3 areas where Blackshirts must improve to become elite

The Nebraska football season is just a few weeks away, and the preseason hype machine is in full swing. We have predicted double-digit wins.

But we aren’t the only ones. Phil Steele, one of the most well-known college football experts, said on the Big Ten Network that he thinks Nebraska football could be a surprise playoff team.

Dylan Raiola was one of the reasons he cited. Another was the defense, which has ranked in the top 25 in terms of scoring defense each of the past two seasons.

The defensive line took some hits with the graduation of Ty Robinson and Nash Hutmacher. There were some transfers, too, but also some transfers gained, such as Williams Nwaneri, Dasan McCullough, and Jaylen George.

Nebraska looks deep in the secondary. The linebacker position also looks as good as it has since the Pelini era. Still, there is a new defensive coordinator in John Butler, who hasn’t called plays for a defense in over a decade, doing it for just one season at Penn State.

The Blackshirts were solid the past two seasons. Hopefully, there isn’t a dropoff. It feels like there’s a chance that Nebraska football could be better on defense, but here are three things that need to improve.

More Sacks

Nebraska football ranked 47th in college football last season with 30 sacks. That’s 2.3 per game. Putting pressure on the quarterback is the best way for a defense to succeed.

It starts with stopping the run, because if you can’t force teams to pass, it’s hard to sack the quarterback. Yet, every great defense is great at getting to the quarterback.

Nebraska was average last year. That’s why when push came to shove, like against Illinois, the defense was just…average. McCullough isn’t being talked about enough as a pure pass rusher.

The Huskers need him to excel this season. But when you add in guys like Keona Davis, Willis McGahee IV, Cameron Lenhardt, a freshman All-American, Nwaerni, George, Jordan Ochoa, and even Riley Van Poppel, who played well in the bowl game, this pass rush should be improved.

More Takeaways

These things go hand-in-hand, but the Huskers need to take the ball away more in 2025. They were tied for 67th last season with just 17 takeaways.

The offense needs to get better at taking care of the ball after 19 turnovers in 2024, more than in 2023. However, if the defense was effective at taking the ball away, the turnover margin would have been positive for the first time in years.

1.5 turnovers per game isn’t terrible for the offense. On the other hand, the Blackshirts need more than 1.3 takeaways per game. Applying more pressure on the quarterback will help. So will having better cover corners this season, thanks to the growth of Donovan Jones, as well as the addition of Andrew Marshall.

Butler knows the name of the game coming from the NFL. You need to hit the quarterback and force takeaways.

Nebraska wasn’t good enough at either of those things last season.

Third-down defense

Nebraska ranked 32nd in third-down defense, allowing teams to convert on 35.2 percent of their attempts. That number could be worse. It could also be better.

It felt like Nebraska gave up an inordinate amount of third-and-long conversions the past two seasons. The defense was good under Tony White, but last season, it didn’t rank in the top 25 in either of these critical categories: sacks, takeaways, and third-down defense.

If the Blackshirts are going to be better, and if this team is going to take a third-year leap under Matt Rhule, they need to improve in those three areas under John Butler.

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