The Nebraska Cornhuskers are gearing up to face Morgan Scalley’s 15th-ranked Utah Utes on New Year’s Day. What positions groups should we keep an eye on in Las Vegas?<\/p>\n
It’s the end of an era in Lincoln. After just two seasons with the Huskers, Dylan Raiola has decided to explore other options in the transfer portal. This leaves Nebraska without true experience at the quarterback position. Plus, the Huskers also lost their best passer. Before he suffered a season-ending injury against USC, Raiola passed for 2,000 yards and 18 touchdowns. The Huskers don’t have that element in their offense anymore. Instead, offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen will have to rely on TJ Lateef’s<\/a> dual-threat ability against Utah. This should work out for the Cornhuskers. Against UCLA in the Rose Bowl, Lateef threw three touchdown passes and rushed for 31 yards. He also had another solid outing against Penn State. In Beaver Stadium, Lateef threw for 187 yards and had an 11-yard touchdown run. He has the opportunity to continue his success against the Utes’ defense. The program lost its best two edge rushers in John Henry Daley and Logan Fano to the NFL Draft. However, Lander Barton<\/a> could pose a problem for the Cornhuskers. The 6-foot-5 senior linebacker totaled one-and-a-half sacks this season.<\/p>\n Under the Vegas Lights \ud83d\udcf8\ud83c\udfa5 pic.twitter.com\/ySWE3fq0ag<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Nebraska Football (@HuskerFootball) December 27, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n How will Nebraska fare without Emmett Johnson<\/a>? In just one season, the junior from Minnesota was able to rush for nearly 1,500 total yards and 12 touchdowns. This not only allowed Johnson to cement himself as one of the greatest running backs to ever step foot in Lincoln, and put him in the conversation for major awards. At the end of the 2025 season, Johnson was named a First-Team All American and the Ameche-Dayne Running Back of the Year. The Huskers don’t have another player like that on the roster right now. As a redshirt freshman, Isaiah Mozee<\/a> showed some promise. However, he didn’t get the football enough in his first season.\u00a0 This should allow Mekhi Nelson<\/a> to pick up the slack against the Utes. In just five games, the Pennsylvania native rushed for 59 yards and one touchdown.<\/p>\n After only one season with the program, Terry Bradden was not retained by Nebraska’s coaching staff. This leaves the Huskers without a true defensive line coach heading into next season. However, this doesn’t mean the program is ineffective against Utah. In fact, we should see the Huskers’ pass rush come alive against the Utes. Right tackle Spencer Fano and left tackle Caleb Lomu have opted out of the Las Vegas Bowl in favor of the NFL Draft. It also helps that most of Nebraska’s coaches have been very hands-on with the position group. Matt Rhule has led the charge at the position, with Mike Ekeler and Roy Manning assisting during bowl practices. This should provide a different energy to the Cornhuskers’ defensive line. They’ll need a spark in Las Vegas. True sophomore Wayshawn Parker<\/a> will be a lot for the Huskers to handle. He led the way for the Utes’ rushing attack with 931\u00a0 yards and six touchdowns.<\/p>\n Nebraska’s offensive linemen have quickly adjusted to the Geep Wade experience. According to right guard Tyler Knaak<\/a>, Wade has brought his own “energy and swagger” to the Huskers’ bowl practices. This has allowed the Cornhuskers to not only act quicker on the field, but also get in the right frame of mind. These two attributes should help players like Henry Lutovsky<\/a> and Turner Corcoran<\/a> succeed on the offensive line. The only downside is that Rocco Spindler won’t be available. At season’s end, the Cornhuskers’ right guard declared for the NFL Draft.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Nebraska Cornhuskers are gearing up to face Morgan Scalley’s 15th-ranked Utah Utes on New Year’s Day. What positions groups should we keep an eye on in Las Vegas? Position Groups to Watch in the Las Vegas Bowl The Quarterback Spot It’s the end of an era in Lincoln. After just two seasons with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4440,"featured_media":84534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5,7361,2,35608,35659],"tags":[35879,2831,9800,35835,35877,35878,351,34850,34450,8696,4832,35791,34794],"class_list":["post-84172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-big12","category-bigten","category-bowl-games","category-featured","category-nebraska-cornhuskers","category-utah-utes","tag-caleb-lomu","tag-dana-holgorsen","tag-dylan-raiola","tag-geep-wade","tag-john-henry-daley","tag-logan-fano","tag-matt-rhule","tag-mike-ekeler","tag-morgan-scalley","tag-rocco-spindler","tag-roy-manning","tag-spencer-fano","tag-terry-bradden"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4440"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84172"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84536,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84172\/revisions\/84536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\u00a0Running Back<\/h3>\n
Defensive Line<\/h3>\n
Offensive Line<\/h3>\n