Huskers add grad transfer LB

Nebraska addressed a big position of need through the transfer portal on Thursday with the addition of Northern Iowa graduate transfer linebacker Chris Kolarevic.

The 6-foot-1, 230-pound Kolarevic put his name in the transfer portal a little over a week ago and announced he had committed to Nebraska via Twitter Thursday evening. While it was not an easy decision to leave UNI, he felt the timing was right to take his talents to a higher level.

“We’re not playing right now, so I had a lot of time to think about it,” Kolarevic explained. “Everybody gets an extra year this year, so I have two years of eligibility and I’m graduating in December. I thought about it and I came to the conclusion that the best option for me is to graduate in December from Northern Iowa and start somewhere else in January and try and play at a high level of competition.

“I talked to my coaches about it last week on Monday and went into the portal on Tuesday. I was just looking for a school to play at a high level competition.”

According to Kolarevic, Nebraska wasted little time getting in touch with him after his name hit the transfer portal. In fact, the Huskers were the first school to offer a scholarship which came from NU defensive coordinator Erik Chinander.

“Coach Chinander actually called me on that Wednesday morning and they were my first offer, which was big. I was really, really excited about that,” Kolarevic said. “When I talked with [Chinander] I could really just tell that they really needed a linebacker and it was important to them to get an inside backer this year because they needed one.”

The Huskers only have six scholarship inside linebackers on its roster with two of them being seniors Collin Miller and Will Honas. Additionally, redshirt freshman Nick Henrich has been playing more outside linebacker as of late.

Kolarevic says he doesn’t expect anything to be handed to him, but he also understands there is a lot of opportunity given Nebraska’s lack of overall depth and experience at his position.

“Since I only have two years left I was looking for a good place that I could come in and play right away,” Kolarevic said. “Honestly, I know I’m going to have to work for it and when I get there nothing is just going to be handed over to me. But I also know that there’s a lot of opportunity at Nebraska, so that was very appealing to me.”

Kolarevic said he had several other offers and serious interest in addition to Nebraska. However, between the opportunity that existed on the field, as well as the reputation of the program and coaching staff, he was sold on the Big Red.

The Michigan native describes himself as a smart, energetic and physical linebacker.

“I think my strength is that I can fly to the ball,” Kolarevic said. “I can move really well and that’s what I work on the most, is my speed. I think that’s the most important part about being a linebacker these days. You’ve got to be able to fly sideline-to-sideline every play and find the ball.

“I’ve played a lot of positions in a lot of different defenses. We play a lot of different fronts and defenses at UNI. So I played multiple positions in different defenses and I understand football really well. I watch a lot of tape and I understand how an offense is wanting to attack the defense.

“Obviously, I can always work on it and get better, but I think I have really good understanding of that and I can bring that to Nebraska. So just speed and football IQ are two of the biggest things for me. Also, I just have a hard nose attitude and I’m always ready to work. That’s one thing that UNI really instills in you. You’re going to have to work in the weight room, on the practice field all time, and that’s something that’s really important to me is just showing up to work every day and working hard.”

Kolarevic redshirtted his freshman season at Northern Iowa and played the past two seasons. He recorded 144 career tackles and earned second team Missouri Valley All-Conference honors as a sophomore last season.