If only stats told the whole story.
Nebraska's defensive line came into Saturday's spring game as the biggest question mark on the defense. After the spring game, there's not too much to complain about on the defensive front.
But there may not be much to celebrate, either.
Sure, the Cornhuskers dominated the second-team offense, which was playing on the White team. They put pressure on the quarterback all day, even when blitzing was off-limits. The Red defensive line got six sacks on the day, holding the Whites to minus-33 rushing yards.
In total, the Reds out-gained the Whites 511 yards to 9.
While the game was painfully lopsided for fans, it did give them a glimpse of next fall's team. But with the quarterbacks stealing the spotlight, the changes at positions on the other side of the ball got overlooked.
"We know every game isn't going to be like this," defensive end Zach Potter said of the dominant performance. "But this was a great way to start. We'll never stop trying to improve, but we've come a long way since the beginning of practice."
Coach Bill Callahan, watching from the press booth, was impressed with the play of interior linemen Ndamukong Suh and Ty Steinkuhler. Both spent last season backing up then-senior defensive tackles Barry Cryer and Ola Dagunduro.
Potter and Barry Turner are stepping into even larger shoes to fill, replacing departed seniors Jay Moore and Adam Carriker. Both are NFL prospects, and Carriker is projected as a top-15 pick by some in the NFL Draft later this month.
"I'm cautiously optimistic," Callahan said. "I'm encouraged by how they work and how they practice and how they perform. … It's always great to get into that environment in an atmosphere like today and play with the crowd.
"I thought a lot of our players elevated their tempos."
The defensive backs on the Red squad also looked improved, even without Zackary Bowman, who is out for three to six months because of an injury.
Cortney Grixby and Andre Jones stifled the Whites' passing attack all day. Safety Bryan Wilson also excelled, except for a dropped interception in the third quarter.
"I thought we'd have a few more interceptions, but other than that I thought we did real well," Defensive Coordinator Kevin Cosgrove said.
The weekend also provided a peek at a few other standouts, including Rickey Thenarse, who got significant playing time at safety while returning kickoffs.
Nearly all of the players on the roster are players recruited during the Callahan era. And after years of pulling in high-caliber recruits, the fate of the Husker football program rides on big names stepping into their starting roles and turning hype into results.
It's hard to make projections on the future based on results from a scrimmage, but just having the opportunity to compete in front of a crowd can only help the Huskers as they prepare for next season.
"It's pretty hard in this day and age of 85 scholarships to go out there and do what we did today," Callahan said. "There are a number of schools that can't even scrimmage because they don't have enough linemen, so we're fortunate that we have the numbers that we do."
