Nebraska’s defensive line caused a lot of frantic anxiety for Husker fans in the offseason. A handful of linemen left moved on, including Ben Stille and Damion Daniels, the latter of which earned a training camp spot with the Houston Texans but has since been cut.
The trend wasn’t encouraging either; Nebraska had ranked 98th in the FBS in sacks in 2021 and 96th in 2020. Since 2015, the Huskers have only had two players rack up more than five sacks: Luke Gifford in 2018 and Khalil Davis in 2019. Poised to break that trend is an attention-demanding crop from the transfer portal.
Ochaun Mathis is the most-prized addition of the group after posting back to back all-Big 12 campaigns with the TCU Horned Frogs. The junior led the conference with nine sacks in 2020 and followed it up with four last year. The hire of affable running backs coach Bryan Applewhite from TCU, who finished 5-7 in 2021, likely had an unintended, but pleasing, consequence and while Mathis is capable of an all-conference nod yet again, he’s far from the only get in the portal by the Huskers.
Also plugging leaks in the defensive line were Devin Drew, a regular starter from Texas Tech and Stephon Wynn Jr., a former backup lineman at Alabama that still found ways to make an impact. Mathis and Wynn are juniors and the Huskers have a few sophomores and redshirt freshmen ready to take a step forward so buying stock for Nebraska’s defensive line for the next two years might not be a bad idea.
Note: Players listed on Nebraska’s roster at the “edge” position that are not in this preview will be a part of our linebacker group preview.
Ochaun Mathis
Where to start with Mathis? At 6-foot-5 and 260 pounds, he’s a great size for an edge rusher: big enough to play on the line in a 4-3 scheme and small enough to line up at outside linebacker in a 3-4. Mathis also brings consistency and dependability to the line, starting every game for TCU the last…
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