Tyler Knaak will be playing against his former team when the Nebraska football team faces Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 31.
The junior right guard/right tackle spent one season with Utah redshirting in 2022 before transferring to Nebraska in 2023. Now, Knaak will be playing his former team on New Year’s Eve.
“When it was officially announced, it was kind of a surreal moment,” Knaak said. “Coming from that university, great program, to another amazing historic program was a really cool change for me, but now that’s kind of coming back full circle. I got a lot of family coming there.”
Knaak hails from Cottonwood Heights, Utah, where he grew up watching the Utes before joining Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham’s team in 2022. On Friday, Utah announced that Whittingham will be stepping down as head coach after the bowl game against Nebraska.
“Coach Whitt’s done an amazing job accelerating that program and getting them to some amazing places,” Knaak said. “Going to the Rose Bowl back-to-back, getting to the Big 12, and playing at an incredibly high level there, and now playing in the Vegas Bowl. I expect nothing less than their whole team to be rallying behind him.”
Nebraska has undergone a lot of changes since its game against Iowa, including the firing of offensive line coach Donovan Raiola on Dec. 6 and the hiring of Geep Wade as his replacement. Wade spent three seasons serving as the offensive line coach at Georgia Tech, from 2023 to 2025, before officially joining the Huskers on Friday.
“We love Geep,” Knaak said. “Geep’s an amazing coach. He has great energy and brings some great swagger to the room.”
Now, Wade’s tasked with getting the Huskers’ offensive line prepared ahead of the game against the 10-2 Utes.
“With coach Geep, and Coach Lonnie (Teasley), it’s been a lot more, ‘let’s take it as a whole, take it as a big picture,’ kind of more universal blocking styles,” Knaak said. “So, different schemes, different plays, less specific.”
Coming into the bowl game, Nebraska’s offensive line is working on incorporating some of Wade’s technique while also keeping some of Raiola’s, before making the full transition during the offseason.
“He came in saying, he’s going to be the coach of the University of Nebraska, and the University of Nebraska is an o-line driven school,” Knaak said of Wade’s message to the unit. “It always has been historically, and he’s so excited for the opportunity. So his excitement all through it was just the biggest thing for us. He wanted to show us that he loves us. At the same time, we’re going to work really hard, not take any days off, no steps back, anything like that. We’re the o-line at the University of Nebraska, he’s the o-line coach at the University of Nebraska. He took that job from Georgia Tech because this is an o-line school, and he wants to leave his legacy here.”
On Monday, news broke that sophomore quarterback Dylan Raiola is expected to enter the transfer portal come Jan. 2. In his time with the Huskers, he completed 69.1% of his throws for 4,819 yards, 31 touchdowns and 17 interceptions in only 22 career starts. During his sophomore campaign, he played in nine games before suffering a broken fibula on Nov. 1 against USC, ending his season. In those nine games, he went 181-for-250 for 2,000 yards, totaling 18 touchdowns and six interceptions.
Knaak said that he and Raiola had a close relationship in the two years that they spent together.
“Him and his family, they’re making the best decisions for themselves,” Knaak said. “We saw Dayton decommit a while back, and now we see Dylan going in the portal. So, whatever they want to do, I know that God will be on their side, and I know that the best decision for them is going to be the one that they make. They’re not going to make a quick-response decision, they’re going to put a lot of thought into it. They’re a thoughtful family. I wish the best for him, but as a team we’ve got to move on, move forward, attack every day, and TJ Lateef’s going to do a great job of filling that role.”
Now, the team is turning its sole focus to their freshman quarterback Lateef as the full-time starter.
“Seeing him embrace that role, love it, live it every day, he brings that QB1 energy to the weight room, to the practice field, to the locker room,” Knaak said. “All the guys love him. It’s really good, he’s a great guy.”
Nebraska will travel to Allegiant stadium in Las Vegas to play Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 31. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. CT on ESPN.
