Post-spring progress and projected Nebraska QB depth chart

Matt Rhule sounded optimistic as he explained why Nebraska football needs three game-worthy quarterbacks, but he has history and logic on his side.

“We have aspirations of regaining Nebraska’s place of winning national championships,” Rhule said after NU’s spring game. “How many games is it now to win a national championship? Between the Big Ten championship game? If you don’t have a (College Football Playoff) bye, it’s 15 or 16 games, yes? Play one quarterback through that.”

CFP finalists Michigan and Washington just did, incidentally. Fifteen starts for both J.J. McCarthy and Michael Penix.

But that’s not always the case. The first CFP national champ, Ohio State, had to revert to its third-string guy.

And NU rarely gets through a season with just one starting quarterback. It last happened in 2017, when Tanner Lee played every half but one. The Huskers had two starters for five straight seasons 2018-2022, and three starters in 2023.

So even if the quarterback story of spring 2024 was true freshman Dylan Raiola — the five-star Husker legacy who seems poised to start — the battle for second string is hardly a second-rate issue.

And it’s possible Heinrich Haarberg is better in 2024 as a backup than he was in 2023 as a starter. The Kearney Catholic star scrambled for one first down in the Spring Game while making two impressive throws — one on a 41-yard touchdown to Jacory Barney, and another up the seam to tight end Nate Boerkircher.

A fourth-year junior, Haarberg looked much more polished than his wild colt performance three years ago when he completed 9 of 23 passes in the 2021 Spring Game.

“He’s truly a dual threat, a quarterback who can change the game (but) I love him taking what’s there,” Rhule said. “I love him being explosive, pushing the ball down the field, deep balls down the field, elite balls in the middle of the field. But I also love him moving within the pocket, taking check downs, taking a bad play and getting out of it.”

Last season, Haarberg, almost by necessity, tried to carry the weight of the offense on his shoulders. He threw as many interceptions (seven) as touchdowns. In Big Ten play, he’d strain for extra yards on the option and occasionally cough up the ball. He finished with 11 fumbles.

This spring, Haarberg said he focused on bringing his sidearm motion upwards, settling down his feet and slowing down his decision-making process. He worked with new quarterbacks coach Glenn Thomas to improve all three.

“Mentally, I’m feeling a lot better about knowing where the guys are, knowing where the checkdowns are, just trying to get completions,” said Haarberg, who completed 49% of his passes last season. “That’s what we’re trying to accomplish this spring.”

Checkdowns are receivers, running backs or tight ends, usually standing short of the first down, who are safer options and better-covered downfield receivers. They may catch a ball short of the first down, but it’s not the opponent picking the ball off, too.

In the spring game, NU coaches often called a “four verticals” concept on third and long that involves four receivers attacking the deep seams of a defense while one wideout — usually Isaiah Neyor — ran a shallow crossing route against underneath coverage. Raiola found a hole in the seams and hit Alex Bullock on a vertical route. But Neyor was open, too, on those plays.

“If it’s third-and-8, stretch the field, hit a checkdown, get to fourth-and-2, maybe we go for it,” Haarberg said.

Fourth-and-short situations suit Haarberg, who at 6-foot-5, 215 pounds, might be NU’s best and most imposing short-yardage runner. It may be a role he cultivates alongside Raiola, who threw for 239 yards in the spring game and prefers to work from within the pocket.

The same is true of Bellevue West grad and fellow true freshman Daniel Kaelin, also battling for playing time. Kaelin chose to stick with NU after Raiola flipped his commitment from Georgia to Nebraska.

“Those are two of the best freshman quarterbacks in college football,” Haarberg said of Raiola and Kaelin. “I believe that. I’ve seen three classes of freshman quarterbacks come in now. And none of them have come in as prepared as those two have, or have the mindset as those two have.”

“At the same time, I have different strengths.”

Who’s here: Dylan Raiola, Heinrich Haarberg, Daniel Kaelin and Luke Longval.

Who left: Walk-on Jack Woche entered the transfer portal in late April. He was trending to be NU’s emergency fourth-string quarterback at best. Longval becomes that guy now, and may even be No. 3 in a pinch if coaches choose to redshirt Kaelin.

Who’s the coach: Glenn Thomas, hired away from the Pittsburgh Steelers in the offseason. Thomas worked with head coach Matt Rhule and offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield at both Temple and Baylor. At each stop, he developed the same kind of young QB he’ll have in Raiola. Rhule likes Thomas’ teaching methodology. Thomas has coached in Division II, Division I FBS and the NFL.

“I think you’ve got to find that line of where they are at and try to meet them at that line,” Thomas said earlier in the spring, “and then raise the ceiling from there.”

Thomas makes $800,000, almost as much as former defensive coordinator Bob Diaco made in 2017. So he comes at a premium for NU.

Snapshot: All three scholarship quarterbacks had their moments in the spring game, though Raiola, with 239 yards and two touchdowns through the air left the largest impression with passes that alternately showed both zip and touch. He may have the strongest arm of any recent Husker and appears to have, as Rhule has said, a “feel” for the game.

Haarberg won five games as NU’s starter in 2023 before absorbing so many body blows that he went to the bench hurt early in the loss to Maryland. Thomas worked specifically on Haarberg’s motion and in-play processing this spring; he’s still one of the best athletes on the team.

Kaelin had a solid two-minute drill in the Spring Game, while Longval, previously at Iowa Western, can eventually function as a player-coach on the sidelines.

Arriving this summer: No incoming freshmen and no known transfers, although Rhule didn’t close the door to any options that delivered depth or made sense to add.

Post-spring depth chart: 1 Raiola, 2 Haarberg, 3 Kaelin, 4 Longval.