Nebraska report card: How Huskers stack up defensively halfway into season

The Nebraska football team is halfway through its 2024 schedule, entering the bye week with a 5-1 record.

Most Huskers fans can likely tell just by watching that the team is improved as a whole from last year’s squad, featuring an upgraded but not yet lethal offense, a strong defense and a struggling special teams unit.

At the midway point of the season, though, let’s take a closer look to see how the Huskers stack up compared to their peers. This article is focused on the defense. Read our past report on the offense here and watch for the special teams edition later this week.

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Related: Nebraska report card: How Huskers stack up on offense halfway into season

Defense

Nebraska’s defense was one of the best in the country last season. All the Blackshirts have done is improve so far this year.

The unit has made life even harder on opposing offenses by getting even stingier against the run and pass; built upon strong pressure rates by getting to the quarterback more; forced turnovers at a higher rate; and further cut the amount of points allowed.

If there’s one area of concern, it’s missed tackles, as the Huskers have a slightly higher rate of misses so far this season than last year.

Overall, though, depth is much improved and the defense is getting contributions from seemingly everyone on the depth chart.

Ceyair Wright has been huge filling in while Tommi Hill is injured; underclassmen like Princewill Umanmielen, James Williams, Vincent Shavers Jr., Willis McGahee IV, Kai Wallin, Riley Van Poppel and several others have provided big lifts; and several players, both younger and older, have shown great improvement. Altogether, it’s strongly reaffirmed the Huskers’ development plan.

“The way we build the team is to redshirt the guys who can redshirt and let them develop and play them the right amount,” head coach Matt Rhule said Monday. “You know, James Williams is out there, has a big game statistically right, and it’s like, well, we made the decision, a hard decision but the right decision last year to redshirt him down the stretch and now you see a much, much more developed player in my mind.”

Those decisions can be tough for players to accept, so it’s no small feat that Rhule and his staff have gotten players to buy into the plan and are already reaping the rewards.

Nebraska’s defense will be tested the rest of the season by some physical and potent offenses but the play of the Blackshirts has been really strong overall and gives hope that the Huskers can finish the season differently than last year.

By the numbers, here is how the Huskers rank defensively in the Big Ten:

• 1st in sacks (20) — T-5th in the country
• 2nd in pressures (114)
• 1st in tackles for loss (42) — T-8th in the country
• 4th in passes defended passes defended (25)
• T-3rd in interceptions (7)
• T-1st in touchdowns scored (2)
• 4th in red zone scoring rate allowed (69.2%)
• 9th in third-down conversion rate allowed (35.4%)
• 2nd in points per game allowed (11.33) — 7th in the country
• 5th in rushing yards per game allowed (84.2) — 9th in the country
• 11th in passing yards per game allowed (188.3) — 36th in the country
• 7th in total yards per game allowed (272.5) — 14th in the country

The Huskers are also the only Big Ten team to not have allowed a rushing touchdown yet.

Here are the top performers on defense so far this season, according to PFF (average grade is 60.0):

• CB Ceyair Wright — 85.0
• LB John Bullock — 82.7
• ED James Williams — 78.2
• LB Stefon Thompson — 77.0
• DT Nash Hutmacher — 76.9
• CB Tommi Hill — 76.6
• S DeShon Singleton — 71.6
• DT Ty Robinson — 71.3
• CB Marques Buford Jr. — 71.1
• ED MJ Sherman — 70.3

Statistically, Williams and Robinson are tied for fourth in the conference in sacks; Robinson and Bullock are in the top-10 for TFLs; Buford is tied for third in pass breakups; and Malcolm Hartzog is tied for fifth in interceptions.

PFF also rates Robinson and Hutmacher among the best interior defensive linemen in the conference; Williams, Sherman and Umanmielen highly among edges in the Big Ten; Bullock and Thompson among the best 10 linebackers in the conference; Wright and Hill as two of the top 15 corners in the Big Ten; and Singleton, Hartzog and Isaac Gifford as some of the top Big Ten safeties.

Overall, Nebraska’s defense has been fantastic this season. Yes, the unit has struggled at times with tackling and stopping physical rushing attacks. However, a team doesn’t luck into ranking as highly as the Huskers defense does, and most teams don’t have as many individuals as highly regarded as the Big Red. There is always room for improvement but only an “A” seems right for this group halfway into the season.

What grade would you give Nebraska's defense so far?

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