Nebraska football kicks off Spring Ball Season No. 2 under Matt Rhule with an official March 24 start date.
In the leadup to the much-anticipated (and much-needed) return of Husker football, Inside Nebraska is counting down the days until that first morning of practice with our list of the Top 14 Most Intriguing Huskers to Watch during spring ball.
To be clear: This is not a list of the 14 most important players on the Huskers’ roster, and it is not a list of the 14 best players in the Nebraska program. It is a list that consists of mostly players who we have not seen on the field much, if at all, in a Husker jersey or otherwise who we – and many others – are anxious to see play live in order to get a better understanding of them as an athlete, how they fit into this version of Nebraska football and what their role might be in 2024.
Without further rambling, we kick off the list with No. 13: Redshirt freshman defensive back Dwight Bootle II.
Measureables: 5-foot-9, 170 lbs.
Class: Redshirt freshman
Position: Defensive back
Analysis:
Bootle got a very abbreviated bit of experience as a true freshman, playing in eight total snaps across the Huskers’ first three games against Minnesota (one snap), Colorado (three) and Northern Illinois (four). He made two tackles against NIU, and it was on the second-and-final one (assumedly) in which Bootle suffered a shoulder injury. It required surgery to repair, and he took a redshirt while missing the rest of his first season.
It was early, yes, but it did appear like the Nebraska staff was planning to gradually ease him into a more significant role with more and more snaps as the season progressed. Rhule even mentioned that was the plan two days after the Colorado game, just before Bootle went down with the injury.
“Dwight Bootle II got in the game and played,” Rhule said in that Monday presser. “He is going to be fantastic player for us. He got in against Colorado and played a couple snaps. He is going to continue to accelerate. … Bootle is playing and Bootle is playing this year for us. He might only play five or six snaps so far but it is because we think he is going to play for the course of this year so we are playing Bootle.
How big would Bootle’s role have become if he had stayed healthy last year? It’s a $1 million question we may see get answered this year as Nebraska looks for an answer at the No. 2 CB spot opposite Tommi Hill.
Perhaps that answer is less difficult than we (and others) will make it out to be as we grind toward the beginning of the season with Aug. 31 kickoff against UTEP. Perhaps it will be Malcolm Hartzog manning that corner (literally) as the projections would seem to indicate. Or, perhaps, the Huskers want to make his move to safety more permanent, and there would be a vacant CB2 spot.
Would Bootle get that call? He has similar size as Hartzog (5-9, 175 lbs.), so Evan Cooper and Tony White would have to look elsewhere if they want similar size as to what Hill possesses (6-0, 195 lbs.) on the opposite side. That answer could come from another candidate higher up on this spring countdown list.
Bootle may fit in as a slot cornerback. That is, after all, what his size and experience would indicate, and it’s the position he was originally recruited to play (albeit by the previous Husker coaching staff).
“I play all three spots, but I have my most success in the slot,” Bootle told Inside Nebraska just before his senior season at Miami Palmetto. “I play there mainly because that’s probably the hardest to do. I’m one of the few people on the team who can actually do it. It’s pretty hard because people have two-way go’s. They can go inside or outside. It requires me to be patient.”
I always come back to that conversation I had with Bootle (which came in June 2022). He has the talent and mindset (and the bloodlines) to become something special. He cut his teeth playing for one of the best 7v7 teams in Florida, matching up at times with four different receivers who were each at one time rated as five-stars and Top 15 overall players in the country. Three of them – Ohio State’s Carnell Tate (No. 3 WR; No. 13 overall in 2022), Brandon Inniss (No. 1 WR; No. 6 overall in 2023) and Jeremiah Smith (No. 1 WR; No. 1 overall in 2024) – could very well be in the top 4-5 of the Buckeyes’ receiver rotation by the time Nebraska travels to Columbus for their Oct. 26 matchup.
Would those guys wind up getting the best of Bootle if matched up one-on-one together in a Big Ten game? Most likely. That’s the name of the game. Comes with the territory of playing one of the 2-3 most difficult positions to play on the field (slot corner) and would certainly be forgivable – whether it’s from an inside or outside spot – if one of world’s most talented young receivers burned you a time or two.
But, hey, there would certainly be something to be said for having a healthy amount of experience guarding those specific players in a 7v7 setting in which everything is pretty much built in for the receivers and passing game to have success. Whether it’s against one of those three specifically or against other talented wideouts across the country, that experience can help.
“I’ve won some [reps]. I’ve lost some,” Bootle said about going up against those three and Miami Hurricanes four-star signee Joshisa Trader. “It’s really taught me that every receiver is different, so you can’t just go out and try to guard every receiver the same. You’ve gotta switch it up snap-to-snap.
“Those guys, everything you do, they know how to read it. So snap-to-snap, you’ve gotta do something different every time – whether it’s a jam, a fake jam, bail back two yards and get back square, start off outside and jump back inside after the snap. You’ve just gotta [trick] them so they don’t know what you’re gonna do and can’t plan for it.”
=========================
You must be logged in to post a comment Login