Nebraska Football Player Power Rankings: Colandrea is Still No. 1 but a Pick-Six Gets McDougle on the List

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Welcome to the most recent edition of my Nebraska Football player power rankings. As I have said before, this list will be completely subjective in several ways and may not follow a logical path. Or maybe it will.

This Power Ranking list will be a combination of the most important, most impactful, a recent contribution, waiting in the wings, rumors of greatness, rumors of not-so-great, players that made one great play to change a game (for better or worse) or any other type of metric that I think should go with this subjective list.

So without further ado, here is my most recent definitive and completely subjective Nebraska Football Player Power Ranking.

Here are links to prior Nebraska Football Player Power Rankings.

Start of Fall Camp
Halfway through Fall Camp
Week One: Ohio
Week Two: Bowling Green
Week Three: North Dakota
Week Four: Michigan State
Week Five: Maryland

The List

10. Jacory Barney Jr., Wide Receiver

Prior Ranking: 10th

Barney almost fell off of the list because he is still battling an injury. He only had three targets and two catches for 11 yards in the game against Maryland.

However, it is his ability to change field position as a punt returner is what makes him so important to this team.

Against Maryland he had a 22 yard punt return. The important part to note is that he caught it at the Nebraska 11 yard line and returned it to the Nebraska 33 yard line. That is a big difference when it comes to Dana Holgorsen’s play calling.

9. Vince Genatone, Running Back

Prior Ranking: Unranked

Can you get much more efficient than Vince Genatone?

He has seven carries for ten yards and two touchdowns. Also his efficiency they they throw it to him is also off the charts. Every time they have thrown him the ball, he has scored a touchdown.

Since they have only thrown it to him once that means he has three touchdowns on the season.

Genatone is only behind Anthony Colandrea, Jamal Rule, Kwazi Gilmer and Mekhi Nelson for total touchdowns on the season.

He is important because he has provided production and depth since Jamal Rule’s injury and appears to be a pretty good short yardage option.

8. Luke Lindenmeyer, Tight End

Prior Ranking: 8th

We all knew that Nebraska would have alternative plays out of their jumbo package and Dana Holgorsen called one of them at the exact right time.

Luke Lindenmeyer played 75 snaps against Maryland and scored a huge touchdown to put Nebraska up five going into the second half. It was the second game in a row that Nebraska scored a touchdown right before halftime and then received the ball in the second half.

Again, I wish Nebraska would publish their knock down stats. Would love to see how many knockdowns Lindenmeyer as well as some of the offensive linemen would be tallying up.

7. Justin Evans, Center

Prior Ranking: 3rd

We do start to wonder how much Nebraska misses Jamal Rule or if the fact that Maryland loaded the box on most downs against Nebraska which resulted in the worst rushing performance from its running backs of the season.

Mekhi Nelson averaged 2.8 yards per carry on 14 carries. Isaiah Mozee averaged 5.8 yards per carry but only rushed for 46 yards.

On the bright side, the offensive line did a great job pass blocking for Anthony Colandrea based off of PFF grades. Colandrea took off a few times which is why he led the team in rushing with 108 yards.

6. Williams Nwaneri, Defensive Lineman

Prior Ranking: 6th

Williams Nwaneri lead the team in pass rush hurries and played 44 snaps.

An interesting fact I heard is that Nebraska leads the conference in sacks but not one of Nebraska’s players is in the Top 10 in sacks. So they are doing it as a unit.

Nwaneri and Riley Van Poppel are starting to turn into the players we were hoping for and the coaching staff is rewarding them. Each tied for 44 snaps which was third among the defensive line behind Jahsear Whittington and Anthony Jones.

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5. Dwayne McDougle, Defensive Back

Prior Ranking: Unranked

Watching both Big Ten games for Nebraska there were several times Dwayne McDougle jumped off the screen. Against Michigan State there were multiple run fits that he came in like a missile and stopped the running back right at the line of scrimmage.

Then against Maryland he scored a season high 84.8 in coverage from the safety position. He only had one recorded tackle against Maryland but against a team led by Malik Washington it is in coverage that truly makes a difference.

A pick-six will help as well. After Dwayne McDougle’s pick-six, Maryland never scored again and Nebraska scored four touchdowns.

4. Donovan Jones, Defensive Back

Prior Ranking: 5th

The play below shows exactly how important Donovan Jones is to this defense.

Maryland had the perfect play call for the situation. It was a screen pass to Maryland tight end Dorian Fleming with two linemen in front of him for a huge play down the field.

Donovan Jones was in great position and then diagnosed the play. Then he split between the two offensive lineman and tackled Fleming.

Donovan Jones continues to make plays for the defense.

3. Kwazi Gilmer, Wide Receiver

Prior Ranking: 4th

If Kwazi GIlmer keeps this up during the rest of Big Ten play then he will be an All-Conference if not an All-American.

Against Maryland he had 11 catches for 147 yards and two touchdowns. He is clearly Anthony Colandrea’s favorite as he received 17 targets against the Terrapins and leads Nebraska in targets, catches and yards by far. A lot of that also has to do with Jacory Barney nursing an injury. Gilmer played 72 snaps and Barney only played 40.

2. Owen Chambliss, Linebacker

Prior Ranking: 2nd

Please stay healthy. There were several times in the game against Maryland that you could see Chambliss getting guys lined up. He leads the team in tackles and missed one game.

He had the highest overall grade on the entire defense with an 84.2.

Regardless, he is leading a unit that completely shut down Maryland. The Terrapins scored a touchdown at the 8:54 mark in the second quarter to go up 23-14. They didn’t score again.

What changed? According to Chambliss they just started doing their jobs.

1. Anthony Colandrea, Quarterback

Prior Ranking: 1st

If Nebraska can run the ball using their running backs then I do not think there will be a team that Nebraska cannot beat on their schedule. If they can run the ball then that opens up the play-action-pass and the Huskers are difficult to deal with. That is a big IF, especially when they had trouble doing so against a team like Maryland.

Luckily, when Nebraska is struggling to run the ball they have a quarterback who can do it all himself. Colandrea is the true dual-threat quarterback.

His completion percentage is at 65.7% and is third on the team in rushing.

Yesterday, Matt Rhule said they are going to continue to run the quarterback because it puts a lot of stress on the defense. Hopefully Colandrea can stay healthy. Maybe limit jumping over defenders though he is a gamer.

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