Who Is Standing Out at Different Positions for Nebraska Football This Spring?

Nick Handley and Kaleb Henry discuss how they are seeing different position battles play out and what the coaches have been saying this spring.

Nebraska running back Emmett Johnson rushes for seven yards against Northern Iowa. / Kenny Larabee, KLIN

On the latest HuskerMax Today, Nick Handley and Kaleb Henry discussed a number of position groups for Nebraska football. The pair hit on how they are viewing the positions and what the coaches have been saying this spring.

Below is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.

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Nick: I'm still in the camp, and I'm sure you probably are too, and I'm sure there's a lot of Nebraska fans that follow this football program that are also hearing a lot of this, processing a lot of this from the spring and what the coaches are saying that are also in that wait-and-see mode or I'll believe it when I see it. But I've got to admit – I am just a little bit intrigued by what the stock could be for the running back room.

We already know what Emmett Johnson is. If I can make a baseball reference, because that's what I've been inundated with lately. Emmett Johnson reminds me a lot of a Will Walsh. A guy that you know pretty much every time you give the ball to what you're going to get. And a lot of it's good. Is it overwhelmingly good? No. Does it need to be overwhelmingly good? No. Just like Will Walsh on a Friday. He's going to put you in a position to win a game.

Where I think Emmett Johnson is the same type of running back that can give you... He's well-rounded. The things that he does, he does pretty well. Just doesn't have that... absolutely electric speed, as maybe some of the running backs you might see that would be considered a better, more explosive running back. But there's a lot of things you're going to like about him, and he's going to give you a chance to have success, just like when I see Will Walsh on a Friday. So that's my analogy there.

Nebraska running back Kwinten Ives at Thursday's practice ahead of the Pinstripe Bowl. / Nebraska Athletics

But also, this emergence of Kwinten Ives. I am still trying to get a true feel for Dana Holgorsen. But I'm with you, I don't think Dana throws things around unless he is pretty confident of what he is seeing to be true. And he has talked a lot about Kwinten Ives. And I think that that also is intriguing from the development of the running back. We're looking for that room to have two to three guys that you feel are really going to elevate that group as a whole here in 2025.

Between that recent chatter about the emergence of Kwinten Ives and Emmett Johnson just being the steady guy that we know he is and hearing Dana Holgorsen talk about that particular position group for a guy, you know what? He's just coached a lot of football. And I just don't think he comes across a guy like I don't have time to BS you guys. I don't have time to blow smoke up your butt. This is what I'm seeing. You're asking me a question. I'm answering it. This is what I'm seeing. And I think based on his answers, this makes that running back room, I think a little bit more interesting, at least to me than I thought it would going into camp.

Kaleb: Think about the way that running back room was utilized over the last few games of the season when you got Dana Holgorsen in there calling the plays. We saw Rahmir Johnson in the Pinstripe Bowl. The way he was able to get the ball and Kwinten Ives getting a touchdown.

Dec 28, 2024; Bronx, NY, USA; Nebraska Cornhuskers running back Rahmir Johnson (14) holds the most valuable player trophy and celebrates with teammates after the game against the Boston College Eagles at Yankee Stadium. / Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

You feel like Emmett Johnson is in a good place to be the lead back. You're going to get some people really wetting themselves if you say bell cow, I don't think bell cow, I think lead back. And then, you get to Kwinten Ives and you don't really know where Jamarion Parker, who's been dealing with some injuries, but Connor Booth, incoming freshman, EJ Barthel had some good things to say about them, the running backs coach.

One of the other things that Holgorsen talked about was Justin Evans on the offensive line. He has played some center, but he's now converting full-time to center. Dana Holgorsen said that Justin Evans, "he can be as good a center that exists in college football. I firmly believe that." This comes at the same time that, Cam Juergens, who is a converted center, being on campus as a Super Bowl champion, coming back, he's working out in the offseason. Those guys are getting tips from one of the best in the world at that position. And of course he was able to go learn from one of the best in the world for a couple of years before taking over the center position in Philadelphia.

On offense, there are two guys that have to make calls when you get to the line. Your quarterback, and we know what Dylan Raiola is up here. We've heard all the coaches talk about how cerebral he is getting up there, getting checks, changing where guys are.

Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola scans the field for an open receiver during the second quarter against Rutgers. / Kenny Larabee, KLIN

But if you get up there and you can have your center, 1) be really good at snapping the ball, doing his blocking, but that center spot has to be calling stuff out as well. So if you get up there and the offensive coordinator, who has seen some pretty dang good players across the country, is he saying that this can be as good a center as exists in college football? That's saying something going through the rest of the spring and into the fall.

Nick: I don't know about you, Kaleb, but I thought that was going to be an interesting competition. And I'm not trying to say it's over, but I think those remarks tell you a lot of what you know.

Kaleb: I'll tell you its over.

Nick: It definitely sounds like it. I think you and I talked about this the last time we had a show, and that was the Ben Scott effect of a guy that we didn't talk about that much, but it's also when you're not talking that much about the center, it's actually a pretty good thing. Because when we talked about – when we talk about Cam Jurgens a lot when he was at Nebraska, we were talking about the snapping issues. And then we started talking about how he was making the turn on that and he was becoming a dominant force.

Feb 9, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. (54) celebrates with Eagles center Cam Jurgens (51) after Super Bowl LIX against the Kansas City Chiefs at Caesars Superdome. / Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

Ben Scott a stabilizer up front and I think out of that group for his two years, he was consistent. He had that consistency that you want to have at that position and so I don't think that the reason you're not hearing about other guys at that position as much as Justin Evans is because all of a sudden that competition hasn't been what they thought it would be. I think this is just where Justin Evans said, "Hey, this is a spot that I wanted as soon as Ben Scott graduated. And this was one that I feel is my spot and someone's going to have to absolutely yank it away from me. And I'm not going to make that easy."

This is more indicative of what he is doing as opposed to the competition, the younger guys that were also vying for that spot. I think that bodes very well.

Also hearing when Donovan Riala was speaking about the offensive lineman not that long ago, I know I was extremely excited about Elijah Pritchett. Yes. But the Rocco Spindler addition, you knew that if they could drive that one past the finish line and get him, especially coming off of a national championship appearance and having some serious big boy reps in the playoffs – being a starter. And then coming in when a lot of offensive linemen that have been at Nebraska are either not available at all this spring or limited, that you have an alpha amongst alphas that is hitting the ground running when it comes to not only what he can already do with the amount of starts and reps that he has under his belt at high-level college football, but being able to come in and be that vocal leader as well.

Jan 20, 2025; Atlanta, GA, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish offensive lineman Rocco Spindler (50) against the Ohio State Buckeyes during the CFP National Championship college football game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

From all indications, it sounds like that has meshed really well. He hasn't pissed anybody off by walking and acting like his you-know-what doesn't stink. He's come in with instant credibility. And it sounds like between the play on the field and the way that he embraced mat drills, too.

We know how important the growth and the step that this offensive line has to take in 2025. You talk about Justin Evans at center, Rocco Spindler also there with the amount of experience he has. Elijah Pritchett, it sounds like he's just been doing the work. He's not a guy that's a huge rah-rah guy, but he's a guy that's been very present and you've known where he's at.

Between the running game and the offensive line and those two things that need to take a step forward, all indications sound like what you needed to get out of them from the spring, at this point, you're getting. Now, what does that mean for the fall? We don't know. And that's why I go back to that I'm in that wait-and-see camp with the running backs. I'm in that wait-and-see camp with the offensive line because I'm just going off of the past. And I know sometimes you just got to live in the present. But until we see this stuff happening on a Saturday in the fall when it matters, I think everybody's going to be in a little bit of that mindset.

The Crimson Tide players and coaches continue working toward the season opener in practice Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. Alabama offensive lineman Elijah Pritchett (57), Alabama offensive lineman Roq Montgomery (55) and Alabama offensive lineman Joseph Ionata (69) move to block. / Gary Cosby Jr.-Tuscaloosa News / USA TODAY NETWORK

Kaleb: I'll preface this by saying that it's never a good situation when you have the number of guys that Nebraska has sitting out, especially on the offensive line for this spring. But the number of reps that the rest of the room is getting, that the younger guys in that room are getting, your floor is coming up.

You don't know where your ceiling would necessarily be if you had everybody healthy and everybody going through the spring. But like you said, Rocco and Elijah coming in, those are two big additions. Those helped raise your ceiling. Can you raise your floor? And I think that's what this spring is for the offensive line is raising your floor. Get better, absolutely, wherever you can to make the peak as high as possible. But if you get that floor really high, I think that can be just as impactful for this team.

Maybe it's not an All-Big Ten offensive line. But if you're an honorable mention All-Big Ten offensive line, that's pretty damn good. There are 18 teams in the league. This isn't six teams and pretty much everybody gets to have a bunch of dudes represented. This is a big league. So if you can raise that floor and that level of play, I think that'll be really impressive for this team.

Nov 16, 2024; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Kentucky Wildcats wide receiver Dane Key (6) runs the ball against Murray State Racers defensive back Larry Preston (2) during the first quarter at Kroger Field. / Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

Two other position groups I want to hit on before we move on. The wide receiver room and the depth that that room has. You've, you've had some, some obviously really big time transfers come in in particular, like a Dane Key. But we also learned that Hardly Gilmore IV was dismissed from the team. Matt Rhule said it was nothing criminal. Just he he's been dismissed from the team.

But you've got Dane Key. You've got the guy out of Cal. You've got Jacory Barney coming back. You've got Carter Nelson still out there, but he's recovering from his hip surgery. You've got a lot of speed, a lot of size. And you have an offensive coordinator who knows what the hell he's doing with it. Hopefully. He's got a track record of knowing what the hell he's doing with it. And you have a quarterback who looks like he is in a really good place to take a good jump in year two. The wide receivers, where are your impressions right now?

Nick: I'm going to first start with, you brought up Hardly Gilmore. And I'm getting the sense you, and this is how I was too, I want to make a bigger deal out of that. But this is where I continue to credit Matt Rhule for always nipping that in the bud. He gives you enough information. where you're still wondering, okay, details, I want to know exactly what happened, but he gives you enough information where it's easy just to move on from it.

Nov 16, 2024; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Kentucky Wildcats wide receiver Hardley Gilmore IV (17) carries the ball during the second quarter against the Murray State Racers at Kroger Field. / Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

Kaleb: When he says it's not criminal, I go, okay, cool. That tells me he either wasn't in the 105 or wasn't doing things in practice. Okay, fine. Cool. That's now completely the football thing. And if that's a football decision, great. I don't really have any more to worry about it.

Nick: He holds guys accountable when they are not buying into the culture. When it comes to the things that not only are they doing during mat drills, but when they're doing the team building, when they're doing the community service and all of that. So I don't know exactly what it was, but when he finds a guy that they think can help him on the field, but they're not going to be a good culture fit, we've seen them distance themselves from those players before, and it could be something as simple as that. I don't know exactly what it is, but I think, again, Matt Rhule doing a good job of allowing us to move on from that one.

Dane Key and Nyziah Hunter are the two headliners right there. But I still think this is Jacory Barney, where I think he's probably been pushed a little bit now, too, of one of the more explosive returning guys from this team a year ago. Now he's got some other competition in there to get the football, to make the plays. But I think Jacory Barney, everything that we've heard and continue to hear about him, whether it's Dana Holgorsen, whether it's Matt Rhule or whoever, that he he loves the game. He loves the competition. He wants to be a part of everything that this team is doing and he does it with with such enthusiasm and excitement that he just loves football.

Nov 23, 2024; Berkeley, California, USA; California Golden Bears wide receiver Nyziah Hunter (13) catches a pass against the Stanford Cardinal during the fourth quarter at California Memorial Stadium. / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

Where I'm more intrigued with this wide receiving group is guys like an Isaiah Mozee, a Cortez Mills, some of the newer players that aren't going to all of a sudden just burst on the scene as true freshmen, but guys that also provide some of that depth, much like what we saw Jacory Barney do as a true freshman where he showed his ability to be a playmaker right out of the gate. Even a Keelan Smith out of Kansas City, even a Quinn Clark, some of those guys that are all of a sudden not just players that you're waiting to develop a little bit but guys that have been in the program for at least a year, took the redshirt, and now are looking to make a step forward.

I think between Dane Key and Nyziah Hunter, what they've shown they can do. And then you throw in some exciting freshmen, but also some very interesting redshirt freshmen or sophomore explosive player like Jacory Barney. And then you put all of that into a Dana Holgorsen offensive system, to where route running is going to be heavily emphasized and hammered, that you are not going to be out on the field if you are not running routes to their precise crispness and effectiveness. And you're also meshing that in with the right arm of No. 15 that it's hard not to maybe get a little ahead of our skis on this.

I look at the guy who is pushing the buttons on the offense and given his track record with what he can do with speed and with wide receivers, whether we're talking about guys that are 6-3 or guys that are 5-11, that he can exploit matchups. And that's where I think you look at this younger group that can really do that part of the offense. They can really do that part with their speed to exploit those matchups.

Nov 23, 2024; Lincoln, Nebraska, USA; Nebraska Cornhuskers assistant coach Dana Holgorsen on the sideline during the second quarter against the Wisconsin Badgers at Memorial Stadium. / Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

So to me, maybe the better way to put this is, Kaleb, it's not even necessarily the players themselves in that wide receiving group, although that's a big part of it. It's the scheme itself, and it's the fit that they have, the scheme itself on what they're going to try to do to make Dylan successful, but also have that big play offense, that big play capability when it comes to all those guys who are going to be on the field in the wide receiver position.

Kaleb: Scheme's going to be the big game changer. Then you start to add in really, really talented guys. There are 16 wide receivers still on this roster. We'll see what happens.

Holgorsen said both (Mozee and Mills) will contribute this fall. In particular, he said that in one-on-one reps, "those guys probably have the highest percentage success rate. Very rarely do DBs get their hands on those guys. They have the unique ability to be able to stay away from defenders." So extremely talented. But he also mentioned they're freshmen and their heads spin a little bit.

Sep 28, 2024; West Lafayette, Indiana, USA; Purdue Boilermakers running back Devin Mockobee (45) is tackled by Nebraska Cornhuskers defensive back DeShon Singleton (8) and defensive back Jeremiah Charles (25) during the second quarter at Ross-Ade Stadium. / Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images

The other room that I want to hit on really quick is, Matt Rhule talked about the secondary. He said, "we can start six different guys at corner right now. We could start four or five different guys at safety." He had mentioned the week before about DeShon Singleton, he said he'll be shot out of a cannon this year. But you've got Marques Buford, Malcolm Hartzog, DeShon Singleton, Ceyair Wright. You've also got guys that have been in the program for at least a year in Jeremiah Charles, Mario Buford, Caleb Benning. This secondary, and Matt Rhule even said it on Saturday, we'll find out if anything changes with the transfer portal. But this secondary looks like there's a big step coming in 2025.

Nick: You brought up guys like Caleb Benning. We saw Donovan Jones play in that Pinstripe Bowl last year, too, and I thought was very valuable. Donovan Jones, I think, is another guy that they're just scratching the surface with him.

What are you doing with those redshirt freshmen that are going to be now in their second year and providing that type of reinforcement? Because you already have guys that have played a lot of snaps for this secondary and have really done it for the most part at a pretty high level and have been very successful.

Sep 16, 2023; Lincoln, Nebraska, USA; Nebraska Cornhuskers linebackerJavin Wright (33) and defensive lineman Riley Van Poppel (94) celebrate after a turnover against the Northern Illinois Huskies during the fourth quarter at Memorial Stadium. / Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

It is another area that I think when you're looking at this defense and what they lost up front, I, for one, feel good about having a Riley Van Poppel. I feel good about having a Cam Lenhardt. I like those guys up front, but now their reps are going to increase significantly. So it's hard to really gauge what you're going to see out of that defensive front, especially that interior, when you lose guys like Ty Robinson and Nash Hutmacher that were an integral part.

With the linebacking corps as well, I I think that that was always going to be another area that you're looking at this defense and saying, okay, so you're replacing some guys. You're looking at some guys that were huge contributors a year ago that you don't necessarily have, but that youth movement. I mean, you and I have spent times talking about Vincent Shavers and what that guy I think is going to be when his time is over at Nebraska. I think that is an NFL type of dude, and watching him just cut loose defensively in the Pinstripe Bowl was fun. I think Willis McGahee is is going to be a true stud as well.

And then young guys too. Christian jones. Hey, they didn't recruit him just because he was a Westside guy, just because he's an Omaha guy and you got to get him. Christian Jones is a stud and when he has a little bit more of that season behind him and gets ready for college football he's going to be a playmaker as well.

Oct 5, 2024; Lincoln, Nebraska, USA; Rutgers Scarlet Knights quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis (16) throws as he is hit by Nebraska Cornhuskers linebacker Vincent Shavers Jr. (1) during the second quarter at Memorial Stadium. / Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

You've got that position now in its developmental phase of it with a couple veterans. But thank goodness for that secondary because the secondary has the perfect blend of starters, but also guys that are ready to jump onto the scene too with those redshirt freshmen. The amount of options that they have.

I think of the creativity you can have in the secondary with more than capable bodies between experienced guys and guys that are trying to get that experience, that you can still look at it as it's not who starts the game, it's who's on the field at the end, who finishes the game, where that could look completely different. You have guys that are competing for every one of those spots between corner, between nickel, dime, the safety positions. So there's a lot, I think, that needs to be sifted out.

But it's great to know that it's not a problem of, well, we've got a bunch of bodies, we just haven't seen a lot of game tape on them because none of them have really played a lot of college football. That's not the case for the secondary right now. There's plenty of actual game reps and starts under that group's belt. You just have another talented wave of underclassmen that are ready to start getting theirs too.

Nebraska defensive lineman Ty Robinson sacks Rutgers quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis for a 9-yard loss. / Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Kaleb: There's a portion of this that is art imitates life; life imitates art. But when I play College Football 25 - that's different, I'm not saying I'm Matt Rhule - there is a difference with the way I'm able to be aggressive defensively with linebackers and defensive linemen with whether or not my secondary is good. If the secondary is out of their minds good, I can tee off and send five guys, six guys at the quarterback. If my secondary is not good, we're probably rushing three or four at best. And then you have to really pick and choose when you can dial things up.

When your secondary is good, it gives you a lot more options on things to do. In particular, Matt Rhule has talked about this, improving the way Nebraska performs on third downs and in the red zone. Getting off the field defensively. When you have a secondary who is bringing back so much experience and so much talent, that does allow you to get creative with what you want to do in your scheme and where you want to bring some extra pressure. The different things that you can do with having a really good secondary help out the entirety of your defense.

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You can watch that entire conversation, plus the full HuskerMax Today episode on spring football, the transfer portal, and what's going on with Nebraska baseball, below.

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