Justin Evans picked up another preseason honor this week, landing on The Athletic’s second-team preseason All-America list as Nebraska’s senior center heads into the final stretch before the opener. For a player with 31 career starts and 38 career appearances, the recognition lands as a statement about how much the Huskers trust him up front.
The timing matters because Nebraska opens the season against Ohio on Saturday, Sept. 5, and Evans enters that game as one of the team leaders on an experienced offensive line. He was already on the Rimington Trophy Watch List earlier this month, a sign that the center’s work has been drawing attention before a snap of the season is played.
Evans has earned that attention by moving across the line and holding up through every step of the last three seasons. He played in all 13 games as a redshirt freshman in 2023, including five starts, then started all 12 games at guard in 2024 before shifting to center and starting all 13 games there last season. That kind of versatility is part of why preseason honors are finding him now.
There is, though, a built-in wrinkle to preseason All-America lists. They forecast respect before the season starts, which means Evans is being recognized for a year that has not yet been played. The label is meaningful because it reflects expectation, but it is still only an expectation until Nebraska finishes the work on the field.
Evans’ line play also sits beside another marker of how much production Nebraska is trying to carry forward. Emmett Johnson earned first-team All-America honors last season, and Evans is part of the front that will be asked to protect and stabilize that offense again. The Huskers will get their first chance to show how all of that fits together when they face Ohio, with the 2025 Nebraska Football Hall of Fame Class also set for induction that day.
If Evans matches the preseason billing, Nebraska goes into September with one of its most established leaders setting the tone at center. If he does not, the honor will still have done its job: it will have shown how high expectations are for a player who has already done the hard part of becoming indispensable.
