The Weekly Rundown: Nebraska’s roster takes form heading into Year 2 under Matt Rhule

With the transfer portal window closed, Nebraska’s roster under head coach Matt Rhule has taken form heading into Year 2.

We hit on that and more as we start your Monday with The Weekly Rundown column.

RELATED – Steven Sipple: If there’s a Lincoln-Omaha divide in Husker Nation, Rhule wants to eradicate it

Sure bets

You have to feel good about these things right now:

Year 2 roster strength: We’ve heard so much about Matt Rhule’s success as a head coach in Year 2. As the calendar has turned to May, the pieces have begun to come together for a Rhule run in 2024.

We’ve seen the least off-season attrition at Nebraska in quite some time. Rhule has also improved this roster with key off-season additions at quarterback, wide receiver, and other areas of need. Then you add the development with current players after one season.

Things appear to be setting up nicely for Rhule and the Huskers in 2024, especially with the favorable early-season draw and the opportunity it presents.

Rhule’s commitment to Omaha: Sometimes, the little things amount to big things. This weekend, Rhule held an all-day youth football camp at Norris Middle School in Omaha, just north of the 42nd Street exit off Interstate I-80. For better terms, it’s an Omaha Public Schools stadium that once hosted Omaha Central football games. NCAA recruiting rules prevented the camp from being on a high school campus.

Rhule clearly recognizes the blindspot between Nebraska football and innercity Omaha over the last several years. Running an all-day youth football camp in the heart of Omaha with his entire staff and several key players present is a big step in the right direction. To my knowledge, nothing like this has ever been done in Omaha.

Growing up near Norris Middle School, I was very impressed by the impact an event like that had on young football players in the area. Hopefully, the satellite youth camps will continue.

Nebraska volleyball’s brand power: Over 5,000 fans packed the UNK Health & Sports Center in Kearney on Saturday to watch Nebraska Volleyball’s spring match victory over Denver. John Cook’s squad has now played spring matches in Kearney, Grand Island, Central City, North Platte, Scottsbluff, Norfolk, Wayne, Ogallala, and McCook. All of the matches have sold out in less than an hour.

So, where’s the next spring match? There’s some discussion that Summerland High School could host it in its brand-new gym in Ewing. NU has been in contact with Summerland officials.

Other spots that come to mind are South Sioux City or the Tyson Events Center (10,000-seat capacity) in Sioux City. Even Sioux Falls would make sense if you looked at options across state lines. Just flexing your muscles and playing it at Pinnacle Bank Arena would be very cool if they could draw over 15,000 for a spring match.

Surprises

These were my surprises of the week:

The growing NIL pot: As the NIL revenue pot continues to grow, it was interesting to hear the data that Nebraska’s 1890 collective paid out over 2.5 times more in NIL in 2023 than they did in 2022. That’s how fast things have moved.

Then you see the reports that a $20 million line item for SEC and Big Ten athletic departments is coming when things are brought in-house. Collectives, though, will still exist even when this $20 million line item happens.

Every Big Ten school will probably be in a spot where they have $20 million annually for in-house NIL. The separator will be how much more your collective can add to that total. This is where Nebraska should be in good shape for the future.

Adrian Martinez’s possible MVP season: The 2020 Nebraska football team had nine NFL-level players on offense and at least five on defense. The offense featured five future NFL draft picks in Wan’Dale Robinson, Cameron Jurgens, Luke McCaffrey, Matt Farniok and Brendan Jaimes. Then you had several other notables in Austin Allen, Travis Vokolek and Bryce Benhart.

However, the one currently making as much noise as any of those players is former quarterback Adrian Martinez in the UFL. Martinez has led Birmingham to an undefeated record and is the current favorite to win the MVP award. Martinez has 971 yards passing, 327 yards rushing, and eight total touchdowns. He’s been lights out. It will be interesting if his play in the UFL gets him an opportunity in an NFL training camp.

It is crazy to look back at that 2020 squad’s talent level, but they were never able to put it together and finished 3-5.

Mike Riley joins the College Football Playoff selection committee: This past week, former Nebraska head coach Mike Riley officially joined the College Football Playoff selection committee.

This is the perfect gig for Riley, who is no longer coaching in the UFL.

The jury is still out

Questions still surround these things:

QB TJ Lateef’s timeline: What is the timeframe of four-star quarterback TJ Lateef and his decision process? Things have been quiet all week since he visited Nebraska.

Today, things appear to be heading in the right direction for the Huskers with Lateef.

NU’s other corner spot opposite Tommi Hill: With transfer cornerback Blye Hill out until at least September, who are the top candidates to start opposite Tommi Hill at cornerback in 2024?

Today, the leading candidates are redshirt freshman Jeremiah Charles and junior Malcolm Hartzog . I think the staff needs to see more of Charles and whether he can handle this type of role to start the 2024 season. Otherwise, Hartzog can slide back down to cornerback if need be. He’s worked both corner and safety over the last year.

Can Nebraska Baseball close out with a Big Ten Title?: Nebraska baseball nearly pulled off the sweep at Minnesota this weekend. Can the Huskers stay on track this weekend in their home series finale against Indiana?

NU is down one game in the Big Ten standings with two weekends remaining. Can a 4-2 finish win the Big Ten, or will the Huskers have to finish possibly 5-1 to clinch the conference title?

This has my attention

Moving forward, this has my attention :

2026 QB Jett Thomalla at the Elite 11: 2026 Millard South QB Jett Thomalla posted the top underclassman score this past weekend at the Elite 11 event in Las Vegas. Former Husker QB target and Iowa State commit Alex Manske had the highest overall score at the event.

The Elite 11 regional event this past weekend showed us a few things. One, the staff knew what they were looking at when evaluating Manske this past summer, and second, the hype surrounding Thomalla appears to be real.

Colorado’s roster implosion: This off-season, Colorado’s roster implosion has been fascinating to watch. Deion Sanders signed just seven high school recruits in 2024. A year ago, he brought in 50 transfers. Over 60 percent of those transfers have already left the program.

We’ve never seen a school go through the roster movement Colorado has had over the last year. The biggest thing the Buffs will have in 2024 is two first-rounders on the field: QB Shedeur Sanders and DB/WR Travis Hunter . You can argue they will be the two best players on the field every time Colorado plays in 2024, but is that enough to win with?

District track: High school district track will occur Tuesday through Thursday in all classes. I’m intrigued to see several things play out, but mainly what four events future Husker tight end Carter Nelson decides to participate in. He’s won first place in eight different events this year.

My guess is that discus, long jump, and pole vault will be three of them. Nelson currently ranks first in Class C in the long jump and discus and second in the pole vault. His fourth event is probably a toss-up between the 200-meter dash and the high jump. Nelson has a great chance to score over 30 points at the state meet this year.

Husker coaches are on the road this week: What does Nebraska’s road schedule look like in recruiting? Will we see any full staff-type visits, or will NU be spread out more?

Sean Callahan can be reached at sean@huskeronline.com and is heard daily at 6:45 am and 5:05 pm on Big Red Radio 1110 KFAB in Omaha during the football season. He can also be seen on KETV Channel 7 in Omaha during the fall, and each week, he appears on Nebraska Public Media’s Big Red Wrap-Up Tuesdays at 7 pm .

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