With ‘a lot of new pieces’ on offense, Huskers getting offseason leadership from interesting sources | Football

Nebraska football coach Scott Frost is oftentimes loath to single out players during news conferences because he knows what typically comes next: Overreaction.

On the first day of spring ball, he not surprisingly said that Garrett Nelson was doing “an unbelievable job” in the leadership department and then fielded a question about budding leaders on the offensive side.

Let’s put the caveats up — it’s spring ball, there are a lot of new faces, including at quarterback — and also be clear to say that Frost’s answer was not earth-shattering, but it was interesting.

“I think it’s a work in progress, we’ve got a lot of new pieces on offense,” Frost said. “I maybe would comment on Alante Brown. He’s had a really good offseason and he really has a voice in the wide receiver room that we’ve needed. I hope he keeps coming on the way that he has. We’re seeing some good things from him.”

Interesting for a couple of reasons. First of all, while Brown is a promising young player in the program, he’s not by any stretch guaranteed — or perhaps even considered a favorite — to win a starting job in what looks like a deep Husker receiving corps. NU has Omar Manning, Zavier Betts and Oliver Martin returning on the outside plus transfers Trey Palmer and Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda folded into the mix now, too. In terms of experience and production in games, Brown fits more in the group giving chase than the top set.

But you’d also be hard-pressed to find one guy who garnered more praise from more people at the outset of spring ball than the former high school quarterback who played at Simeon High in Chicago and then a post-graduate year at a prep school in Connecticut.

His position coach? Yes, impressed. “I didn’t know too much about him before I came here because he’s a Chicago kid, but what I can say about him is he’s a kid that loves football,” Joseph said. “You can win with kids when they love the game. When they like it, you’re going to be in trouble. One thing he brings to the room is leadership. But he works and he’s there all the time. He don’t miss. Everything he gets in there is 100% and he’s tough.”

Special teams coordinator Bill Busch, who spent last season in the program as an analyst? Him, too.

“He’s one of my favorite guys on the team,” Busch said, before launching into a story.

“When you come on your recruiting trip, if you’re Nick Henrich and you come on your recruiting trip to Nebraska, you’ll never have part of your recruiting trip be, ‘You’re the right guard on punt (team),’” Busch said. “Nobody ever talked to Alante Brown about being the L4 (on the kickoff team) and you have to go down and avoid and make the tackle. What did they talk about when he came here? Touchdown passes, throws. You have to be able to motivate these guys to do that and Alante Brown bought in. He became one of our special players.

“Now watch how he carries himself. Watch how he does and also watch his offense go where? It will probably take off. He’ll be an ascending player because of how he handles himself in that situation.”

This is one interesting twist in having so many new faces on the offensive side of the ball — not to mention having a three-time captain in quarterback Adrian Martinez and a multi-year starter on the offensive line in Cam Jurgens depart the program. Running back Rahmir Johnson is in something of a similar situation.

The fourth-year sophomore is the most experienced player in his position group. Last year, he entered preseason camp perhaps as low as fifth on the depth chart, but worked his way up to the starting job before missing the final two games with an injury.

Now, he’s trying to lead while also having no guarantees he’s going to end up at the top of the heap again this fall. There are five scholarship backs in spring ball and the Huskers will add freshmen Ajay Allen and Emmett Johnson to the mix this summer.

“It’s a mindset thing. I just told myself, ‘The coaches want this, I’m going to give them this,’” Johnson said of his ascent last year. “What I try to do is just tell everybody, look, this is what you’re good at, keep doing this all day, every day. Don’t stop. We need everybody on our team no matter where they’re at on the depth chart.

“Just show the coaches what you’ve got every day and things are going to pay off.”