Nebraska’s offensive line drawing rave reviews this spring

One of the main objectives this offseason for Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule was to retool the offensive line.

It wasn’t just about the players, either. Rhule fired offensive line coach Donovan Raiola. While he did some good things on the recruiting trail, there was a glaring lack of development in the offensive line room, something Rhule hopes to fix by hiring Geep Wade.

The former Georgia Tech offensive line coach hit the ground running, adding three players from the transfer portal who are all in line to start this season. That’s Tree Babalade at right tackle. He’s the former South Carolina transfer, while the Huskers also added Paul Mubenga from LSU and Brendan Black from Iowa State.

Those three are expected to join holdovers Justin Evans, one of the few success stories under Raiola, and Elijah Pritchett, who transferred from Alabama to be the starting left tackle last season for the Huskers, in the starting lineup.

After giving up tons of sacks last season, even if many were the fault of Dylan Raiola’s lack of pocket awareness, even more than his lack of mobility, the offensive line was a huge question mark.

However, it doesn’t seem to be anymore as Nebraska football players and coaches attested to with the media earlier this week.

Nebraska football offensive line gets rave reviews

“Oh my god, it’s great,” Running back Mekhi Nelson said of the offensive line. “Running behind those guys has definitely been special. The style of play that Coach Geep has them doing is definitely different. But I feel as though it’s going great.”

“They’re big, I’ll tell you that,” Kwinten Ives said. “They can run and I like that too.”

“It’s a great offensive line,” TJ Lateef said. “What more can you ask for?”

Glenn Thomas praised the offensive line, too, as did running backs coach EJ Barthel. Spring ball chatter is just that. It doesn’t really matter until it happens on the field in the fall.

That being said, it’s hard not to feel much better about the direction of the Nebraska football offensive line with Geep Wade in charge.