving threat out of the backfield. He is also interchangeable with Emmett Johnson. The offense doesn’t change between them. As for Mozee, I see him as added depth and someone too talented to keep off the field. Like Carter Nelson at wide receiver last season, Mozee will play running back to get experience. As much as Shorts wanted him at wide receiver, the room is too deep to get him on the field as often as they would like.
Luke Lindenmeyer is the clear-cut starter and early in the week Mac Markway would have been the wild card. But since he reinjured his knee and is out indefinitely, he’s no longer an option. Markway may have been the best all-around tight end in the room. His loss makes Heinrich Haarberg the wild card. The only question about Haarberg is how effective he will be at blocking. We already know he is a gifted athlete with breakaway speed and can make splash plays. But when running 21 personnel will it be a giveaway as to who is the blocker and who is the route runner between him and Lindenmeyer? Holgorsen needs Haarberg and Lindenmeyer to be interchangeable. After Haarberg there is Carter Nelson, Cayden Echternach, Eric Ingwerson and Danny King. Satterfield’s biggest challenge is equaling them out, making them as good at pass catching as blockers, and vice versa.
Finally on offense, there are multiple opportunities for a wild card to pop up in the receiver room. As of now, I see the three starters as Dane Key (X), Nyziah Hunter (Z), and Jacory Barney (slot). Behind them will be Cortez Mills, Quinn Clark, and Janiran Bonner. But this is a talented room, and you can’t overlook players like Demitruis Bell, Jeremiah Jones, and Keelan Smith. Bonner would be the easy pick here. He’s always been seen as a wild card due to where he can line up. Bell is coming off a knee injury and will be easing into things. Jones has shown he is physically gifted but has a ton to learn at this level. With Holgorsen’s comments in the spring about Mozee and Mills being able to get free in the secondary with both their speed and route running, and with Mozee moving to running back, one might think it would be Cortez Mills. However, the true wild card here is Quinn Clark. With his size (6’4”) leaping ability and speed he adds another element to the wide receiver room and could be formidable when battling for contested balls. There isn’t a Big Ten defense that sees this guy coming, look for him to make some big plays and turn heads this season.
Defensively the big question from everyone is the defensive line. However, Rhule recently commented that this group will be “Hell on Wheels,” which got a lot of attention. If that’s true, then I’ll be the first to say it, this defensive line is more talented than last year. With players like Riley Van Poppel, Keona Davis, Cam Lenhardt, Williams Nwaneri, Elijah Jeudy, and Jayln George there is talent and size everywhere. And while Riley Van Poppel is assured of being a starter, he is going to be the unexpected wild card. Several people will tell you he is another Ty Robinson, but he’s not. He’s better. Robinson was solid, in fact he was better than solid, but he wasn’t a difference maker. How can I say that? If he had been, UCLA would have never pieced together an 18-play opening drive last season. Van Poppel will make plays when needed and has already shown it by stuffing a runner at the goal line against Illinois as a true freshman. After playing as a freshman and redshirting last season he is set to take over Robinson’s role and improve on it. The 2025 Blackshirts are looking to put up 40 sacks this season, with John Butler’s aggressiveness, RVP will be a big contributor to that number.
There are people out there that are saying the 2025 Nebraska linebacking group is the strength of the team. That while there is depth and experience in the secondary, the linebackers will carry this defense. That’s hard to argue with players like Javin Wright, Marques Watson-Trent, Desean McCullough, Vincent Shavers Jr, Willis McGahee IV, Jacob Bower, and Jordan Ochau all expected to play key roles. I like what we’ve seen from the young guys Shavers, McGahee and Ochau. While Wright, Watson-Trent, and McCullum add a ton of experience and solidify an already good group. But Vincent Shavers Jr. and Jacob Bower are the wild cards. I’ve liked Shavers from day one and he finally got a real opportunity to show what he can do in the bowl game. He’s a natural blitzer and in Bulter’s scheme he will make game changing plays. Bower has been someone they haven’t been able to keep off the field. He was making plays in the spring and looks to carry that over to the fall. He’s been called the next Jon Bullock, but truthfully, he must be better. Occasionally Bullock the walk-on would show up, like the missed tackle against Iowa that changed the game. If Bower is to be a true wild card those types of plays can’t happen. Bower is a wild card. Shavers is a wild card that changes the game.
The Blackshirt secondary returns both experience and depth, something that has not occurred over the last few seasons. There are players who are true cornerbacks, allowing guys who were forced to play the position last season to slide back into more natural roles. My guess is that Ceyair Wright and Andrew Marshall will start at corners, backed by Jamir Conn and Blye Hill. Hill was on track to start last season until he was injured. And don’t forget Jeremiah Charles and Amare Sanders. Deshon Singleton will start at rover and anchor the middle. His position has produced the leading tackler over the last two seasons and that could very well happen once again. Other safeties with experience include Malcolm Hartzog and Marques Buford. But with 26 players on the depth chart there are plenty of young guns who are hungry and will push to get on the field. Talented guys like Donavan Jones, Caleb Benning, Larry Tarver, Mario Buford, and Bryson Webber. There are plenty of choices for being a wild card. But here is only one that truly stands out for me, Caleb Benning. He has a nose for the ball and possesses natural playmaking ability. He’s instinctive, aggressive and likes contact. You can’t keep players with this type of ability off the field. Look out for Benning, he’s going to take over games if given the opportunity.
As for special teams, over the last ten seasons it hasn’t been poker, it’s been a Craps game with snake eyes rolling up consistently. That all changes with Mike Ekeler. On would think picking wild cards off special teams would be simple, but it’s not. I made up the rules by saying two, but can I change to three? No, I’ll stick with two and tell myself I have to make a choice between Kyle Cunanan and Archie Wilson. Because of course long snapper Kevin Gallic is my first choice. Gallic plays under a different set of rules from everyone else in the selection process. You are looking for big play guys who are making game changing splash plays. With a long snapper you are looking for someone who does the same thing every time without fail. Just make the basic play, be consistent and never let us hear your name. That’s what we’re going to get from Gallic, he will be Nebraska’s great nobody. On the other hand, Archie Wilson will be the talk of the town, if not the college football world. ESPN is surely working on a piece already. What a great story. Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard it before, Aussie kicker who never played American football comes in and does great things. But this story is different. He’s a player handpicked to join a blueblood powerhouse who used to be solid at special teams but has fallen on hard times and been abysmal over the last ten seasons. A savior if you will. I couldn’t be more excited about a kicker and it’s hard to imagine him having even a mediocre season without it being a major victory. As for placekickers, I’m confident a star can be found amongst Tristan Alvano, John Hohl, and Kyle Cunanan. But I see Cunanan as the man, he too was handpicked by Ekeler.
Man, it’s a great time to be a Husker fan.
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