LINCOLN -- Dana Holgorsen gave the slightest pause before answering. He's only had a few interview sessions with the Nebraska media, but it's clear he knows what he thinks and isn't overly cautious about sharing his opinion.
When it comes attached to a guy with his track record and experience, that's a good thing.
So he'd just been asked, on Thursday, about Nebraska's young offensive linemen and whether, through nine bowl practices, these reserves had shown the kind of growth that portends well for next season, when NU has to replace six-year seniors Bryce Benhart and Ben Scott.
"We need to bring some guys in, OK?" said Holgorsen, flatly referring to the transfer portal. "There's three (transfers) out there at practice right now. We visited with five or six of 'em and we're probably going to bring in some more."
At least one offensive tackle, and perhaps two. An interior lineman to either take over at center or battle for playing time at guard if NU moves Justin Evans from that spot to center. Nebraska had one of its better-performing offensive lines this season and can't afford to take a step back in 2025 when the pressure -- internal and external -- to improve on a six-win regular season kicks in.
The Big Ten is a line of scrimmage league, and Nebraska intends to be a line of scrimmage team. The hope, on both sides of the ball, is NU recruits well, gets old and perpetually stays old among its linemen.
"It's best to probably recruit, develop and grow your own guys at that position," NU coach Matt Rhule said.
The former line coach described a three-year process -- something that'll sound familiar to old-school Husker fans -- as an ideal template for maturing big guys.
Year 1: Redshirt a guy because it's the best thing for him.
Year 2: The young lineman begins to work into the rotation.
Year 3: The lineman, if he's ready, becomes a starting-caliber player.
Roster challenges and injuries have often forced NU to accelerate that timeline. In 2024, for example, Lincoln Southeast graduate Gunnar Gottula has started eight games and "played well," Rhule said.
But Gottula may not have played much at all if Turner Corcoran and Teddy Prochazka hadn't suffered season-ending injuries. Evans last year was pressed into action when Ethan Piper tore knee ligaments in the 2023 Northwestern game. So on and so forth.
The flip side of that coin is Gottula heads into 2025 with a season of starts under his belt. Other linemen in his class -- Sam Sledge, Grant Seagren, Brock Knutson, Jason Maciejczak -- got 119 combined snaps in 2024. They go into Year 3 of their development while Gibson Pyle, Grant Brix and others go into Year 2.
Hence, the need for transfers. Holgorsen said he leans on offensive line coach Donovan Raiola -- uncle of quarterback Dylan Raiola -- to make readiness assessments of young linemen.
"He's as good of a o-line coach as I've been around," Holgorsen said. "I trust him to get those guys ready to play -- and put them in position to be successful -- and if he doesn't feel like they're ready, he's not going to put them in."
Nebraska's former defensive line coach, Terrance Knighton, freely rotated players old and young. Including Jack linebackers -- who routinely functioned as defensive linemen and pass rushers -- 12 Huskers logged more than 50 snaps. Nine of them logged 100 or more. Of those nine, just three -- Elijah Jeudy, Cam Lenhardt and Willis McGahee IV -- remain on the roster.
That's probably why NU has already added three transfers for the 2025 defensive line. plus on Sunday, 6-foot-5, 223-pound former Oklahoma linebacker Dasan McCullough.
Again: The Huskers don't want a drop-off headed into a key third year in Rhule's tenure.
Nebraska already finished 6-6 with some of its best line play in years. Miscues in the pass game -- before Holgorsen's arrival -- led to frustrating, stick-in-the-mud performances against Indiana and UCLA. At least in the USC and Wisconsin games -- not quite as much against Iowa -- NU's offense found some answers. They'll likely to have find more in the Pinstripe Bowl against Boston College.
The Eagles, like Nebraska, embrace a physical identity. They'll get in heavy formations and run the ball occasionally, and their front seven plays an edge, especially in pursuit of the quarterback. Edge rusher Donovan Ezeiruaku had 16½ sacks -- 5 ½ in BC last two games, wins over North Carolina and Pittsburgh.
When Rhule watches game film, he said, he looks for a player or a scheme that he deems "gameplan worthy." Ezeiruaku fits the bill.
"He's dominant," Rhule said. "Dominant."
Gottula and Benhart are both likely to face him. And NU's front seven, featuring Ty Robinson and Nash Hutmacher in their final games as Huskers, are likely to get a heavy dose of Boston College physicality on a cold day in Yankee Stadium.
Nebraska's linemen have to pack a lunch to win the Pinstripe Bowl. Then, their coaches, working within the 105-man limit, have to pack the roster with many quality linemen as possible.
On with the Rewind with five stats
74.6%: That's the percentage of Nebraska's total "pressures" that will be leaving from the 2024 team, according to Pro Football Focus. Robinson leads NU this season with 33 total pressures, followed by James Williams (28) and Jimari Butler (22). The latter two have already transferred and won't be with the Huskers for the bowl game. PFF is not a perfect service -- we don't cite it as often as national sites do -- but it has improved greatly in tracking incremental data, so it's striking to see that John Bullock led the non-Jack linebackers with nine pressures this season when, last year, Bullock had 14 and Luke Reimer, an excellent blitzer, had 20. Javin Wright had 14 last year; he had one this year. NU had 226 pressures in 2023 and 185 in 2024
61: Pressures from Ezeiruaku. That represents 33% of BC's total pressures. He's as good a pass rusher NU has seen since perhaps the Aidan Hutchinson/David Ojabo duo in 2021 at Michigan. Ohio State's Chase Young, who wrecked Nebraska's house back in 2019, might be an even better comparison.
2016: The last time Nebraska gave up fewer than two sacks per game. Much of the credit for that went to the elite escape skills of quarterback Tommy Armstrong, who often used a reverse spin to evade pass rushers. That year, NU's allowed sack rate was 3.61%, which you generally derive by dividing sacks allowed by total dropbacks, which includes the sacks themselves. In 2017, it was 5.2%, and it's never been that low since. In 2024, NU's sack rate is 6.5%, a vast improvement over 2023, when it was 10%.
35.3%: Raiola's completion rate, according to PFF, on passes that travel 20 or more air yards. He averaged 11.3 yards per attempt on those passes, which seems high, but actually isn't given that each completion would be at least 20 yards. In 2021, for example, Adrian Martinez averaged 17.7 yards per attempt on such passes, and Casey Thompson averaged 16.9 yards per attempt on such passes. Martinez and Thompson enjoyed the skills of NFL wideouts Samori Toure and Trey Palmer -- it's not clear if NU had a NFL receiver on its roster in 2024 unless it's Jacory Barney, who caught most of his passes near the line of scrimmage. Raiola threw 51 passes that traveled more than 20 air yards and completed 18 of them. Several more drew pass interference penalties.
3 of 15: Deep threat Isaiah Neyor -- who is no longer playing for the team -- had 15 deep targets, which led the team. He caught three of those for 140 yards. In 2022, Palmer had 32 deep targets and caught 12 for 507 yards. In 2021, Toure had 26 such targets and caught 13 for 552 yards.
Photos: Our favorite photos from the 2024 Nebraska football season