Nebraska lineman Bryce Benhart (54) heads off the field following warmups before the Penn State game Nov. 15, 2020 at Memorial Stadium.
On a cold night in New Jersey, the future became the present for Nebraska’s offensive line.
That night against Rutgers, the Huskers started three freshmen and a sophomore on their offensive line. It marked the first time in the program’s history that NU had three freshman offensive linemen in the starting lineup.
And all Nebraska did was rush for 365 yards and average 6.3 yards per carry.
“We’re growing from that Rutgers game,” Bryce Benhart, one of those freshmen, said this week. “This is the opportunity to build off that. This spring ball is very important, and this last winter offseason, lifting and conditioning, was very strong for us (and) helped us.
“Now we’re rolling this momentum into spring ball, and we’ll have another opportunity to get better, faster, stronger this summer and then fall camp before the season starts.”
Benhart manned right tackle in that Rutgers game, his eighth start of the eight-game season. On the other end of the line, freshman Turner Corcoran became the first true freshman ever to start for NU at left tackle.
And as NU moves forward through an important spring, those two will try to entrench themselves as anchors on the line.
“I thought it was huge to get that confidence rolling, to get that first game under (my belt) and just feel the tempo of how the game is going for an entire game, not just eight snaps during an Illinois game and then an Ohio State game,” Corcoran said. “It felt like I could hang a little bit with the big boys in the Big Ten.”
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