Decker, Ward announce their departure from Husker Football

Two Nebraska Football players announced their decision to leave the program via Twitter on Saturday.

The first of those two was junior center Michael Decker, who was the Huskers’ starting center in 2017 for five games until he suffered a season-ending knee injury at Purdue in late October.

An Omaha North product, Decker also appeared in all 13 games of the 2016 season.

Thank you pic.twitter.com/JZEOwCFKwe

— Decker (@_McDeck_) May 19, 2018

Decker thanked former head coach Mike Riley, his staff and current head coach Scott Frost in a statement posted on Twitter early Saturday afternoon.

“Over the past six months, I have taken a step back and looked at my future career goals and decided that I can no longer accommodate football’s commitments,” Decker said.

Decker is a political science major and a five-time member of the Nebraska Scholar Athlete Honor Roll.

The second player to announce his departure from the program was redshirt freshman linebacker Andrew Ward.

Thanks so much Nebraska! pic.twitter.com/NAT9Yr0Rte

— Drew Ward (@Drew__Ward9) May 19, 2018

Ward redshirted in 2017, but was someone working their way up the chart this spring, according to inside linebackers coach Barrett Ruud.

Ward comes from Muskegon, MI and was one of the top 20 inside linebackers in the country when he announced his commitment to Nebraska on Christmas Day 2016.

Ward also thanked Coach Riley’s and Coach Frost’s staff “for giving me a chance to come to Lincoln and be a Cornhusker.”

There have now been seven players who have formally announced their departure from Nebraska Football since Frost’s hiring. Just this past week, senior receiver Keyan Williams and sophomore offensive lineman Bryan Brokop announced their decision to leave the program.

You can contact Tommy at 402-840-5226, or you can follow him on Twitter @Tommy_KLIN.