5 thoughts on Nebraska football’s transfer portal haul

Nebraska football has been one of the most active teams in the transfer portal, landing 15 commitments, which is good enough for 10th in the 247 Sports transfer portal rankings for the 2025 class.

Five of the 15 players signed were rated as four-star transfers according to 247 Sports. Those five are Elijah Pritchett, Dasan McCullough, Williams Nwaneri, Dane Key, and Nyziah Hunter.

The Huskers remade their wide receiver room with three additions and also added three players to the secondary. It was the kind of class Matt Rhule needed and here are five thoughts on the transfer portal haul for Nebraska football.

Nebraska addressed elite positions with elite talent

Quarterback is the most important position in football. But outside of that, pass rusher, offensive tackle, wide receiver, and cornerback are right there. You need guys who can create explosive plays and those who can defend them,

For years, decades even, Nebraska hasn’t had enough athletes in those positions. But after landing two blue-chip transfers at wide receiver, plus another talented pass catcher in Hardley Gilmore, Nebraska has surrounded its quarterback with talent.

The Huskers also landed a double-digit game-starting tackle from Alabama, and Williams Nwaneri, a former five-star recruit with a huge upside at EDGE. Andrew Marshall, formerly of Idaho, will also prove to be an underrated addition.

Nebraska desperately needed a pass rusher, an offensive tackle, and some wide receivers, and the Huskers landed blue-chip transfers at all those positions.

Special teams were a priority

Nebraska’s special teams were really poor in 2024. The Huskers didn’t have anyone who made an impact on the return game, the long-snapping was a major issue, and Nebraska football needed a new punter after Brian Buschini exhausted his eligibility.

Well, Nebraska added one of the top punters in the Big Ten, Jack McCallister. The Huskers also added an FCS All-American as a long-snapper, Kevin Gallic and Marshall was a dynamic returner for Idaho.

Notably, Nebraska football didn’t add a kicker via the transfer portal. That tells you how they feel about John Hohl and Tristan Alvano. We are still waiting for the Huskers to hire a special teams coach, but at least he’ll have more pieces to work with than Ed Foley did last season.

Wide receiver needed an overhaul

It was clear when Dana Holgorsen was hired that he didn’t love what the Huskers had in the wide receiver room. The only holdovers from last season are Jacory Barney and Quinn Clark. The other previous signees from 2023 and 2024 are all gone.

That list includes three blue-chip recruits: Malachi Coleman, Isaiah McMorris, and Dae’Vonn Hall. Jaylen Lloyd also transferred but those four in-state prospects made minimal impact.

It’s hard to say if Nebraska overvalued them because they were in-state prospects, but Nebraska football has struggled to recruit and develop wideouts. It’s as simple as that and we saw it on display last season.

The Huskers didn’t have many guys who could consistently win one-on-one matchups. That’s not the case anymore and by adding two players with three years left (Gilmore, Hunter), the wide receiver room is solidified long-term, especially with the additions of Isaiah Mozee and Cortez Mills in the 2025 recruiting class.

Nebraska has gotten serious about NIL

It started with Dylan Raiola, but ever since the departure of Trev Alberts and the hire of Troy Dannen, it feels like things are completely different for the 1890 Initiative.

We saw the results of that in the transfer portal. Nebraska football was able to land five players ranked in the top 100 of the 247 Sports transfer portal rankings. That wouldn’t have happened without financial support.

Some fans get sick of NIL. It can work against Nebraska, as it did with Kentucky landing Shiyazh Pete, but the teams that are smart with their money and spend it on the right positions, are the programs that will have success. You can’t pay everyone and in the 2025 class, Nebraska was smart with its money.

Key and McCullough are the two one-year rentals, but all of the other big-money guys will be around for a few seasons, which makes the investment even smarter.

Still some question marks

Nebraska football addressed some key positions, but there are two in particular that weren’t: running back and nose tackle.

The defensive front might be a little different this season. Maybe we’ll see John Butler use more four-man fronts, but Riley Van Poppel isn’t a nose tackle. Maybe he can get up to 320 pounds, but that’s the best option to replace Nash Hutmacher at this point.

The Huskers were slated to host a nose tackle at one point, but it didn’t happen. The spring window is always a possibility but if the scheme is a little different, a true nose might not be needed.

It was also interesting that Nebraska didn’t pursue a running back after Dante Dowdell left for Kentucky. Gabe Irvin left too, so there isn’t a proven back on the roster outside of Emmett Johnson.

No one else on the roster outside of Johnson, Heinrich Haarberg, and Barney have double-digit carries for their career, so it’s a big question mark and that’s another position that may get targeted in the spring.

Lastly, another cornerback wouldn’t surprise me. Marques Groves-Killebrew just returned to Arizona, which leaves a void. Marshall should be a starter. Jamir Conn was also a multi-year starter at the FCS level, but outside of Ceyair Wright and one-game starter Donovan Jones, the Huskers don’t have any corners who have played power-4 football.

Amare Sanders and Larry Tarver have talent. Sanders got his feet wet in the bowl game too, but after Wright, you’re talking about maybe 100 snaps of experience from the cornerbacks at the FBS level.

That’s concerning and that’s why the position was a priority. It’s also why I think it could still be a priority, just like running back and defensive tackle in the spring.

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