There are many other things that can be taught that will make a pass rusher good on the football field, but it certainly helps if that first step – or first few steps – can put an opposing offensive tackle under pressure.

It’s even better when the first step comes from a man with natural size and strength, like Princewill Umanmielen, the 6-foot-5, 240-pound forward who is considered NU’s second-best recruit for the class of 2023.

“Talent is everywhere,” said Husker coach Matt Rhule.

“He’s a freak,” said defensive lineman Jimari Butler.

“He’s big, he’s tall, he’s fast, he’s explosive, he’s nervous,” said defensive coordinator Tony White.

Those qualities helped Umanmielen collect 16 hurries in his 142 pass rushes last season, according to Pro Football Focus. That total was the third-best on the Husker defense behind Ty Robinson and Jimari Butler, who had 196 and 86 more pass rush attempts, respectively.

In other words, Umanmielen, a four-star prospect, is a defender to keep an eye on in 2024.

A crucial point, because a program is improved by turning a conspicuous freshman into an up-and-coming sophomore.

And pretty much everyone you ask – Rewind interviewed several – sees Umanmielen on the road to maturity.

“He has to be consistent,” said White. “He has to be on the pitch every day, he has to take care of his body, he has to be on the pitch.”

Butler said: “Understanding the game better, understanding situations, that will be his biggest step.”

That’s called development.

That word is usually used to describe NU’s penchant for taking low-talent players or hopeless walk-ons – usually in-state players – and turning them into reliable performers through progress in the weight room and on the practice table.

Iowa – whose average recruiting class ranking for 2019-2023 is 34, according to the 247Sports Composite Service – excels in this type of development.

Of course, Iowa has not won a Big Ten title in those five years.

Michigan won three times. The average class rank from 2019 to 2023 was 11.4.

The Wolverines have signed better players than the Hawkeyes. And they’ve turned those players into excellent college football players, too. JJ McCarthy. Blake Corum. Will Johnson. Mazi Smith. Junior Colson. After all, it’s legal to draft a blue chip.

Before Rhule’s arrival, the concept had been elusive for nearly a decade at Nebraska, where the average class rank from 2019 to 2023 was 25, nine spots higher than Iowa.

Although it is not yet clear whether Rhule is capable of turning top recruits into top players, the signs point in the right direction.

Let’s take the five highest-rated recruits in the 2023 class. Malachi Coleman, Umanmielen, Riley Van Poppel and Cam Lenhardt – the four guys generally considered four-star players according to On3’s industry rankings – all played as true freshmen. All seem poised for bigger roles in 2024. The fifth-best recruit, Ethan Nation, left the team after one year.

In 2022, four of the top five rated high school guys left school. Jaeden Gould, Ajay Allen, Decoldest Crawford and Ernest Hausmann transferred to other schools. The only remaining recruit, Janiran Bonner, could start in the slot this season.

Only two of the five – Thomas Fidone and Heinrich Haarberg – are still from the class of 2021. Only one of the five – Turner Corcoran – is still from the class of 2020.

You can shift the blame for so many of NU’s top recruits not being successful. Bad scouting? To some extent. COVID? It played a role with the 2020 class. Coaching changes? Yes. Transfer portal? Of course. Walk-ons can transfer, too, but they don’t usually do that to other power conference schools. Blue-chip recruits do that all the time.

Onboarding — introducing a newcomer to a coach’s culture and retaining that player — seems to be going better under Rhule, who has built a huge staff to oversee a large roster. Rhule wants players to feel a family atmosphere — which comes with responsibility.

You hear it in White’s assessment.

“When you talk about flashes, it means you’ve seen what he can do,” White said. “Now, in year two, the expectations are higher, the standards are raised, so now is the time to be that guy consistently.”

You can hear it in Umanmielen’s own assessment, too. Speaking to reporters later in camp, he suggested he had improved since returning from an injury that had slowed him in the spring.

“The sacks I could have made last year, I’m going to make this year,” he said last week. “It’s just little things like snatching and grabbing at the end of my run or just bending over, padding, everything.”

Umanmielen also spoke on the same day, and James Williams represents more of the traditional development story that Nebraska promotes and that reporters like to tell. Unnoticed after high school. Picked up from a junior college in Iowa. He eats so much that he almost “pukes” at the amount.

Williams will be a success story no matter how much he plays. He’s already come this far.

But NU needs its top recruits like Umanmielen to reach their potential. When the best talent reaches their ceiling, so do the teams.

“Princewill is one of those guys that when you look at the team, you have to realize that a guy like him has to have a good year,” Rhule said. “A guy like him has to be a difference maker for us.”

Let’s call it the second stage of this first, impressive step.

Nebraska offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield has never been against being a little old-school when possible. He likes teams to team up. He’ll use a tight end or a fullback in that lead blocking role. And now that he has several huge, experienced receivers, he’s not opposed to the goal-line fade route.

“I’d always like to do that,” Satterfield said Saturday. “I think we have great receivers. We either run past you or we throw the back-shoulder fade.”

The most famous play of this type in Huskers history is probably Zac Taylor’s touchdown throw to Maurice Purify in the 2006 Texas A&M game. The throw may not have been a fade, but Taylor threw the ball in such a way that Purify outran his defender, jumped up, and caught the ball with one foot.

NU has several receivers of similar size in 2024. Jahmal Banks and Isaiah Neyor are both 6’4″ and 220 pounds. Malachi Coleman is 6’5″ and 210 pounds, and Carter Nelson, who is new to the scene, is 6’5″ and 220 pounds. All good options.

“We need to be able to use the body types of our big receivers as a superpower,” Satterfield said. “And I think that’s something they do really well: jump up and locate the ball.”

Satterfield said NU has been throwing that pass “since the first day of spring.”

The fade, in which a receiver generally makes an outside throw to a defensive back and then jumps over or back to make a pass, was not a big part of NU’s goal-line approach in 2023.

That Jeff Sims interception just before halftime in Minnesota? That was a corner route as part of a route triumph. The Chubba Purdy pick against Maryland? Pretty similar setup.

We’ll see how Satterfield handles the situation in 2024. At the open practice in 1890, none of the spectators missed Dylan Raiola’s shoulder throw to Banks near the end zone. It went for a touchdown.

NU receiver Jaylen Lloyd — a Big Ten-level sprinter and jumper on the Husker track and field team — said Jacory Barney and Neyor are the other two Husker receivers as fast as him, and there may be a post-practice race in the works.

The Omaha Westside graduate was a little more hesitant to pick just one NU defensive back who had given him trouble in training camp, as athletes know that when they name just one, they discount other teammates.

But Lloyd finally did it: he transferred Ceyair Wright to USC.

“A really smart guy, a really aggressive corner,” Lloyd said. “You know every time you go against him you’re going to have a good reputation.”

Two of Nebraska’s 2024 opponents, Ohio State and Wisconsin, named transfers as their starting quarterbacks.

The Buckeyes have selected former Kansas State signal caller Will Howard to replace them, although he will certainly face a little competition during the season as your Uncle Skip could lead talent-rich OSU to victories over Akron, Western Michigan and Marshall.

The Badgers chose Tyler Van Dyke, who was cut by Miami and is a good shooter when he’s in shape. He beat out Braedyn Locke, who started for the Badgers last year when starter Tanner Mordecai was injured. Van Dyke’s first two games are against Western Michigan and South Dakota, but his next two – Alabama and USC – will be tests of a different kind.

The NU women’s basketball team pushed its 11-game non-league schedule to the Husker site last week, with road trips to Creighton and Georgia Tech and a neutral-site game against South Dakota as the three most difficult challenges on the schedule.

That’s not very enticing. The 2022-23 schedule isn’t as tough — when NU was just coming off an NCAA Tournament bid — and nowhere near the challenge the Huskers faced in 2018-19 after another tournament bid.

But the Big Ten has never been tougher. NU has road games at USC and UCLA — probably the top-five teams this season — as well as road trips to Iowa, Indiana and Maryland. Nebraska won’t be the favorite in any of those games.

And the Huskers will be young at guard: Freshman Britt Prince has just arrived, Florida native Alberte Rimdal is new, and Allison Weidner will not have played a competitive game in 23 months when the season starts.

NU’s first two months will basically be chemistry class. A 9-2 record will be just fine.