The Unknowables 25: Are NU's WRs ready to be scary?

The Huskers added some proven transfers, but the real upside might lie with six underclassmen.

Courtesy Nebraska Athletics

A college football offseason is an exercise in trying to determine what we think we know about a team with reasonable confidence. You can point to this and point to that and, if a team has enough things to point to, it might just end up in a preseason top-25.

But I found last summer that exploring “The Unknowables” was perhaps just as helpful when trying to understand what Nebraska could (and likely could not) be in the season ahead. Today remarks the return of that occasional offseason series focused on things we can’t prove about Nebraska yet.

We’ll start with this one: Do the Huskers have the receivers to scare teams in 2025?

The answer to this question might do as much to define the season as anything. While there’s rarely any substitute for excellent quarterback play, there’s increasing evidence that excellent receivers might be the best offensive weapon in today’s college football.

Example: Will Howard was a good quarterback at Kansas State. In 2022, he took over for an injured Adrian Martinez midway through the season and completed 59.8% of his throws on 8.2 yards per attempt with 15 touchdowns to four interceptions. As the starter in 2023, he got a little less big-play reliant (7.4 ypa), a little more accurate (61.3%) and his interceptions rose slightly (10) based on more attempts. Pretty good stuff.

Good enough that Ohio State was interested, and when you paired Howard with the Buckeyes’ fleet of freaks out wide, this happened: 73% completion rate, 9.5 yards per attempt, 35 touchdowns, the same 10 interceptions as in 2023 (on 66 more attempts over four additional games played) and a national title.

It’s reasonable to expect Dylan Raiola to take some sort of step forward as a second-year starter in Lincoln, but making a leap? That might be up to the pass-catchers as much as it is him.

With the benefit of hindsight, it’s hard to argue the Huskers had that sort of difference-making collection of receiver talent in 2024, though I wasn’t thinking that this time last year. There was potential there. Jahmal Banks was a strong, reliable addition who established himself as a leader in his first few weeks on campus. Isaiah Neyor was three years removed from the breakout season at Wyoming that landed him at Texas, where injuries and circumstance meant he didn’t get to play much at all, but his athleticism was scary.¹ Home-grown Carter Nelson was perhaps the second-biggest recruiting win in the 2024 class, behind Raiola, and also got his own Unknowables entry.

Banks and Neyor were largely as advertised, certainly not disappointments on a large scale, and finished 1-2 last season in receptions. Nelson played in all 13 games, making 10 catches. But it’s perhaps telling that true freshman Jacory Barney Jr. felt like the most electric newcomer despite not finding the end zone through the air.²

Are the Huskers better off out wide entering Raiola’s second season? The short answer, I think, is “yes.”

Kentucky transfer Dane Key tends to get top billing in this discussion, locally and nationally, and there’s a reason for that. Key’s 715 receiving yards in 2024 were the most in the Wildcats’ typically ground-and-pound offense since (ahem) Wan’Dale Robinson had 1,348 in 2021.³ Key also has the edge of playing for his UK position coach, Daikiel Shorts, in Lincoln.

California transfer Nyziah Hunter brings some explosiveness to the equation after averaging 14.5 yards per catch on 40 receptions as a true freshman. He’s listed at 6-2, 210 pounds.

Barney’s back to get up to whatever Nebraska asks him to get up to, and Nelson returns after doing nothing to diminish lofty recruiting rankings but may be transitioning to more of a hybrid receiver/tight end. Janiron Bonner remains a jackknife with a 4-star pedigree.

That’s a pretty good base, but it’s beyond that where things get enticing. If you haven’t lately, put on true freshman Cortez Mills’ high school highlights. He’s listed at 6-foot, not the biggest, but seeing is believing. Mills looked like a classic, just-go-get-it guy while playing at the top level of Florida prep football. Isaiah Mozee (6-1, 200) was a fellow 4-star in the 2025 class, as was Jeremiah Jones (6-4, 215). Listed by 247 as an athlete, Jones played receiver defensive back and a bit of quarterback while being the top overall prospect in Kentucky last cycle. The Huskers have also been high on sophomore Demetrius Bell (6-0, 185) for two seasons. He redshirted in 2023 and was injured in 2024.

That’s great, you might be thinking. Those are some names we’ve all heard who have yet to do anything on Saturdays.

Fair, but there’s a reason why I chose the word “enticing” above for this group of high school recruits in the mix. Of the 19 top-rated prep receivers, tight ends or athletes (i.e., the pass-catchers) Nebraska has signed since joining the Big Ten in 2011, seven⁴ of them are on campus right now. That’s before you factor in the transfers, Key and Hunter.

You can’t prove in June that this makes the NU receiver corps scary in the fall, but it’s maybe the best total collection of talent the Huskers have had at the position.

Throw in a full year of a Dana Holgorsen offense marked by its extreme practicality of getting the ball to guys who make plays, and this receiver group looks like it could be the gasoline to the steady (if still just smoldering) fire NU built over two seasons under Matt Rhule.

I think Nebraska’s offense needs to get about 12 points per game better than it was a year ago (23.5 ppg) to truly meet or exceed the current offseason buzz around the program. It’s not doing that by becoming Harbaugh-era Michigan 2.0, even if that seemed to be the plan at Rhule’s introductory press conference.

But if this receiver group comes close to how it looks on paper, I like the Huskers’ chances to be in the hunt.

1. Still was at this spring’s NFL Combine.

2. He did score three rushing touchdowns.

3. And the second-highest at Kentucky since Lynn Bowden Jr. had 745 receiving yards in 2018.

4. That includes Bonner, a veteran at this point, but the other six are sophomores or younger.