Husker Big Red: 5-for-5 impact on Nebraska volleyball isn’t so clear, new crystal ball, more

Welcome to Husker Big Red Daily, your daily stop for the latest Nebraska football news, recruiting buzz, transfer portal updates, and Huskers headlines. Here’s a quick look at the latest storylines surrounding Nebraska athletics.

With the 5-for-5 eligibility rule being adopted by the NCAA earlier this week, there have been plenty of questions about what this means moving forward for Nebraska.

As far as the football program is concerned, the biggest benefit would be the potential return of Anthony Colandrea. The Mountain West Player of the Year in 2025 started as a true freshman for Virginia, so he will have another year to play, which would be massive for the development of Trae Taylor.

Football is a little different than the other sports, though, simply due to the roster size. A few extra seniors won’t be hard to squeeze onto the roster; Nebraska football would just take a few less in the transfer portal. But in volleyball and basketball, with strict roster limits, it’s a different story.

Nebraska volleyball has four high-profile players who could take advantage of the 5-for-5: Harper Murray, Andi Jackson, Bergen Reilley, and Laney Choboy.

The problem, according to Abby Barmore of Husker Online, is that the Huskers already have 17 of their 18 roster sports spoken for. That means there is currently only room for one senior to play an extra season. If there were going to be more than one, a player would need to leave the team via the transfer portal.

So it’s going to be different for Dani Busboom-Kelly to navigate that than for Matt Rhule. Fred Hoiberg shouldn’t have an issue either. 15 spots is a lot for a basketball program. Pryce Sandfort is the biggest name to watch. If he’s not a guaranteed first-round pick after this season, Nebraska might be able to induce him to come back for a third season with a massive NIL deal.

Boden Kapke, the Boston College transfer, who has been impressive in summer workouts, would also be eligible for another season. In that case, Fred would just recruit one less big out of the portal.

Britt Prince on the women’s basketball team is another name to watch, along with Logan Nissley. She also made an impact for the Huskers right away as a freshman. Just food for thought.

5-star Albert Simien will announce; Nebraska is a finalist

Nobody expects five-star Albert Simien to pick the Nebraska hat when he makes his commitment announcement on Friday, but you never know. The Huskers did a nice job of putting themselves among the final four along with LSU, Texas A&M, and Notre Dame.

The Aggies were the leader in this recruitment until a few days ago, when Notre Dame pulled ahead. It just goes to show that anything can happen on the recruiting trail. That’s something to keep in mind with Ahmad Hudson.

Simien is from Louisiana, and the Fighting Irish are about to steal him away from Lane Kiffin. Maybe the Huskers can do the same with Hudson, although keeping up their momentum in the dead period will be huge.

Speaking of momentum, the Huskers have it with Khalil Taylor. Nebraska football has a 63 percent chance to land him via the Rivals Recruiting Prediction Machine. Brian Dohn of 247 Sports also logged a crystal ball in favor of the Huskers, so they feel poised to land the top-100 wideout on July 6th.

Nebraska baseball adds a transfer

The Huskers added an intriguing JUCO transfer on Thursday, picking up Kellan Burke, a transfer from Cloud County. He batted .413 with 21 home runs and 93 RBI playing catcher and outfield. He had only 29 strikeouts last season.

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