Nerves, heat and questions: Nebraska football ready to 'see what we got' after long offseason

One Nebraska senior after another this week recounted season openers past when the biggest challenge felt internal. Defensive end Cam Lenhardt fought major butterflies before his first start at Minnesota in 2023. Cornerback Andrew Marshall scrambled to change how he prepared as a freshman when his coach at Idaho told him he was playing.

Fifth-year tight end Luke Lindenmeyer’s advice to all the new Huskers experiencing Memorial Stadium on game day for the first time: It will feel like practice after a few minutes.

“Everybody’s tired of going against each other,” Lindenmeyer said. “Everybody’s tired of all the Coach (Corey) Campbell workouts. Everybody’s tired of just hearing Coach (Matt) Rhule talk. We just can’t wait to show up on Saturday.”

If football season is a months-long Broadway production, then the 11 a.m. Ohio game on FS1 is a debut matinee for Nebraska to see who can perform at showtime. The transfer era adds another layer of uncertainty throughout the sport.

Yet even by portal standards the degree of unknowns soars like midday temperatures. Ohio has a new head coach, an almost entirely reset offense and mostly different defense with an as-yet-unknown scheme. Nebraska’s depth chart includes a dozen fresh transfers as starters or co-1s and 14 on the two-deep overall.

“We’ve worked so hard for eight months,” NU offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen said. “We gotta see what we got.”

The defense at a given moment could have seven new transfers on the field, two defensive backs at different positions from last year — Jamir Conn at safety and former corner Donovan Jones at nickel — and Lenhardt as an end in a four-man front for the first time. All under a first-year coordinator in Rob Aurich.

The offense will roll out two new linemen, a potential new top receiver in Kwazi Gilmer and a quarterback in Anthony Colandrea who last winter was wearing a UNLV uniform while scrambling around against the Bobcats in a bowl game. Running back opens as a three-way committee between a former backup (Mekhi Nelson), a former receiver (Isaiah Mozee) and a former high schooler (freshman Jamal Rule).

Even some jersey numbers are unknown into Saturday, at least by Ohio and everyone else outside the Husker facility. The team will unveil single-digit numbers — peer-voted honors for toughness and grit — as players come onto the field for warmups in an understated reveal that matches the quiet offseason theme.

“The great thing about being at Nebraska is everyone’s watching,” said Rhule, entering his fourth season in Lincoln. “So no matter what you’ve done before, no matter how you’ve played in the past here — good or bad — it’s all about what you do next. We’ll figure that out on Saturday.”

The same goes for a staff with double-digit hires or significant job changes since Big Red completed a 7-6 campaign. There’s Aurich, introducing his 4-2-5 scheme that thrived at San Diego State. And special teams co-coordinators Brett Maher and Nick Humphrey, both promoted after Mike Ekeler left for USC in the offseason.

Other new assistants wearing Husker gear on game day for the first time are responsible for defensive line, defensive edges, safeties, offensive line and run-game coordination.

Rhule, who isn’t usually much for music in practice, has been blasting crowd noise in camp to help prepare the defense. For those who don’t know, Nebraska games aren’t small gathering where defenders can verbally check out of a call — it’s consecutive sellout No. 411 in the Sea of Red.

The same lesson goes for coaches, Rhule said, who will learn quickly it’s impossible to hear anything in the headset when the Husker home is rocking. The chaos is for everyone, all the way down to staffers realizing just how crowded the bench can be. Communication — loud, clear, concise — is key.

“Coaches are naturally talkers,” Rhule said. “At the end of a play they’ll be like, ‘Ah, so-and-so should have been here!’ I’m like, ‘Shut up and call the next play.’ Just getting them ready for that.”

Aurich will eschew the booth for the sideline, where he’ll review plays with the Blackshirts on an iPad as his family looks on from the stands. The moment is personally significant — but can’t be too much so — for the former Division II linebacker whose previous stops included Bemidji State, South Dakota and Idaho along with San Diego State.

“I’m just excited to coach ball and play, man,” Aurich said. “I’m excited to step out there in front of Memorial Stadium and do this thing.”

Beginning in Lincoln is a luxury the Huskers have rarely enjoyed this decade. Losses at Ohio State (2020), Illinois (2021), to Northwestern in Ireland (2022) and at Minnesota (2023) plus a win in Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium (2025) repeatedly took Nebraska’s rebuild on the road.

The runway this year includes three straight home games to start and five of the first six overall.

The challenge in the portal era, Rhule said, is which teams can come together as one the fastest. New coaches and players have individual histories, but how quickly can they create something greater than the sum of their parts?

With pads popping for real and sweaty fans looking for reasons to believe, Nebraska is about to find out.

“The guys we brought in are so mature and so seasoned and really bought into the culture,” Rhule said. “But I want to see what they do when things get really hard.”