Voting Criteria: Player's importance to the team in 2020, overall talent, and future potential for the upcoming season. A player's long-term/NFL prospects were not taken into consideration.

Voting Panel: Publisher Sean Callahan, HuskerOnline.com writers Robin Washut and Nate Clouse, KETV Sports Director Andy Kendeigh, and Mike'l Severe, Co-Host of Severe and Benning the Morning on 1620 The Zone.

Previous ranking: 36-40 | 31-35 | 26-30 | 21-25 | 16-20 | 11-15 | 6-10

It took a while for Mills to find his footing at Nebraska, but by the end of last season, he emerged as one of the Huskers' most productive offensive players.

The transfer via Garden City (Kan.) C.C. via Georgia Tech posted his three best performances over NU's final three games. The highlight was his career day against Wisconsin, where he gashed the Badgers' fifth-ranked rushing defense for 188 yards on 11.0 yards per carry.

The next week, Mills managed 65 yards on 12 rushes in just one half of work at Maryland due to an illness. He then capped off the year with a season-high 24 carries for 94 yards against an Iowa defense that ranked 22nd nationally against the run.

Mills ended up with a solid final season stat line, finishing with 745 yards on 143 carries (5.2 ypc) and 10 rushing touchdowns. He became the second Husker in six years to reach the end zone 10 times in a season.

A versatile piece for the Husker defense, Dicaprio Bootle played the first eight games at cornerback last year before starting the final four at safety due to injuries.

He finished with 31 tackles, six breakups, and one forced fumble to earn honorable-mention All-Big Ten honors by the media.

But Bootle's production is best measured beyond the normal statistics. Since the start of the 2018 season, the two-time Nebraska Defensive Back of the Year ranks third nationally with a forced incompletion percentage among Power Five cornerbacks at 22.6 percent, per PFF.

Both Lindy's and Athlon had Bootle tabbed as a third-team preseason All-Big Ten selection going into 2020.

Brenden Jaimes had one of the better seasons of any offensive linemen in the Big Ten last year, but because of NU's lack of team success, it got little to no attention.

The 6-foot-6, 300-pound Texas native has the conference's top overall returning pass-block grade at 88.1 according to PFF, and he allowed just two quarterback sacks and seven hurries in 2019. His nine allowed QB pressures given up were the second-lowest mark in the league.

Jaimes has started 1,712 snaps at left tackle the last two seasons, and as a true freshman in 2017, he logged 629 snaps at right tackle. He'll finish his Husker career unofficially as one of the only four-year starters on the offensive line in school history.

When his career is over, he will have logged over 3,000 starting snaps in a Nebraska uniform.

Wan'Dale Robinson was everything Nebraska could have hoped for last season when he came in as the prize of its 2019 recruiting class.

Robinson was arguably the MVP of NU's offense at times as a true freshman, and one could argue that he almost single-handily won both the Northwestern and Illinois games with his individual efforts.

The former four-star prospect out of Frankfort, Ken., set Husker true freshman records in season receptions (40) and season receiving yards (443) and was a finalist for the Paul Hornung Award, given to the most versatile player in college football.

He's expected to play much more at receiver than running back going forward, but there's little question that Robinson will be used in every possible way in NU's offense.

No player controls what Nebraska's 2020 season could be more than Adrian Martinez, who has ridden about as wild of an individual career roller coaster as anyone on the roster.

The hype surrounding Martinez following his impressive freshman campaign in 2018 was as great as we've seen for a Husker in some time. But injuries and a multitude of other issues turned his sophomore season into a disaster.

The former four-star out of Fresno (Calif.) Clovis West missed two starts to injury in 2019 and threw for 1,956 yards and 10 touchdowns while rushing for 626 yards and seven scores.

His average of 62.6 rushing yards per game was the highest by a Husker quarterback since 2012, and his 258.2 yards of total offense per game ranked third in the Big Ten.

But there is no arguing that Martinez regressed in a major way last year. For Nebraska to finally take a step forward this season, it will depend significantly on how much No. 2 can lead the way.