Three key questions facing Mark Whipple and the Husker offense this spring | Football

Nebraska has four new offensive assistant coaches including a new play-caller in coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mark Whipple. NU is heading into spring ball with three new quarterbacks on the roster this semester, six new transfers total on offense and the potential for new faces in the starting lineup at just about every position group.

Not everything will be settled by the Red-White Spring Game on April 9, but here are three critical questions that the Huskers will hope to answer as fully as possible between now and then.

What’s the starting point up front and who snaps the ball?

Current injuries, past inconsistency, the departure of two 2021 starters and the arrival of new offensive line coach Donovan Raiola all combine to make this about as wide open of a spring as possible up front.

There are very few certainties in the group. If freshman Teddy Prochazka is able to fully recover from an October knee injury that ended his 2021 campaign, he will be a strong candidate to win the left tackle job. It would be unwise to assume that he’ll proceed without bumps in the road, though. Turner Corcoran played well at left tackle in 2020 against Rutgers, but then missed time in preseason camp last summer and struggled overall while moving between left and right tackle. Corcoran himself is another question currently because he, like Prochazka, is expected to miss the spring with an injury.

A major question is whether Raiola thinks Corcoran might be the guy to replace Cam Jurgens at center or if he’s better off at tackle or guard.

Regardless, he won’t be there this spring, so the conversation in the middle is likely to feature Norfolk native Ethan Piper and Omaha native Trent Hixson. Piper started last year at left guard but struggled with consistency and eventually was benched. Perhaps Raiola can unlock something in the sophomore, who lacks neither athleticism nor smarts. Hixson started every game of 2019 at left guard and has been a reserve the past two seasons (two starts at left guard in 2021). He’s appeared in 24 career games and is trained as a center.

One benefit for the Huskers is they have a bunch of guys who either have experience playing both guard and tackle or could likely do it. That list includes transfers Kevin Williams Jr. and Hunter Anthony, Broc Bando, Corcoran, Brant Banks, perhaps Bryce Benhart and even Nouredin Nouili, who was the No. 2 left tackle last summer before eventually becoming the Huskers’ starting left guard.

Who emerges as the go-to offensive weapon?

One of Whipple’s calling cards in his 40-plus years as a coach is that he force-feeds the ball to his best player. He’s had guys like 2021 Biletnikoff winner Jordan Addison at Pitt and All-American Andy Isabella at UMass put up gaudy statistical numbers.

“I think he does a good job of having plays for players, if that makes sense,” former NU assistant coach Jovan Dewitt, who faced Whipple in 2021, said in December.

At a recent Lincoln Football Coaches Association presentation, Whipple showed film on dozens of ways the Panthers got Addison the ball. The sophomore finished with 100 catches, 1,593 yards and 17 receiving touchdowns in 14 games in 2021.

“Get your best player the ball on offense,” Whipple told the high school coaches. “If you’re 0-10, you still have a best player.”

Simple question, then: Who is Nebraska’s best player? LSU transfer Trey Palmer? Zavier Betts? Omar Manning? Rahmir Johnson? Travis Vokolek? That search will be a key this spring.

What does the quarterback picture look like?

It will be no surprise if spring ball ends and Texas transfer Casey Thompson is in strong position to start for the Huskers. After all, he played in 10 games for the Longhorns in 2021, threw 24 touchdowns and has more game experience than any of the other signal-callers in Lincoln this spring.

He’s still got to grab the bull by the horns, though, and the rest of the picture is interesting, too.

In 2018, the last time NU quarterbacks were vying for time under a new coach, one holdover left midway through spring (Patrick O’Brien) and another left at the end of preseason camp (Tristan Gebbia). The Huskers’ room is young this time around and there’s no guarantee of attrition, but Thompson, Chubba Purdy, Logan Smothers, Heinrich Haarberg and Richard Torres will all have some idea where they stand sometime after UNL’s spring break in mid-March.

It should be a good fight not just for the top job, but in terms of the general pecking order heading into the summer.