Five burning questions heading into the offseason

Here are five of the biggest questions needing to be answered as Nebraska heads into a very interesting offseason…

This is a question that will be asked many times over the next eight months and one that likely won’t have a consensus answer.

On the one hand, there’s no question that Nebraska needed another game and one more opportunity to build further momentum in a season without a semblance of sustained success.

While a bowl game would have been void of all the usual perks and pageantry, it still would have given players a few hundred bucks in per diem money, bowl swag, and also comped flights home afterward.

On the other hand, though, there were clearly players on the team, some of whom hadn’t seen their families since March, that were just ready to be done after one of the most tumultuous seasons on and off the field in college football memory.

The Huskers played their best game of the year in Friday’s win at Rutgers, and maybe some players felt that was the perfect high note ending.

Valid arguments can be made for either side of the bowl/no bowl dilemma. In the end, there’s probably no way to know whether Nebraska made the “correct” choice.

Maybe the most unique aspect of the 2020 season, and there were many, was that it was deemed a free year of eligibility for all players by the NCAA.

That means that any or all of Nebraska’s 18 seniors this year could come back for another campaign in 2021.

We have a pretty good idea that at least one of those seniors, kicker Connor Culp, will return next season. He was the only player in that group not acknowledged during NU’s Senior Day.

After him, though, it’s all speculation at this point.

Running back Dedrick Mills said after the Rutgers game that he would likely make a decision on his future within the next few days or week.

Several other Husker seniors, when asked about their upcoming decisions over the course of the season, also said they would wait until the end of the year make anything final.

Who opts to return and who moves on will likley have a major impact on what Nebraska’s 2021 lineup looks like.

Nebraska’s offense, which sputtered from the second half at Ohio State until kickoff at Rutgers, saved its best for last.

And when the Huskers were at their best, they were running the football with authority and conviction.

Had it not been for the four turnovers, NU would half put up even more points to go along with its season-best 620 total yards in the win over the Scarlet Knights. Half of those yards – 365 to be exact – came on the ground.

Friday night was the first time since 2019 that Mills looked like the back we all expected he’d be going into the season. He rushed a career-high 25 times for 191 yards and got better and better as the night wore on.

The question is, should Mills move on, do the Huskers have the personnel at running back next season to replicate what they did in Piscataway? There’s potential in the backfield, but no one remotely as proven as Mills.

That said, the concepts NU used vs. Rutgers seem like things the offense could build a new foundation upon. They operated more out of the pistol, rolled Martinez out of the pocket with a run/pass option, and utilized its tight ends in the play-action passing game.

Maybe head coach Scott Frost and offensive coordinator Matt Lubick found something in that win that could give Nebraska a new idenity on offense next season?

Nebraska officially added 19 members to its 2021 recruiting class last week during the early December Signing Day, and that didn’t include graduate transfer linebacker Chris Kolarevic.

But the Huskers still have some glaring holes to fill in shoring up their depth next season, particularly at outside linebacker.

Arguably the biggest need in the ’21 class, NU failed to sign a single outside ‘backer last week. Frost said the three inside linebackers they signed could play inside out out, but that spot could definitely be one where the Huskers look for immediate help.

They also only signed three defensive backs, where they probably needed 4-5 in the class.

Then, of course, is the much debated option of going after a veteran transfer at quarterback. Martinez has been a roller coaster, while Luke McCaffrey did little to prove he’s the QB of the future this season.

Frost said during his Signing Day press conference last week that NU would likely add at least one player to the class, if not more before February.

“I love the group,” Frost said. “I don’t expect that we’re done.”

While Nebraska has plenty of issues to address throughout the offseason, maybe the most important of all goes well beyond Frost and Co.’s control.

The 2020 season was a mess from start to finish, but the long-term hope of grinding through a fall season was that it would allow for things to hopefully return to normal for ’21.

Should the country get a better handle on the COVID-19 situation by next fall, the Huskers could be on a plane to Ireland in August to take on Illinois in the Aer Lingus Football Classic.

However, a lot of progress needs to happen over the next eight months for that game to go down as planned.

Will enough fans by then feel comfortable taking a transatlantic flights and staying up to a week in a foreign country?

When Nebraska was announced as one of the teams chosen for the 2021 game Aer Lingus Football Classic officials said they hoped that more than 40,000 Husker fans would make the trip.

If that number goes down considerably, or if the battle against COVID-19 hasn’t progressed enough, could NU’s unique opener be relocated back to campus?