Nebraska Spring Look Back: Defensive Line

Next in our spring football positional recaps, we will be giving our final take on Nebraska’s defensive line…

Related: QB | RB | WR | TE | OL

Nebraska’s defensive line has been at the top of its list of concerns. The Huskers’ played an offense vs. defense format during the Red-White game because the defensive line didn’t have enough to supply two teams.

It barely has enough for one team. All spring, Nebraska practiced with seven available defensive linemen. Each player had roughly the same amount of snaps in the five weeks of spring practice than starter Ty Robinson had during the 12-game, 14-week 2021 season.

This spring did give young players like Mosai Newsom, Ru’Quan Buckley, Jailen Weaver and Marquis Black a chance to get many reps and helped accelerate their development with more attention.

With Nebraska aiming to add at least two defensive linemen in the portal, most of these young players likely won’t see the field in the fall.

The players that took the field during the spring game that will be a factor in the fall are Robinson, Nash Hutmacher and Colton Feist, and they tallied two tackles between the three of them, not showing much in the scrimmage.

Outside of Robinson’s 808 career snaps, Nebraska has 49 snaps of game experience.

Casey Rogers was a key piece to the defensive line because he entered the transfer portal. Rogers sat out during the spring due to an injury and had the second most experience behind Robinson with 418 snaps over three seasons.

Outside of that, the next most experienced lineman is Nash Hutmacher, who has played 26 snaps on the defensive line. Fifth-year junior Colton Feist has played 17 snaps on the line in his career.

Buckley, Weaver and Black have played a total of six snaps during their young careers at Nebraska.

Nebraska lost a lot after the 2021 season, with four major contributors leaving the program, but didn’t add any transfers to replace their experience/skills.

Rogers’ decision to enter the transfer portal was a surprise to many. He had a chance to be a major contributor and/or starter during the 2022 season.

The 6-foot-5, 295-pound lineman’s return from injury gave a slight sense of security for the lack of experience on Nebraska’s defensive line. However, with his departure as a grad transfer, Nebraska desperately needs to add some big-time transfers.

Rogers already has posted nine (!) offers including ones from USC, Purdue, Auburn, Washington and more.

Nebraska is in the running for TCU defensive end transfer Ochaun Mathis and Texas Tech defensive line transfer Devin Drew also visited Lincoln. Both Mathis and Drew will have an immediate impact on the field, just what the Huskers are looking for.

With Rogers entering the portal, NU could bring in three defensive linemen from the transfer portal.

The only player on Nebraska’s D-line that has their position basically on lock is Ty Robinson, the rest will have to battle with the likely portal additions.