LINCOLN — In a world of instant gratification, Riley Van Poppel chose the road less traveled for his second year at Nebraska.
The young defensive lineman had spent all of last offseason preparing for a bigger role than the one he had in 2023, when he played in 11 games and finished with five tackles.
But in 2024, he played against UTEP and Colorado before Husker coaches suggested a strategic redshirt season. Four regular season games, plus a bowl game.
For the long term, it was a smart move. Van Poppel wasn’t starting ahead of Ty Robinson, and NU had depth and experience along its line besides Robinson. In the vast middle of the Huskers’ season — when he only appeared in the Rutgers game — Van Poppel lifted weights four times a week and threw himself into being a scout team terror.
“I could pin my ears and just go,” Van Poppel said of practice work. “I could work on my craft and give a good look.”
The result is that Van Poppel didn’t lose a year of eligibility while getting enough playing time to keep current with the rigors of Big Ten play. It was a season of development.
And while there’s distinct urgency for Nebraska, under Matt Rhule, to kick into high gear — why else sign at least 16 transfers, including the rugby punter who isn’t here yet? — there’s another current that needs to keep moving, the one NU presumably hopes will become the dominant part of the roster river.
That’s the young guys — the draft picks, if you will, in this preps vs. portal scenario — getting better and staying loyal to the team they picked out of high school.
Quarterback Dylan Raiola, of course, leads the charge on offense alongside Jacory Barney, Carter Nelson and a few others. On defense, it’s Van Poppel, the highest-rated remaining signee, according to On3, from the 2023 recruiting class.
Malachi Coleman and Princewill Umanmielen, ranked above Van Poppel in On3’s industry ranking, transferred to Minnesota and Mississippi, respectively. Ethan Nation transferred to Valdosta State, where he had one tackle last season. The rest of Nebraska’s top 10 from 2023, which includes right tackle Gunnar Gottula, remains.
Three of the top 10 in 2021 remain: Heinrich Haarberg, Teddy Prochazka and Henry Lutovsky. In 2022, it’s just two — Janiran Bonner and DeShon Singleton. Eight of the top 10 remain from 2024 — Dae’vonn Hall and Isaiah McMorris transferred — and of course the 2025 guys have stuck so far.
Across the 2023, 2024 and 2025 classes, NU signed 1 five-star and 15 four-star players, according to On3’s industry ranking. Fourteen remain. It’s likely four — Van Poppel, Cam Lenhardt, Raiola and Barney — start next season, with Gottula battling to start at tackle.
Ideally, that hit rate would be 50% or above by next season. And it might be, if Nelson and young offensive linemen signed in the 2024 class keep developing.
With the portal flush with talent, why does developing prep signees matter?
Because signing and developing a star out of high school is almost always going to be cheaper than signing the highest-priced free agents.
Whatever defenders like Vincent Shavers, Keona Davis, Willis McGahee and Amare Sanders — three-star signees in 2024 — might cost to retain after last season, it’d have cost a lot more in a year to win a bidding war for them. Plus, that quartet has already learned Rhule’s culture from the jump, rather than having to embrace it on the fly like all of Nebraska’s transfers.
By all accounts that transfer transition has been smooth for one-year-left guys like Dane Key, Marques Watson-Trent, Kevin Gallic, Dasan McCullough and Rocco Spindler. Raiola mentioned Key and Watson-Trent as leaders on the team; and Spindler said he appreciated the challenges of NU’s winter conditioning culture.
Signing seasoned 400-level players is reminiscent of the success men’s basketball coach Fred Hoiberg has had adding Sam Griesel, Brice Williams and Rienk Mast. Guys who know the game — and know how to work. Old, unflappable guys. Rhule can do that, too.
What’ll be more intriguing to watch is how often NU football signs redshirt freshmen, sophomores juniors-to-be out of the portal. Nebraska wasn’t shy in doing so this cycle with Williams Nwaneri, Nyziah Hunter, Marcos Davila and more. I’m especially noting how Davila and freshman signee TJ Lateef compete over the next 12-18 months, since one of them would be in line to start in 2027 — unless Dayton Raiola replicates his brother’s feat.
We watched this question play out in real time last week when Nebraska lost to Miami (Fla.) on running back CharMar Brown, the excellent former Creighton Prep and North Dakota State star who topped 1,000 yards as a redshirt freshman. NU put a good foot forward for Brown, who may have supplanted Kwinten Ives as the Huskers’ power back, but did not appear to outbid the Hurricanes.
Some viewed it as a maybe loss for Nebraska, and maybe, if Brown puts together back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons at Miami, it’ll play out that way.
But there are finite NIL donor and revenue-sharing dollars to go around, and if the Huskers had signed Brown, who jumps to No. 2 or even No. 1, what to make of the investment in Ives and Mekhi Nelson? Those two, valued within NU program, should get a good look in 2025 after biding their time.
That strategy worked for Van Poppel, who could be the best of a young defensive line that has major shoes to fill.
“They can doubt us, they can praise us, but we’re not going to let it affect what we do,” he said in spring.
Long term, it’s a good investment strategy for Husker football as a whole.
On with the Rewind.
Nebraska volleyball looks fierce
In two spring scrimmages, NU won all eight sets against teams (Kansas and South Dakota State) that went a combined 52-7 last season, and, aside from a blip early on Saturday against SDSU, the Huskers controlled the majority of the action under new coach Dani Busboom Kelly
“We didn’t have a starting lineup, really, this spring, so that’ll be some adversity come the fall, and we’re going to have to write that,” Busboom Kelly told beat reporters in Ord. “But I feel like this spring prepared us to handle that and stay together as a team. If we stay together, we’re going to be pretty unstoppable.”
Sure looks like it.
Outside hitter Harper Murray, when asked what she likes about Busboom Kelly’s approach to practice compared to legendary predecessor John Cook.
“We do competitions a lot,” Murray said. “With (Cook), a lot of it was timed — we didn’t know how long we were going to go for, how many reps we were going to get — but with Dani, there’s always a goal at the end of the drill. That’s all something we really liked that she changed.”
Murray jokingly noted there’s one thing she doesn’t like, too.
“We have to shag our own balls,” Murray said. “Coach (Cook) didn’t make us do that.”
Wisconsin football’s cautionary tale
For the first time since 2020, Nebraska football won’t play Wisconsin in the regular season. That’s too bad; it was NU’s year to head to Madison, a heck of a college town that loves UW sports. The Huskers won’t get back to Camp Randall Stadium until 2027.
But the Badgers remain a relevant watch from afar, in part because former Nebraska Athletic Director Trev Alberts chose to hire Matt Rhule over Luke Fickell, and in part because Wisconsin, in firing Paul Chryst back in 2022, embarked on a journey quite similar to the one taken by NU when it fired Frank Solich in 2003.
Fickell has experienced a rocky transition in Madison.
Including a Guaranteed Rate Bowl win he insisted on overseeing to end the 2022 season, he’s 13-13, whereas Chryst won 72% of his games. Fickell also miscalculated when he hired Air Raid offense practitioner Phil Longo to kickstart a sludgy passing game. Longo improved UW’s pass efficiency — Rhule was impressed with Longo’s scheme in 2023 — but Wisconsin’s vaunted run game suffered.
According Fickell’s long sitdown interview with ESPN last week, that affected the Badgers’ run defense, which used too-small defensive linemen and didn’t see enough grit in practice.
“It was hard with the alignment of how we truly were playing offensively with what we wanted to be defensively, and what we wanted to pride ourselves on,” said Fickell, clearly not the wordsmith Rhule is. “And so you can preach all those things, but if you don't live it on a daily basis, it's really hard to grow in those areas.”
With new coordinator Jeff Grimes, Wisconsin has returned to a run-based offense with more play variety and pre-snap complexity. The Air Raid, Fickell said, was “very simple” to the offensive linemen.
“Our guys want to have more on their plate,” Fickell said. “Just the nature of the offensive linemen here.”
If Fickell’s comments prick your ears about Dana Holgorsen running Nebraska’s offense, consider Holgorsen’s comments from earlier this spring about evolving away from the Air Raid system well before he arrived at NU and how the Huskers repeatedly practice inside run drills in spring camp. Nebraska intends to be physical.
Whatever Fickell’s intentions now, his job security may not survive a schedule that includes trips to Alabama, Michigan, Oregon and Indiana, plus home games against Ohio State, Iowa and Illinois.
“Our league has changed, this landscape has changed and, unfortunately, we didn't change enough to put ourselves in a position that we've been relevant,” Fickell said.
Nebraska softball attendance
Husker fans have done it again.
Headed into the final weekend of regular season play, Nebraska softball ranked fourth nationally in average attendance with 2,228 fans per game, according to NCAA numbers. NU’s total attendance ranked 19th, largely due to weather that keeps the Huskers from playing games before March. Perfect weather — and a terrific team — helped Nebraska set the school’s single game attendance record Saturday and single weekend attendance record by Sunday afternoon.
Fourth place nationally puts Nebraska in rare air, just below Alabama, Oklahoma and Arkansas. NU is the only team in the Big Ten; Oregon ranks 11th, followed by Washington (16th), Michigan (18th) and Ohio State (32nd). NU ranked 10th last year, 23rd in 2023 and 28th in 2022.
Husker baseball ranked 14th nationally in average attendance at 4,523 fans per game headed into the weekend, sandwiched in between Southern Mississippi and East Carolina. NU is the only team in the top 30; the top nine teams are in the SEC, with ACC stalwart Florida State ranking 10th.
While Nebraska baseball needs to make and win the Big Ten tournament to punch its ticket to the NCAAs, Husker softball, at 38-12, is a lock to get an at-large bid.
Can NU host a regional? That’d take being one of the top 16 seeds. And if you’re inclined to believe Softball America’s April 29 bracketology, Nebraska is somewhere in the 20s overall, or a solid regional 2 seed. UCLA and Oregon are projected to host regionals. NU didn’t play either in league play, though it lost 9-1 to the Bruins Feb. 20. (Jordy Bahl didn’t pitch that game.)
Would three top-shelf wins at Big Ten tournament be enough for NU to grab the 16th overall seed?
