We talk Zac Taylor and more this week as we set the stage for your Monday in the Weekly Rundown column.

We talk Zac Taylor and more this week as we set the stage for your Monday in the Weekly Rundown column.

You have to feel pretty good about these things right now:

A heavy dose of Zac Taylor this week: It’s hard to believe over the last 20 years several of the bright spots involving Nebraska in the NFL have been with former Bill Callahan players or recruits.

Obviously, defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh ranks towards the top, but Zac Taylor’s climb up the coaching ranks is right up there.

Taylor is a true American success story. He wasn’t blessed with NFL arm strength or elite speed, but he willed himself to be named the 2006 Big 12 offensive player of the year – the last Husker to win that award at the conference level.

He started his coaching career from the bottom as a graduate assistant at Texas A&M back in 2008 and has now climbed his way to the top of the coaching ranks.

Nothing was handed to Taylor. Yes, you can make note of Mike Sherman being his father-in-law, but the last time they worked together was in 2013 with the Miami Dolphins. Taylor got his opportunity under Sherman and his career has sky-rocketed.

Former Husker defensive end Zach Potter had a great idea to invite Taylor and his family back for the 2022 Red-White spring game. I think that would be a wonderful idea by Athletic Director Trev Alberts and his staff and, hopefully, they can make that happen. There has been very little to celebrate for Nebraska fans the last few years, and Taylor’s success has to be right up there.

Nebraska’s best draft since at least 2016: Only four players have been drafted under Scott Frost during his first three seasons at NU. He’s got a decent chance this year to have four drafted in 2022.

The last time the Huskers had four players drafted was in 2016. They had seven players drafted in 2011. With linebacker JoJo Domann, DB Cam Taylor-Britt, offensive lineman Cameron Jurgens, tight end Austin Allen, wide receiver Samori Toure, and defensive linemen Damion Daniels and Ben Stille, having four players drafted appears to be very doable.

I would say three is nearly a slam dunk with four or even five a possibility.

RB Ajay Allen: Don’t fool yourself, the late addition of running back Ajay Allen was a big one. You could argue Allen is the best running back Frost has signed in his time at Nebraska.

One of the things Frost looked for in hiring a new running backs coach was someone who could bring a back with him. It’s safe to say Bryan Applewhite delivered.

A busy spring in the portal: The transfer portal is on pause now for a brief moment, but, things will pick back up here very quickly. Nebraska continues to shop for a defensive lineman, pass rusher and offensive lineman.

These were my surprises of the week:

Alcohol on the Board of Regents agenda this week: The Nebraska Board of Regents will vote this week to allow alcohol at the Big Ten Wrestling Tournament later next month in Lincoln.

The vote is a near formality, and expect to see the taps turned on in Pinnacle Bank Arena for this event. The question is, will it pave the way for more things? The Nebraska Baseball team opens up at home on Mar. 11. Could we also see beer served at Haymarket Park? What is the process for that step? Does that too have to go on a separate BOR agenda in later months? Or could this decision greenlight beer sales at other NU-hosted events?

Nebraska’s strong close on Wednesday: I know the overall class ranking was not as high as most Husker fans are used to, but a lot of that is simply due to having 18 signees, where the Rivals rankings formula is built to count your top 20 overall recruits. If you don’t sign 20 recruits, you are already down in the rankings, unless you sign a ton of four and five-star guys. With just two more three-star additions this class is inside the top 30.

The way the Huskers closed the 2022 cycle with their portal recruiting, along with the addition of Allen and wide receiver Janiran Bonner, was huge. We don’t see Nebraska close out on signing day like this very often.

13 scholarship wide-outs and seven RBs: 15.3 percent of Nebraska’s scholarship players right now are wide receivers. They are also carrying seven scholarship running backs. One would think we will see at least one running back leave by spring’s end and around two to three wide receivers.

The mess at Michigan: Jim Harbaugh thought he had the Vikings job and then things fell through. His offensive coordinator Josh Gattis left Ann Arbor Sunday for a job at Miami.

On his way out the door, Gattis took a parting shot at Michigan’s administration, which probably also played a factor in why Harbaugh was looking to leave. Yes, the Wolverines are coming off a Big Ten championship and College Football Playoff appearance, but things seem far from stable in Ann Arbor.

Questions still surround these things:

How this offensive line will be built: One thing we still don’t know about this spring is what the starting offensive line will look like, especially without tackles Teddy Prochazka and Turner Corcoran taking part.

Who does new offensive line coach Donovan Raiola have in mind at the center position? That decision will play a big factor in what he does at guard.

Noa Pola-Gates: Nebraska added seven scholarship defensive backs to their roster for 2022. Five of those seven are already on campus for spring practice.

In some way, this is a mulligan for all the Florida DBs Travis Fisher lost the last few years. My question, though, is where is Noa Pola-Gates at in this race? His opportunities were limited in the last three seasons. Does he enter spring ball the No. 1 safety? This is a make-or-break spring for Pola-Gates.

Moving forward, this has my attention:

Ireland: Ticket sales were released by Nebraska and Northwestern this past week to the general public. Wildcats head coach Pat Fitzgerald was in Dublin this weekend for a site tour of what his team will see in August.

If there was any question now about this game happening in Dublin, I’d say the ticket sale release along with Fitzgerald’s trip over there are pretty good signs this game is going to happen. All of the COVID restrictions from the Omicron surge in Ireland and England have been lifted by the way.

Fred Hoiberg/Trev Alberts: Things are not good with Nebraska basketball. In fact, they are as bad as they’ve been in a long time, and that’s saying something.

What conversations, if any, have gone on with Fred Hoiberg and Trev Alberts at this point? NU’s basketball program faces an interesting month ahead.

John Sanders: Nebraska lost its all-time winningest baseball coach over the weekend in John Sanders.

I never covered Sanders at NU, but it’s hard to ignore his accomplishments. Sanders averaged 38 wins per season, and his 767 wins are the most for any NU coach in all sports.

Sean Callahan can be reached at sean@huskeronline.com and he can be heard each day at 6:45 am and 5:05 pm on Big Red Radio 1110 KFAB in Omaha during the football season. He can also be seen on KETV Channel 7 in Omaha during the fall and each week he appears on NET’s Big Red Wrap-Tuesday’s at 7 pm.