Nebraska’s quarterback picture got a national read this week, and it was not especially flattering. CBS Sports ranked Anthony Colandrea 11th among the Big Ten’s 18 projected starters, putting the Nebraska Cornhuskers football transfer in the middle tier of a league loaded with established names.
Colandrea arrives from UNLV after one season there and two at Virginia, giving Nebraska a quarterback with 33 games of major experience behind him. He threw for 3,459 yards in 2025 to lead the Mountain West Conference and added 649 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns on 127 carries, production that helps explain why the Huskers went after him in the portal.
His career numbers show why he remains a hard player to pin down. Colandrea has completed 627 of 983 passes for 7,542 yards, 49 touchdowns and 29 interceptions, with a 63.8 percent completion rate and 8.3 yards per attempt. He has also rushed 328 times for 1,151 yards and 12 scores, a dual-threat profile that could change how Nebraska moves the ball.
That matters because the Huskers are not bringing back their most reliable source of offense. Emmett Johnson is gone after running for 1,451 yards, and he accounted for 76.4 percent of Nebraska’s 1,897 ground yards last season. The offense also has to replace the production structure that came with a workhorse back, even as the line and playmakers around Colandrea try to adjust.
The ranking came with a direct warning about Nebraska’s quarterback battle. Tom Fornelli wrote that perhaps TJ Lateef wins the job, adding that he did not think the Huskers would have gone into the portal to get Colandrea from UNLV if they expected Lateef to be the answer. That leaves Nebraska with a transfer quarterback rated outside the top half of the conference projection and an internal competition that could still decide how the season begins.
There is a reason the projection is being read closely. Nebraska plays in the same Big Ten that has produced the last three national champions, and that is the standard Colandrea steps into now. If his mobility and ability to extend plays carry over, the Huskers may look different than they did last year; if they do not, the ranking could end up feeling generous.
