Does Nebraska Football Have Any No Doubt All-Conference Players In 2025?

Jack: Honestly, probably last year's defensive line would be on a fairly short list. I think there were other ones coming in. I'm trying to think of that 2019 season.

Josh: I was just going to say, do you think Adrian Martinez would have been inside of top 10 quarterback?

Jack: Quarterback lists are so weird because how much do you consider the backup when you're doing a position group, right? I'm sure they weren't ever in running back. I'm sure they weren't ever in wide receiver. I bet they've been mentioned in secondary. But my larger point is that regardless of that, it probably isn't all that out of the ordinary. I can agree on that.

But I think you would also agree with me that the outlook from the outsiders is more positive this year for Nebraska than it has been for a while. You agree with that?

Josh: Since the start of the Matt Rule era. Honestly Jack, it's not like the end of the Frost years were that highly thought of nationally towards the end of the offseason either. So yeah, this is probably the most Ballyhooed, if you will, Husker football team since the 2019 one, at least coming into the season.

Jack: I was trying to get some sense of what that would be. The ESPN FPI coming into every year. And SP+. I've got all the way back through the entirety of the Groin Kick Era for all of these. So, this year, Nebraska is 25 in ESPN FPI, and they are 34 in SP+. That is the best rating in SP+ since 2022. They were 32 in SP+ for 2022. 2019, they were 31, 2022 they were 32. 2017 they were 29, 2016 they were 27, 2015 they were 25.

Josh: So basically, Jack, [they’re] in the similar area that they have been in in quite a few seasons and honestly, some of the more disappointing seasons outside of 2016 in the last decade.

Jack: But they're on the optimistic side of the last four seasons, at least.

Who's Nebraska's most-like All-Big Ten player in 2025?

Jack: The other thing I wanted to then track was how many Nebraska players, if any, were listed on the first, second, or third team all-conference list. Who would be the most likely person? Dane Key? To be on an all-conference?

Josh: Yeah, he was the first name that came to my mind just because he has good production at a previous stop.

Jack: Or [Ceyair Wright] maybe. I could see him as like a third-team all-conference guy.

Josh: The hard part thinking about this from the national perspective, is I don't really know if there are a ton of “name” players. The most famous player on the team is Dylan Raiola, right?

Jack: Exactly! That's my big point. There are a lot of people, and this is outside of the Nebraska world; there are a lot of people who are confident about Nebraska being better. Being top 25 range, going to a bowl, eight, nine wins as well. But I think all of that is about Matt Rhule. It's almost all about Matt Rhule and the season three thing.

Unless I'm missing something else because when you hear people, they talk about Dylan Raiola. And it's a belief that Dylan Raiola is what we all hoped he will be, and will be that next year. But I don't know that very many people can articulate beyond that.

Josh: Beyond the year three thing?

Jack: Beyond the year three thing and Dylan Raiola, especially from outsiders, why they think this team is going to take a step forward. And I think that's really interesting. And it makes me wonder what I even think about that; why that is. Because you would think perhaps if there was sort of this slight groundswell in confidence, there'd be a single player, right? There'd be a single player like, “this guy's gonna help them; they got this guy.” And maybe that's Dylan Raiola. It probably is. Other than that, there's not a single guy like that on defense, right?

Josh: There are guys that we like.

Jack: If Ty Robinson was coming back, it'd be him. And coming into some seasons, frankly Josh, even more than this year, there have been, there have been guys on the defense. I'm not saying they were All-Americans, but you're like, “this guy is close, this guy's primed, whether it happened or not, for an all-conference season or an all-conference run.” There's been a bunch of guys like that where you could point out an individual where you could say that. You could have said that about Nash coming into last year, too. And there have been guys like that.

I can't think of those people on this team, which is the fascinating thing to me.

Are people afraid of expecting big things from Nebraska's transfers?

Josh: Last year, they brought in two receiver transfers in particular that were gonna have a huge impact on success or failure in Banks and Neyor. Dane Key, better production than Banks, and he did so in a better conference. And [Nyziah] Hunter was the same way. His stats last year for Cal; pretty good. 40 catches, 578 yards, five touchdowns for a true freshman. You know, those are pretty good numbers. Those are comparable to Jahmal Banks' numbers coming into last.

Jack: Exactly. There’s skepticism about transfers, especially at wide receiver after last year. But there's skepticism about transfers because it'd be interesting to see how many we feel have been hits. There are a few, right? But how many of them have been hits during sort of the real “transfer portal era?” There’s skepticism.

Josh: The guy that was the biggest hit for me, Trey Palmer; I wasn't expecting a whole lot because he just seemed like kind of one of those classic former five stars who just never turned into a good college player. And now he’s in the NFL!

Jack: I think that is the answer to this question that I set out to figure out; why it seems like generally the pundits and maybe the fans too are higher on the team on average than they've been over the last 10 years, but lower on the players than they've been over the course of the last 10 years. And I think it's because those transfers are going to play such a key role, but you also don't really figure them in as you're thinking about the team. 

When you say all those things you just told me about; Dane Key where he's rated by Max [Olson], where his numbers compared to the other transfers that they brought in. My first reaction to that, Josh? He's being widely under discussed for this year. That’s my reaction.

Josh: But again, I think that that goes right back to being burned. I think because last year, Banks was always getting mentioned as such.

Jack: We talked way more about Banks on the air than we have up to this point than we have about Key this year. Would you agree?

Josh: 100%. And then throw in Hunter. And yeah, we're barely talking about those guys compared to what we were talking about last year. I would say that Jack almost up and down the roster at this point in time, because of all the new players. 

One of the things that you always like talking about is saying people don't want to discuss the actual players. They just want to talk about the coaches. I'll meet you halfway and say, I agree with you. And that's because people don't know these players. We have no relationship with so many of the players on the roster.

Jack : Every single player on the defense falls short of just being “the guy we talk about.” Some of them, because they're too young, don't have enough experience. Some of them, because they have been around forever, but they've just kind of been at an even keel level. DeShon Singleton, for instance. Some of them, because they're transfers, and we don't know exactly. And some of them have been good, but they're just now getting into a starting role, so we don't know.

And so you now have a defense where you've got 13 to 15 guys who have either very extensive, decent experience; decent players, right? Some good players, but you don't have one single one that you're like,” that's the guy on the defense,” right?

There’s been a lot of years in Nebraska's had no All-Big Ten players, but if you had to rank the top three defensive players most likely to be on one of the All-Big Ten list, I think we come up with a bunch of different lists on this, in part because we don't know who the transfers are.

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