The concern I don't have with Anthony Colandrea
And one I do.
Five FBS quarterbacks gained more than 4,000 total yards in 2025. It was a strange year—nine quarterbacks reached this number in 2023 and 2024, 10 in 2022—and last season’s 4K Club included some strange stories.
Drew Mestemaker led the nation with 4,468 total yards. He was a 0-star recruit who walked on and started his career as the fifth-string QB at North Texas. Trinidad Chambliss (4,464) was second, a backup option Lane Kiffin plucked from Division II Ferris State who led Ole Miss to the CFP semifinals. Third was Diego Pavia (4,401), a known entity entering 2025 but a player who received just two D-2 scholarship offers1 out of high school and worked his way up through junior college and New Mexico State to become a Heisman finalist at Vanderbilt. Byrum Brown was fifth (4,166). He also topped 4,000 yards in 2023 for South Florida, one of just five FBS schools to offer him a scholarship, none of them from a power conference.
And the fifth member of the 4K Club was Anthony Colandrea (4,108), Nebraska’s big transfer swing at quarterback for 2026. He was an off-and-on starter over two years at Virginia, throwing nearly as many interceptions (20) as touchdowns (26), before finding his groove at UNLV under the tutelage of QB whisperer Dan Mullen. Colandrea threw for 3.459 yards and rushed for 649 yards, accounting for 33 combined touchdowns while cutting his interceptions to nine, earning Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year.
There’s a lot to like about Colandrea’s upside in Lincoln and some things that give pause. The fact that he’s coming from the Mountain West to the Big Ten just isn’t one of them for me.
