Cover Five: Why is Nebraska football having an existential crisis nine games into the season?

A week of gray skies, rain and chilling winds around Lincoln served to reinforce the mood felt within the Nebraska football facility. Nebraska’s recent loss to UCLA has prompted a “week of introspection” according to Matt Rhule, a process the Husker head coach hopes will reveal answers about the team’s three-game losing skid. The most crucial stretch of Nebraska’s season is coming next, with this week’s soul-searching perhaps leading to changes down the stretch.

Let’s drop into coverage: When Rhule meets with the media on Mondays following a game, he tends to be honest to a fault. In reacting to recent games and future opportunities, the NU head coach often delivers a message to his team and Husker nation — and that’s what made his comments this week so striking. Steadiness and sticking to the process had been Rhule’s message in the aftermath of losses earlier this season.



“It’s not like we’re not good,” Rhule said following Nebraska’s loss to Illinois, adding that “our guys do winning things.” “My main thing in life as a coach is not to panic, not to change everything but to keep getting better at it,” Rhule said after Nebraska’s 56-7 loss to Indiana. But nine games into Nebraska’s 2024 season, the Huskers’ bye week efforts look more like the work of a program going through an existential crisis than one which is sticking to its process.

Rhule said as much when evaluating an offense whose production has cratered in recent weeks. “Are we gameplanning the right things during the week? That might be one of the questions we have to talk about and look at,” Rhule said Monday. Give the Nebraska coaching staff credit for acknowledging that changes should be made to address recent issues.

However, it’s worth questioning why the process needs to change nine games into a season if the process worked to begin with. One thing’s for certain — if Nebraska hopes to compete and play its best later this month, it better have made improvements over the bye week. The Huskers returned to practice on Sunday after two free days over the weekend, already having begun preparing for USC last week.

“We’re treating this like this isn’t a bye week, this is a game week for us,” Rhule said. With the December signing day fast approaching for the Class of 2025, the Nebraska coaching staff spent their bye weekend making key recruiting visits. Seeking to make sure many of their upcoming 2025 pledges are secure in their commitment, Rhule and wide receivers coach Garret McGuire made an important visit to Murray (Kentucky) athlete Jeremiah Jones.

An under-the-radar prospect prior to committing to Nebraska, Jones had seen a surge in late recruiting interest from the likes of Missouri and Florida State — and a visit from the NU head coach showed his importance in the program’s upcoming class. Rhule also joined forces with defensive line coach Terrance Knighton to see Texan commits Malcolm Simpson and Bryson Webber. Other 2025 pledges visited by NU coaches included defensive lineman Kade Pietrzak, tight end Bear Tenney and running back Conor Booth.

Several 2026 and 2027 prospects were also on the visit list for Nebraska coaches, with Rhule and McGuire visiting the nation’s top-ranked 2026 offensive lineman, Nixa (Missouri’s) Jackson Cantwell. Running backs EJ Barthel also checked in on Trae Taylor, a 2027 quarterback target who’d visited Nebraska earlier this fall. Quarterbacks coach Glenn Thomas was one NU assistant who did not make recruiting visits this weekend due to NCAA rules allowing 10 assistants on the road alongside a program’s head coach.

As Nebraska evaluates why its offense has taken a step backwards, no position group is immune from criticism or changes. A look at the playing time trends in the wide receiver room is just one aspect of the offense which should be examined. For example, could Nebraska do more to utilize sophomore wideout Janiran Bonner? The former Husker fullback played nearly as many snaps in Nebraska’s first two games of the season (80) as he did across the next seven games (83) — a change that coincided with an uptick in freshman Jacory Barney’s playing time.

It’s not just Bonner whose role in the Nebraska offense has faded over time. Alex Bullock, who played 600 snaps last season, has just one catch across roughly 150 snaps played this year. Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda, while a key contributor on special teams, has scarcely featured on offense without a single catch to his name.

And of the three freshmen wide receivers who were thrown into the fire last season, only Jaylen Lloyd has featured on offense with Jaidyn Doss moving to cornerback and Malachi Coleman undertaking a redshirt season. Perhaps NU’s best big-play threat, Lloyd is only seeing a few scattered targets per game. Nebraska’s passing offense clearly runs through Isaiah Neyor, Jahmal Banks and Barney at the wide receiver position — but could the Huskers do more to incorporate their other wideouts? Just as several wide receivers have played fewer snaps this time around than they did a year prior, two young Husker defenders have seen a change in their playing time: sophomores Cameron Lenhardt and Princewill Umanmielen.

Lenhardt, a defensive lineman, and Umanmielen, a Jack linebacker, both appeared in 10 or more games in key roles during the 2023 season. Given that Nebraska returned veteran starters ahead of both players, a significant uptick in playing time was always unlikely — but the Huskers still expected both sophomores to continue their growth. Instead, a decrease in playing time has slowed that process.

Lenhardt, a player who earned a Blackshirt prior to the season, has gone from playing 26.2 snaps per game during the 2023 season to 17.7 snaps per game this fall.

Umanmielen, who played 22.4 snaps per contest, has also seen his involvement drop to 18.8 snaps per game this season.

Both players have still been productive in totaling double-digit tackle numbers, but it’s a worrying sign to see their growth progress and overall development slow down. Another week, another set of results which prove that every Big Ten team can win on any given day. That was clear as a surging Minnesota team which had won its last four games by playing excellent football instead fell 26-19 to a Rutgers team coming off a four-game losing stretch.

Nebraska fans can also take solace in a 20-17 UCLA win over Iowa. Having started its season with a 1-5 record, UCLA has now won its last three games all by a one-score margin. With that result, the Bruins, Hawkeyes and Huskers might all be on a similar level — good news for Nebraska as its rivalry game against Iowa looms at the end of the month.

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