3 thoughts on commitment of Marquis Groves-Killebrew to Nebraska football

Nebraska football has added its 16th player from the transfer portal, thanks to the commitment of three-star cornerback Marquis Groves-Killebrew.

The 6-foot corner was rated as a four-star prospect coming out of high school. He spent a season with Texas A&M and another with Louisville before transferring to Arizona where he had 26 tackles, four pass breakups, and a sack in 10 games as the No. 3 cornerback.

Groves-Killebrew is ranked No. 524 overall among players in the transfer portal (247 Sports) and was the 57th-ranked cornerback. Here are three thoughts on his commitment.

Another quality depth piece

Groves-Killebrew is long and super athletic. He was ranked No. 115 overall coming out of high school and while his career hasn’t gone as expected, he showed pretty good form with Arizona last season. He also had some decent production.

Groves-Killebrew still has two seasons left to play and I’m confident that John Butler can get even more out of him than we have seen already.

Ceyair Wright projects as one starting cornerback. After that, it’s an open competition with Andrew Marshall, Jamir Conn, and now Groves-Killebrew — three transfers — set to compete with the likes of Donovan Jones, Amare Sanders, Larry Tarver, and Jeremiah Charles.

Yet, there will be plenty of snaps to play behind the top two cornerbacks, and for the first time in a long time, it feels like Nebraska football has adequate cornerback depth.

The cornerback room left much to be desired

It’s clear from the actions of the coaching staff that they didn’t feel great about having guys like Malcolm Hartzog and Marques Buford playing cornerback, which they did at times last season.

Wright was good in coverage. That was about it. You need more than one good cornerback and since Butler didn’t recruit anyone currently in the room, outside of Wright, these additions say a lot, without saying a lot.

Nebraska football Secondary overhaul should be complete

Nebraska football has added four players — three cornerbacks and one safety — from the transfer portal. Justyn Rhett doesn’t have much experience, but the other guys are former starters or sub-package players.

The Huskers are still looking to add some players via the transfer portal but I’d be surprised if there was another defensive back. You have Hartzog and Buford capable of playing safety, along with Rhett and Caleb Benning.

There are some other young guys at cornerback and safety pushing for more playing time and this team wants to take a leap on defense, the secondary needs to be better.

With all of these new pieces, I’m confident the defense will be better on the back end.

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