Nebraska football is back with spring storylines galore

The Huskers weren’t totally off the radar. Coach Matt Rhule spoke publicly last week about offseason workouts. Scholarship offers continued to go out to prospects. The program’s social-media team posted regular video updates on the team’s “Commitment Week” as players competed in tug-of-war games outside the State Capitol Building and bowled and threw axes.

Yet the month has been all lion and no lamb around One Stadium Drive. Its athletic director abruptly left and another abruptly arrived a week later. A university system president priority candidate was named, ending a search of more than 200 days. The men’s and women’s basketball teams both earned and embarked on NCAA Tournament trips. Even the wrestling program at nationals and NU baseball’s best start in 16 years has occupied more conversational bandwidth than usual.

Rhule didn’t field a question related specifically to football until his most recent news conference was 22 minutes old. Practices begin this week — a bit later than usual to account for spring break and Easter — leading up to the Red-White scrimmage April 27.

“Last year, the roster was a little bit more like this,” Rhule said, holding his hands flat and a couple of feet apart vertically. “You had the really top heavy, like, really good players (up) here and a bunch of your young players. I think this year, we have way more parity.”

It’s something to follow this spring as Nebraska shifts its competitive focus back toward actual football work. If the Huskers are chasing three points — their margin of defeat in four games last year and a team rallying cry now — they’re also chasing one more play. One more sequence to turn the tide on a fall Saturday and, maybe, break through in Rhule’s second campaign in Lincoln.

Here are four other storylines to watch as helmets and pads make their debut for the 2024 team with the season opener five-plus months away:

The obvious headliner. Nebraska has three — three! — scholarship quarterbacks, none of whom has more than a season of tangible college experience at his position. True freshmen Dylan Raiola and Daniel Kaelin are early enrollees still taking their first college classes. Redshirt junior Heinrich Haarberg started eight games last year as the new staff, out of necessity, rode his tough running style as much as his arm.

“They need a ton of reps,” Rhule said of the newcomers. “So we will take more reps than we’ve ever taken before to get them ready and to get Heinrich ready and have really strong quarterbacks.”

How the position collectively performs will inform whether Nebraska adds a more veteran option from the transfer portal when it opens April 15-30. What the Huskers do in that window will say everything about what they feel they have at QB.

All signs are optimistic now. Rhule said Raiola arrives at 6 a.m. daily to throw, while Kaelin is a grinder and Haarberg has been diligent about adjusting his throwing mechanics. Each is competitive and a leader in workouts. Raiola, the former five-star prospect, looked poised and accurate last week while firing darts at Pro Day.

But as much as mat drills and competitive activities reveal character traits, the football piece is just as important. Who can make the throws most consistently? Who responds best to adversity with an entire offense looking to them?

The verdict comes in late April. Clues start next week, when quarterbacks may throw in workout sessions open to media members while players and coaches around them begin offering feedback.

Team standards may be higher than 2023 — last year’s great is this year’s good, Rhule says — but players at least know what the expectations are after feeling out their new coach and his processes during his first months in Lincoln. Experienced players can lead, correct and be accountable when they know the syllabus.

Meanwhile, the entire staff is the same except for new quarterbacks coach Glenn Thomas, who himself has a history working under Rhule at previous stops. Terminology and philosophy are already aligned; the learning curve figures to be short.

The result — at least on defense — is a top group that doesn’t need to start with introductory 101 classes. Defensive coordinator Tony White turned down overtures to remain with Big Red and has a dozen players back with starting experience. There’s no obvious positional void within the Blackshirts even without longtime middle linebackers Luke Reimer and Nick Henrich, who gave way to the likes of upperclassmen in John Bullock, Mikai Gbayor and potentially Javin Wright.

All that institutional knowledge leads to comments like those from safety Marques Buford, who said the Huskers would rather grind and build than be celebrated for their best-performing defense of the Big Ten era.

“Everyone knows last year wasn’t good enough regardless of any of the statistics or what anybody else is saying,” Buford said. “We know deep down that we didn’t do enough to help us get to where we want to be last year as a team.”

Scan Nebraska’s returning All-Big Ten members and there’s a theme: All are established players with something more to give.

Seven Huskers were honorable mentions in the league: offensive linemen Bryce Benhart and Ben Scott alongside defenders Isaac Gifford, Tommi Hill, Jimari Butler, Ty Robinson and Nash Hutmacher. Tight ends Thomas Fidone and Nate Boerkircher are other familiar names who fit the description of proven floor, high ceiling.

“We need all these older players to make a jump,” Rhule said. “The young players will follow, and I feel like they have in terms of their leadership, and I think they will in spring ball if they do what I talked about earlier and make it really competitive.”

Rhule once said NU won’t “outsource” winning to freshmen and newcomers but rather build inside out from its core group. If its top contributors can unlock something new — perhaps elevating a line to an all-B1G squad next November while boosting their draft stock — it bodes well for the team taking that metaphorical next step.

Health and opportunity have set the spring stage.

Midyear arrivals used to be the exception in college football. Not anymore; 23 such newcomers will be part of spring ball for Nebraska, a record number consisting of six transfers and 17 freshmen.

The transfers, naturally, could pop sooner. Start with wideout Jahmal Banks who, notably, was the first Husker to speak with reporters this spring and whom Rhule has repeatedly praised for “raising the standard” off the field. Another receiver transfer, Isaiah Neyor, “has got all the talent in the world” Rhule said, as a former big-play threat at Wyoming.

How quickly does Florida offensive guard transfer Micah Mazzccua settle in on a line that needs two new interior starters? Can former Oregon running back Dante Dowdell take the lead job and run with it while fellow backs Gabe Ervin and Rahmir Johnson heal from injuries? On defense, how quickly do defensive back Blye Hill and linebacker Stefon Thompson assimilate?

Some winter arrivals last year used the time to become immediate factors in the fall. D-linemen Cam Lenhardt and Princewill Umanmielen among the freshmen. Scott and receiver Billy Kemp as transfers.

Such quick-impact freshmen not at QB may come at receiver in the likes of Keelan Smith or Jacory Barney or on defense from rusher Willis McGahee IV or DB Larry Tarver or linebacker Vincent Shavers — both were mentioned at last week’s media chat.

“I think we’re going to be nice already this year,” McGahee said in early January. “With the transfers and all of us coming up now, we’re going to be good quick.”