Nebraska Football: Three Surprises, Two Questions and One Prediction Huskers News Matt Rhule Dylan Raiola Jacory Barney Brian Buschini

Three Surprises

The two best offensive players are true freshmen.

At this point I would claim that the two best players on the offensive side of the ball are Dylan Raiola and Jacory Barney. I think going into the season that many would have expected that Raiola would play well and could be the best player on the offensive side of the ball. However, I did not hear anybody suggest that Jacory Barney could be on that list. At this point in the season he is leading the team with 397 all-purpose yards. Raiola on the other hand looks to be kind of a revelation in how he has taken care of the ball and at times has made throws that this program hasn’t seen in quite a while.

The best player on defense is a walk-on from Omaha.

Ty Robinson might have a gripe with me but at this point I think the best player on the defense is John Bullock. He’s leading the team in tackles and might be my best example of the development this coaching staff has done in this program. Bullock joined the team in 2019 as a walk-on and received a scholarship in 2023 from Matt Rhule.

Rhule said this year that when showed up Bullock was playing in the secondary and might have been 4th or 5th on the depth chart. Rhule then suggested that they move Bullock to linebacker and well that appears to have been a great decision. Bullock looks like he might be on track to have an all-conference type of season.

Punter Brian Buschini would win Nebraska a game by punting and throwing a pass.

Did you know that Brian Buschini has a current passer rating of 352.0?

Yes, that is a ridiculous statistic as he has thrown one pass but that was on of the biggest plays of the game against Rutgers when he completed a 30 yard pass to Jaylen Lloyd. Especially since this was coming off of having two punts blocked.

Even though there were the two blocked punts, Buschini averaged 50.2 yards per punt against Rutgers with a long of 69 yards which flipped the field for Nebraska.

It was that punt that I said out loud to my wife, “Holy _____ Nebraska is going to pull this one out.”

I believe it was the Brian Buschini game.

Two Questions

I believe that Marcus Satterfield and Glenn Thomas (co-offensive coordinators) are extremely creative however I do wonder against a team like Iowa/Wisconsin and Nebraska needs to get three yards to win the game if there is anything they can lean on in that moment?

Has Nebraska’s defense really figured it out after the disaster against Illinois or are they going to get exposed in the upcoming weeks?

One Prediction

Nebraska will right the ship when it comes to special teams in terms of snapping, holding and kicking. Obviously, Brian Buschini is not the problem but I believe Nebraska will get it figured out before it is too late.

Or at least I hope so.