This post was updated July 7 at 9:05 p.m.

UCLA is just weeks away from joining the Big Ten. After 96 years and 123 national championships in the Pac-12, the Bruins are at the forefront of the Big Ten’s West Coast expansion. Prior to UCLA’s official move, Daily Bruin Sports will preview the football, men’s basketball and other top programs of each school.

Football
2023 record: 5-7, 3-6 Big Ten
Coach: Matt Rhule

The Carolina Panthers signed Matt Rhule to a seven-year, $62 million contract after the head coach made four bowl games in five years at Temple and Baylor.

But as a rookie NFL coach, he went 10-23 across his first two seasons and was fired after a 1-4 start to the 2022 season.

When Nebraska hired Rhule ahead of the 2023 campaign, the Cornhuskers and the 2019 Big 12 Coach of the Year shared a chase for long-lost prestige.

The Huskers claimed five national titles since 1970, collecting three championships from 1994 to 1997. But since the BCS National Game was instituted in 1998 – and even more so since the College Football Playoff era began in 2014 – Nebraska’s success dwindled, appearing in just one title game.

While Rhule finished 2023 at 5-7, the New York City local once again built a reputation for building programs. He went 2-10 in his first season at Temple, but 26-13 across his next three seasons. At Baylor, Rhule’s Bears went 1-11 in 2017 but 11-3 in 2019.

In 2023, quarterback Heinrich Haarberg beat out veteran Jeff Sims for the starting position mid-way through the season – before injuries put an abrupt end to Haarberg’s debut season. The Kearney, Nebraska local led the Huskers with 967 passing and 477 rushing yards before his season ended short. However, he threw for as many touchdowns as interceptions and finished with a 106.6 passer rating.

To keep his starting position, Haarberg will have to fend off Dylan Raiola – the country’s top quarterback recruit. Raiola threw for 2,666 yards and a 63 completion percentage across 13 games in his senior year of high school – totaling 34 touchdowns and a single interception for Buford High School in Georgia.

Raiola and four-star tight end Carter Nelson – the top prospect out of the state of Nebraska in 2024 – headline incoming Husker crop ranked No. 24 in the nation and seventh in the Big Ten.

The departure of wide receiver Billy Kemp IV – who led Nebraska in receiving yards – may open the door for wideout Malachi Coleman. Coleman was the Huskers’ highest-ranked recruit in 2023 but had just eight receptions across 11 games in his freshman campaign.

The Huskers’ defense – ranked No. 11 in the nation by average yards allowed in 2023 – will see the return of four key players in linemen Jimari Butler and Nash Hutmacher and defensive backs Tommi Hill and Isaac Gifford. The quartet were each named All-Big Ten Honorable Mentions last season and all four set career-highs in tackles.

In its first seven games, Nebraska will face just two teams that finished last season above .500 – Northern Iowa and conference opponent Rutgers. But its final six adversaries each posted a winning record last season, including Ohio State, USC and Iowa.

Expectations may remain conservative for Rhule’s second year, but with the 12-team College Football Playoff on the horizon, an established veteran defense and a recruiting class to kickstart the offense, the Huskers could surprise sooner rather than later.

Men’s basketball
2023-2024 record: 23-11, 12-8 Big Ten
Coach: Fred Hoiberg

Nebraska reached the NCAA Tournament seven times prior to last season, including four straight from 1991 to 1994. But the Huskers have never progressed beyond their first game and managed just one appearance in the past quarter century.

Ahead of the 2019-2020 season, Nebraska hired head coach Fred Hoiberg. Hoiberg returned to his birthplace of Lincoln, Nebraska, after four middling seasons as the head coach of the NBA’s Chicago Bulls.

In his first coaching stint at Iowa State from 2010 to 2015, Hoiberg took the Cyclones to their first March Madness in seven seasons in 2012 and continued to do so each of the next three years – winning Big XII tournament titles in his final two.

His time at Nebraska would not be as easy – Hoiberg held a 40-83 record across his first four seasons. But the coach broke through last season – going 23-11 en route to the Huskers’ first March Madness appearance in a decade and their winningest season since 1991.

Texas A&M handed Nebraska yet another first-round exit, but Hoiberg was honored as the 2024 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year for his efforts.

The graduation of guard Keisei Tominaga – Nebraska’s leading scorer last season with 15.1 points per game – brought into question the Huskers’ ability to replicate the success of 2023-2024. With the additional loss of forward Rienk Mast, who averaged 12.3 points and 7.5 rebounds per game, to knee surgery and three other players averaging about seven points a contest, the uncertainty grows more ominous.

In their absence, Hoiberg recruited six players through the portal. Most notably, forward Andrew Morgan – who averaged 12.9 points, five rebounds and one assist per game for North Dakota State last season – and guard Rollie Worster who averaged 9.9, 4.9 and 5.5, respectively, for Utah.

However, Nebraska has just two three-star recruits from the High School ranks – guard Nick Janowski and forward Braden Frager – slotting in as the No. 73 recruiting class in the nation and the No. 16 in the Big Ten.

The Huskers will retain the services of their No. 2 and No. 4 scorers, guard Brice Williams and forward Juwan Gary, respectively. The former averaged 13.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game, while the latter averaged 11.6, 6.1 and 1.3, respectively, last season.

Nebraska offered Hoiberg a contract extension till the 2028-2029 season – a sign of rising expectations following his last campaign – testing whether it’s the coach or the players that truly breed wins.

Women’s volleyball
2023 record: 33-2, 19-1 Big Ten, NCAA finals appearance
Coach: John Cook

The 2023 season was Nebraska’s best since 2006 by win percentage.

The Huskers lost just two games all season.

But one of those games was the NCAA national championship.

In coach John Cook’s first season at the team’s helm, Nebraska went 34-0 and captured a national title. Seventeen years later, Cook has accumulated four NCAA championships.

However, the cards haven’t favored the Huskers as of late. Since 2018, Nebraska has been to the national championship thrice – and has lost all three times.

With no graduates and just four outgoing transfers, Nebraska will retain 10 familiar faces in the upcoming season. Both of the Huskers’ First Team All-Americans – outside hitter Merritt Beason, who led the team in total kills and kills per set in 2023, and libero Lexi Rodriguez, the reigning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year – will return for their senior campaigns.

Add in Minnesota transfer outside hitter Taylor Landfair and Nebraska rosters three 2023 First Team All-Americans.

While the Huskers lost outside hitters Hayden Kubik – the No. 1 class of 2022 prospect – to Tennesse and Ally Batenhorst – the 2020-2021 Gatorade High School National Player of the Year – to USC, Nebraska recouped with the addition of outside hitters Leyla Blackwell and Skyler Pierce and libero Olivia Mauch.

Blackwell is a three-time All-WCC First Team honoree with San Diego, while Pierce is the 2024 No.4 prospect and Mauch is the 2023-2024 Nebraska Gatorade Player of the Year.

Cook – an AVCA Hall of Fame inductee – continuously competed for national championships since he took the job at Nebraska in 2000, posting the nation’s best win percentage while manning the Huskers.

And with a contract extension till 2029, there’s little reason that glory will fade in 2024 – or till the end of the decade, for that matter.