Husker in WI

I'd like Brown as a kick returner, but I think as a WR he's on the borderline of stealing PT from other guys we think will be good. Feels like he'd be in the Jacory Barney (and maybe Cortez Mills) role, and even if Brown is better than Mills on day one it's potentially one year of him versus 3-4 of Barney/Mills. Key is intriguing because he could be the big outside receiver that we probably don't have at the moment. Nic Anderson fits there as well, but he doesn't have a connection to us and Key does.

That is my fear, but I think he still has a pretty big chip on his shoulder that they didn't offer him (Minnesota "Mr. Football") out of high school so I would think he would go elsewhere.

Didn't watch Dittman's video, but I think Carriker started it and he latched on as usual. Carriker was going to have a guest on his show who backed out, but I think it's pretty obviously Emmett's brother. And yeah - when there was no downside to Satt sticking around, I didn't mind it. Having guys with P4 coordinator and lower level HC experience is nice, even if they weren't great in those roles. As a fan I don't think keeping Satt is worth a losing a good player, especially one as likable as Emmett. So if it were me I'd move on from Satt if it meant Emmett stayed. But it might be too late anyway, and the coaches might actually feel Satt brings more to the table than Emmett if it comes down to one or the other.

I was on board with him staying, but I think all of the offers were downgrades and he was functionally demoted here. Doesn't even sound like he will be the WR coach at Tech, although he could be. But every coach has opportunities to leave if he wants to and is willing to step down a level either in job or competition level. Teams weren't trying to poach him from us. This is a win win though - he gets to work for dad after getting experience elsewhere, and it looks like a more reasonable nepo hire for Joey. You can't give your kid his first job, but if someone else does then it's proof that they are a legitimate employee and now he can hire him. Wouldn't be shocked if Garrett turns out to be a good coach, we just really jumped the gun hiring him in the role we did. Joey owes us one.

His brother tweeted this and he retweeted it, but it could be taken a lot of different ways: Could mean he's unhappy with relationships here, and that's what is important to him. Could also just be he is leaving to make more money, but is going to prioritize the relationships assuming the offers aren't insanely different. EMoney is a rap name, not a declaration of life priorities. I could also see the relationship piece being Barthel leaving, or honestly Barthel staying and maybe EJ was hoping he would leave. Whatever his ceiling is, it's two years in a row with Barthel where EJ was clearly our best back and couldn't get significant playing time until his hand was forced.

Other than Dowdell they all had some level of prior production though, and I think that's more the point. The Corey Collier/Chief Borders/Jacob Hood type of guys who were highly ranked recruits but weren't seeing the field seem to have a lower success rate.

Regarding our DB performance, it's also worth pointing out the CB situation was not ideal. Tommi Hill was supposed to be a shutdown guy, and at the start of the year we were great. A lot of this can be attributed to the DL as well, but Shedeur had season lows in completion percentage, yards, and TDs against us. Illinois is where things started slipping - I think Rhule regrets letting Tommi play, he was a liability in several games because of his foot. A preseason injury to Blye Hill meant we were playing Buford out of position, and while that worked a lot of the time he and Hartzog got picked on by bigger receivers. Wright stepped up big time, but he was our 3rd or 4th corner going into the year. Some other guys (little Buford, Charles, Sanders, Tarver) got opportunities, but either didn't capitalize or were redshirting. Amare Sanders is the only one who was on the week one depth chart, we were testing the limits of our depth. If I had to guess the coaches wouldn't have redshirted Sanders if they could go back and sit Tommi Hill when he was hurt initially. Buford and Hartzog were largely solid, but just limited and teams exploited them. We also just didn't have great athleticism in our safeties/rover. That should be less of a problem moving forward as the young atheletes develop, but I definitely wouldn't mind an incoming transfer or two in the secondary. Some of the coverage busts come back to coaching (and he has mentioned the challenge of coaching college kids versus pros), but IMO the bigger issues were CB injuries and lack of elite athleticism.

You can read into this as much or little as you want, but he is initially listed at WR. https://huskers.com/sports/football/roster/season/2025/player/jeremiah-jones

I think you'll see John Bullocks, but they are going to spend their first couple years at G5 or FCS schools and then transfer up. The new "walk-on" route is going to be go to a small school and try to develop into a player that can make Nebraska's roster, or whatever big school you're aiming for. I don't think it's ever going to be like a minor league system, and not everyone will transfer up when they could. But I think relationships will develop where certain smaller schools will find a niche as feeder schools for P4 teams. Never fun to see guys transfer out, but there will be some coaches who embrace it and get a few years of higher-upside talent because of it. And there will also be some players who stick it out and just become really good players at that school.

That would be awesome actually, and you'd think throwing as a QB would have to translate some into velocity on snaps. I do think if he's serious about the NFL being a core special teamer is his best chance, and if he's no longer the backup QB there should be less hesitation about putting him out there. If he can't snap he should hold on kicks, I've always hated that switching to the punter. I get that they have more time to work with the kicker on it, but I like a better threat of a fake/more competent player making something happen on a bad snap even if we don't do it often.

This is where I'm at too. We still have to pay them, we can have as many assistants as we want, and I don't think any coach is completely incompetent. The just frequently get promoted past their capabilities - sucks to be paying them OC/WR coach money for smaller roles, but if they're good at those smaller roles it's not a big deal.

Rhule said he wants the same multiple-front defense, and there's really no such thing as a 4-3 anymore. 4-3 teams are in a 4-2-5 the majority of the time anyway, so some form of Nickel/Rover is needed. We just might focus on bigger Jacks and treating them more like a DL than an LB. I'm sure he's start at Safety/Rover, and there's always a chance he outgrows that.

I don't blame him too much for the muffed punt. IGC is back there to just catch the ball (probably at Rhule's request), and he didn't. I don't think Shavers had a way of knowing it hadn't been touched, he just has to come up with it. But everything else (including giving up a long punt return), yeah. It turns out our FG problem wasn't the kicker, great. How do we have 2 long snappers both with the yips? The only thing our ST was measurably good at was opponent FG percentage, and that seems like one of the things least dependent on a ST coordinator.

There will be a huge wave of walk-ons at some point. Coaches gotta decide real quick if they think any of them are likely to turn into good P4 players and move on from everyone else, as much as that sucks.