Lineup turnover, inexperience contribute to Nebraska’s offensive line struggles

In the Big Ten, winning football teams are built in the trenches.

Nebraska’s struggles this season aren’t exclusively limited to the offensive line — but there’s no question that issues in both pass and run blocking have contributed to the Huskers’ 3-7 record.

A look at the statistics provides a clearer picture of exactly where Nebraska isn’t holding up compared to the rest of the Big Ten.

According to Pro Football Focus, the Nebraska offensive line has the second-worst run-blocking grade in the Big Ten at 55.3, a mark that places the Huskers at No. 95 nationally out of 131 schools. Only Indiana, with a run-blocking grade of 46.1, has performed worse than Nebraska inside the conference.

Nebraska’s pass-blocking grades also tell a grim story. Again, the Huskers are 13th out of 14 Big Ten schools with a season grade of 34.3 in pass protection, with their national ranking dropping all the way to No. 128 in that category. The only Big Ten team worse than Nebraska in pass protection is Iowa, whose season grade of 27.9 is the second-worst in the entire country.

Asked about Nebraska’s pass protection issues in October, Turner Corcoran agreed that NU could perform better in that regard.

“It’s not as good as we want it to be,” Corcoran said. “Coach (Joseph) has made that statement so far that he wants it to be better, and we know we can be better than that. We have to do a better job of protecting Casey (Thompson) or Chubba (Purdy) or Logan (Smothers) or whoever is back there throwing the ball to our skill guys.”

While it’s easy to see that injuries and different personnel at quarterback have limited Nebraska’s offensive ceiling, the same trend has occurred along the offensive line. In Nebraska’s 10 games this year, the Huskers have used five different offensive line groupings and shuffled around players on multiple occasions.

Nebraska’s planned lineup of Teddy Prochazka, Turner Corcoran, Trent Hixson and Bryce Benhart lasted three games to begin the year. Prochazka’s season-ending injury led to Corcoran shifting to left tackle against Oklahoma and Ethan Piper taking over at left guard — Nebraska’s second unique lineup.

Issues in pass protection led Nebraska to start Hunter Anthony at right tackle against Indiana, while Corcoran’s ejection led to Brant Banks out-snapping him at left tackle. Corcoran returned to the starting lineup next week, but an injury to right guard Broc Bando soon elevated Henry Lutovsky into a starting role.

And with Anthony proving no better at right tackle, Nebraska returned to Benhart against Illinois for its fifth different offensive line grouping of the year.

“It’s difficult, but we practice for it,” Corcoran said of moving positions. “You’ve got to always be on your toes. When playing in the Big Ten, you never know when someone could go down and you have to move spots. Everybody has to be ready.”

Corcoran, Piper, Hixson, Bando and Benhart have dominated the playing time in Nebraska’s last two games, with Lutovsky serving as a backup option at guard. Anthony hasn’t played a single snap in the last three weeks, while Banks has only played nine snaps since his extended playing time against Indiana.

As such, a certain level of chemistry has finally developed among Nebraska’s starting five.

“I think we trust each other basically with our lives,” Bando said Tuesday. “Not even just in football, but in life — I know those guys got my back and I’ve got their back in any way.”

While Hixson and Bando are the experienced veterans in Nebraska’s offensive line room, there’s been a learning curve for NU’s other more inexperienced linemen. And with a first-year offensive line coach in Donovan Raiola leading the way, this year might have been a learning experience for him, too.

“At this point, we know the system he’s trying to operate in and we just make small adjustments all the time,” Piper said of Raiola. “There’s no major, ‘Hey, you’re doing this completely wrong; it’s just, hey, you need to do this a little bit better.’ The small adjustments get us to where we want to go.”