Jeremy Pernell: For Nebraska’s O-Line, an Instant Starter and Two Longer-Term Projects

The versatile Ben Scott from Arizona State has settled in at center. Jacob Hood and Tyler Knaak figure to be future contributors.

Fifth in a series on Nebraska football’s transfer additions heading into fall camp.

Take it from me, if you want to bait a Nebraska football fan into a - ahem - friendly discussion, ask them their opinion about Matt Rhule keeping Donovan Raiola on staff and take a hard line either way.

If you're a regular reader of mine, then you probably know where I stood on that decision. After Mickey Joseph torpedoed his career, I felt Bill Busch was the coach who should have been retained to continue coaching special teams, with Ed Foley handling the offensive line.

At the same time, I believe Matt Rhule has earned the benefit of the doubt. He and and offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield were impressed by Raiola when they interviewed him. For starters, their philosophies aligned, but they also took notice of his day-to-day approach while his future was unsettled and they interviewed other candidates. It's only fair to reserve judgment until we've seen what Raiola can do with the unit this year.

We should get a much better idea of Raiola's development skills this season. This will be Year 2 for him, and he's got a veteran group that's played a lot of snaps. They lose center Trent Hixson and right guard Broc Bando to graduation, but on paper they're replacing those two in the starting lineup with better players. One of those expected upgrades will be Arizona State transfer Ben Scott.

Scott played for St. Louis High School, a powerhouse program in Honolulu, Hawaii, but he also has deep Nebraska roots. Ben's mother, Renee, is from Columbus and graduated from Nebraska. He also has an uncle, George Rambour, who wrestled for the Huskers. Scott grew up a die-hard Husker fan and wanted to play for the program coming out of high school. He attended Friday Night Light camps in 2016 and 2017 during the Mike Riley era trying to get on their radar.

He also has a pre-existing relationship with both Donovan and Dominic Raiola, with the brothers also being from Honolulu. In fact, Dominic is a graduate of the same St. Louis program and worked with Scott last spring when he was transitioning to center for the Sun Devils.

Those connections helped Nebraska get an early foot in the door when Scott entered the transfer portal on Dec. 8. In fact, Matt Rhule had him on a plane immediately for an official visit the following day.

How much does Dominic Raiola love his alma mater? Since the two had a longstanding relationship, he flew to Lincoln to be in town during Scott's visit to help show off the program.

Scott's experience and versatility made him a wanted man and one of the hotter commodities in the transfer portal, with over 30 schools reaching out to him. He took an early interest in Nebraska, UCLA, Auburn, Miami, Florida State and Florida.

The plan for Scott initially was to take his decision into January. He had discussions with Miami and Florida State about visiting early that month. That timeline shifted, however, after he visited Auburn the week after coming to Lincoln.

Momentum seemed to swing toward the Tigers, and there were reports he had committed to Auburn during his visit. Nebraska's staff didn't relent and turned the tide a few days later.

Scott surprised the recruiting industry when he announced he was heading to Nebraska on Friday, Dec. 23. In interviews following his commitment, Scott admitted it was a tough decision. "I think I kind of finalized it (Thursday), honestly," Scott said. "It was between Nebraska, Auburn and Miami. And it was kind of like going back and forth, going back and forth. And I finally just committed to Nebraska."

“Just having family out there at Nebraska and Raiola being the coach, I just felt right to be over there," Scott said of his decision. "He has great coaching knowledge, you know, and he teaches stuff that will translate to the next level and that will help you be a better offensive lineman. I think that will produce good on the field, and I think that makes him a really good coach.”

The 6-foot-5, 300-pound junior has the sort of positional flexibility coaches love. He started four games at right tackle as a redshirt freshman during the COVID-shortened 2020 season. The following year, he started all 13 games at right tackle and played 794 of the Sun Devils' 808 offensive plays. His 83.0 run blocking score in 2021 ranked 28th among all FBS tackles with at least 500 snaps. He had a negative grade on just 10.9 percent of his run-blocking plays on the season, which was the sixth lowest in the Pac-12.

Scott was a high-level run blocker as a tackle but struggled a bit in pass-pro. He made the decision to move to center because he felt it was his best chance at playing in the NFL. He started 11 games last season with an elbow injury keeping him out of the Sun Devils’ game against Oregon State. According to Pro Football Focus, the only centers in the Big Ten who had better grades were Michigan's Olu Oluwatimi and Minnesota's John Michael Schmitz, who were voted co-first-team all-conference.

In three years as a starter in the Pac-12, according to PFF, Scott allowed just four sacks and nine quarterback hits in 1,776 career snaps. He can play all five positions along the O-line and has starting experience at Nebraska's two most critical positions. He'd be an upgrade wherever the staff played him, but he's settled in at center.

Scott graduated from ASU in December with a biomedical degree and will have two years of eligibility available.

Along with grabbing a plug-and-play starter in Scott, Rhule also added a couple of developmental tackles who will help fill gaps in the roster - specifically the 2022 recruiting class - after the previous staff took only one offensive lineman (Justin Evans-Jenkins).

Nebraska dipped back into Georgia waters to nab mammoth right tackle Jacob Hood.

The 6-foot-8 Hood, who is generously listed at 345 pounds, was rated as a four-star recruit and the No. 218 player by Rivals in the 2022 class. Coming out of Nashville (Tenn.) Hillsboro High School, Hood collected over 20 offers, including Arizona State, Baylor, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Michigan, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Penn State, South Carolina, TCU, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Virginia Tech, among others.

At one point, his size was a concern for recruiters. The player some nickname "Suga Bear" allowed his weight to balloon over 400 pounds as a junior. Realizing he was wasting his potential and fearing his opportunities were slipping away, Hood fully dedicated himself to transforming his body, ultimately dropping upwards of 60 pounds.

Coaches were encouraged by Hood's work ethic, and the weight loss helped him add quickness and flexibility. He became a highly coveted recruit and one of the most sought after offensive linemen in the Southeast.

He was a recruiting priority for Georgia and one of the top targets of former O-line coach Matt Luke. He chose the Bulldogs over Auburn, Miami, LSU, Florida and Ole Miss.

Hood enrolled early at Georgia only to watch Matt Luke step away from coaching in late February. He ended up missing all of spring ball after having ankle surgery and being injured in fall, ended up redshirting and not seeing any action last season.

He entered the transfer portal on Jan. 13 and was in Lincoln a week later on an official visit. Hood had previous connections with Syncere Safeeullah and Demitrius Bell, a pair of 2023 signees who are also from the Nashville area. Safeeullah enrolled early and Bell was in Lincoln at the same time taking his own official visit, so the three were able to spend time together.

Hood had planned on visiting Ole Miss as well, but he canceled those plans and publicly announced his commitment to the Huskers on Jan. 23, just making the deadline to enroll in time to participate in spring practices.

There's little doubt Hood has a lot of promise, but he still has a ways to go as a player. He's still in the process of reshaping his body and has a lot of work to do improving his movement skills if he wants to avoid moving inside to guard. With his frame - he has very long arms - the staff would like to see him assert himself at tackle.

Nebraska kept its eye on the transfer portal for another tackle and found one they liked after the conclusion of spring practices brought another wave of transfers.

Tyler Knaak played for Brighton High School in Cottonwood Heights and chose in-state Utah over finalists USC, Arizona State, Virginia and Oregon State, while also holding additional Power Five offers from Arizona, Kansas, Minnesota and Vanderbilt.

Knaak was the definition of a late bloomer as a recruit. He didn't receive his first scholarship offer until September of his senior season. That happened because Knaak was a defensive lineman who didn't make the switch to O-line until he was a senior. He ended up becoming one of the most sought after tackles in the region and a perfect example of a senior film recruit that Matt Rhule likes to save room for in his recruiting classes.

After enrolling early for the Utes, Knaak spent his first season redshirting and didn't see any action during the 2022 season. He spent this past spring splitting second-team reps at left tackle with Tanoa Togiai, who ironically was a late priority target of the previous staff in the 2020 class. With Falcon Kaumatule having that job locked up and the staff liking Togiai as his backup, Knaak decided to enter the transfer portal looking for a better opportunity because of a numbers crunch.

After putting his name in the portal on April 27, Knaak received a wide range of offers, from FCS to Group of Five to Power Five, including Kentucky, Buffalo, Appalachian State, Nevada, Utah State, UMass, Hawaii, Liberty, Central Michigan, Old Dominion, Weber State and Southern Utah.

Having time before the start of summer workouts, Knaak decided to take his time with the process. In early-to-mid-May, Nebraska reached out to Knaak and eventually set up an official visit for May 21-23, where he was hosted by O-lineman Teddy Prochazka.

Nebraska ended up being his only visit, and he publicly announced his commitment on May 23, after returning home to Utah. Knaak returned to Lincoln on May 29 for the start of the summer conditioning program.

The 6-foot-6, 305-pound Knaak, who has an 85-inch wingspan, is still in the infancy stages of his development as this will be just his third year playing O-line. He still has a lot to refine with his technique and footwork, but the former high school wrestler has the frame, athleticism and nasty demeanor coaches are looking for at the position.

Jacob Hood and Tyler Knaak were important additions this offseason. They both have four seasons of eligibility remaining and will help bridge the gap at offensive tackle where the Huskers are still keep-you-up-at-night thin. Nebraska has veterans, but not much young depth in the program.

The pair have encouraging potential, but don't expect to see either in the rotation this coming season. Nebraska should be able to get by with Teddy Prochazka and Bryce Benhart - assuming both can stay healthy.

That's not a given with Prochazka's history, but worst-case scenario, you have the ability to move Turner Corcoran outside. He's started 19 games at left tackle and two at right, but he's a natural interior lineman. Again, not ideal, but he's a better option at this point than either Hood or Knaak.

In a perfect world, the duo can develop behind the scenes for the next two seasons before they're needed to step in. Nebraska has overhauled the room considerably and is looking to bring in a large 2024 O-line class as well to add to the numbers.

The best offensive lines are the ones where outgoing seniors are handing the batons to third- or fourth-year guys. Nouredin Nouili is the only lineman in Nebraska's current rotation who will exhaust his eligibility after this season. If everyone else comes back in 2024 and the current underclassmen get time to get acclimated, it could go a long way toward returning the Husker Pipeline to that practice in 2025 and beyond.