{"id":69957,"date":"2024-12-13T13:00:47","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T18:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=69957"},"modified":"2024-12-13T09:35:03","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T14:35:03","slug":"names-to-watch-nebraska-in-the-transfer-portal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/12\/13\/names-to-watch-nebraska-in-the-transfer-portal\/","title":{"rendered":"Names To Watch: Nebraska In The Transfer Portal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that most of\u00a0 Nebraska’s coaching vacancies are filled, Matt Rhule’s new staffers can go after targets in the transfer portal. Who are they looking at? Let’s break it down.<\/p>\n

Veteran Wideouts<\/h3>\n

Daikiel Shorts needs more bodies in his wide receiver room. Aside from Jacory Barney Jr<\/a>, the Huskers don’t have many game-ready players at the wide receiver position. After Nebraska plays Boston College,\u00a0 Jahmal Banks and Isaiah Neyor will leave Lincoln for the NFL Draft.\u00a0 Even more damaging is the fact that\u00a0 Malachi Coleman<\/a> decided to go a different route with his career. The redshirt sophomore quickly left Nebraska for the transfer portal as soon as it opened. This is a shocking blow. There was hope that the Lincoln native could have been a starter under Dana Holgorsen. Now, Dane Key is looking to replace him. The former Kentucky Wildcat would be a good addition for the Cornhuskers.\u00a0 The junior had 715 receiving yards and two touchdowns in Lexington. He is also very familiar with Shorts coaching style. This boosts NU’s chances of landing him. But if he goes elsewhere, Nebraska should target USC wide receiver Duce Robinson<\/a>. The sophomore from Arizona is another big-bodied target that the Cornhuskers can use in the red zone. When the Huskers played the Trojans inside the Coliseum, he had 90 receiving yards and a touchdown.<\/p>\n

Defensive Line Depth<\/h3>\n

After a short stint in the transfer portal, freshman defensive lineman Keona Davis<\/a> announced that he would stay in Lincoln. In his first 11 games at Nebraska, he tallied nine tackles and also had 1.5 tackles for loss. Cam Lenhard<\/a>t is another intriguing piece for new Huskers defensive line coach Terry Bradden to mold. In his freshman season with the Big Red, the New Yorker earned All-American honors with 16 tackles and three sacks. However, he couldn’t maintain the same level of play in 2024. The sophomore only totaled 13 tackles and a half-sack in 2024.\u00a0 This is a perfect opportunity for Williams Nwaneri<\/a> to show what he can do. As a freshman at Missouri, he only notched two tackles. But he has all the resources to break out at Nebraska. Rhule hired Nwaneri’s former coach Jamar Mozee as a senior analyst last summer.\u00a0 Another bonus is that his former teammate Isaiah Mozee is now with the Huskers as a wide receiver.\u00a0 It will be interesting to see if the two recruits can make an immediate impact for the Cornhuskers in 2025.<\/p>\n

\n

BREAKING: Missouri True Freshman Transfer EDGE Williams Nwaneri has Committed to Nebraska, he tells @on3sports<\/a><\/p>\n

The 6\u20196 265 EDGE will have all 4 years of eligibility remaining<\/p>\n

Was ranked as a Five-Star Plus+ Recruit in \u201824 (No. 1 EDGE)https:\/\/t.co\/vZxF8av6oz<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/23vMwHN3fy<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) December 12, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Special Teams Help<\/h3>\n

Special teams coordinator Ed Foley already found his field goal kicker this season. After making just one out of his five attempts to start the season, John Hohl<\/a> ended the regular season with his last nine out of ten field goals made.\u00a0 The only issues came with the long snapping operation. In West Lafayette, junior Aidan Flege<\/a> struggled. The Lincoln native consistently had bad snaps, which led to the Boilermakers’ defense blocking two of the Husker’s field goal attempts. And in NU’s last game of the season against Iowa, the problems resurfaced. After a Dante Dowdell touchdown, the Cornhuskers had a 10-0 lead. The program could have extended their lead by two scores in Iowa City. But the special teams unit failed to do its job against the Hawkeyes. Against Iowa, Flege’s bad snap led Hohl to miss a 34-yard field goal attempt. To fix this issue, Nebraska should bring in junior long snapper Kevin Gallic from the transfer portal. The New Hampshire native was a three-year starter for the Wildcats at the FCS level. In addition, keep an eye on former Washington punter Jack McCallister<\/a> to take over\u00a0 Brian Buschini’s<\/a> duties. Throughout his career, the junior has landed 37% of his punts inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.<\/p>\n

Read more about Nebraska’s miscues in its last game of the year in Nebraska’s Mistakes Against Iowa<\/a><\/p>\n

The Secondary<\/h3>\n

The Cornhuskers promoted from within to find their defensive coordinator. Former secondary coach John Butler will now oversee how Nebraska’s defense is run. This isn’t his first rodeo. In fact, he’s been in this position before with Penn State in 2013. During his time with the Nittany Lions, the program ranked second in the Big Ten in scoring defense and 28th in passing defense. The Bill O’Brien disciple will work with outside linebackers coach Phillip Simpson to deliver another top-ranked defense. But which players are close to committing to the Blackshirts? Veteran safety Devin Neal<\/a> would be one to watch. As a senior at Louisville, he earned All-ACC honors in 2023 with 47 tackles and four interceptions.<\/p>\n

\"Nebraska
Photo courtesy: Julia Hansen\/Iowa City Press-Citizen \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that most of\u00a0 Nebraska’s coaching vacancies are filled, Matt Rhule’s new staffers can go after targets in the transfer portal. Who are they looking at? Let’s break it down. Veteran Wideouts Daikiel Shorts needs more bodies in his wide receiver room. Aside from Jacory Barney Jr, the Huskers don’t have many game-ready players at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4440,"featured_media":70261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[8284,33060,351,511],"class_list":["post-69957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-bigten","tag-dane-key","tag-dante-dowdell","tag-matt-rhule","tag-nebraska-cornhuskers"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4440"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69957"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70262,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69957\/revisions\/70262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}