Recruiting, the portal and plenty more as Huskers finish spring ball

This was originally going to be a topic-focused post, but what's the fun in that?

Photo courtesy Nebraska Athletics

This was originally going to be a topic-focused post, but what fun is that? Let’s dive into an assortment of topics, shall we?

The recruiting weekend in the rearview

Nebraska entered its spring game weekend with seven commitments for the 2025 class and came out of the weekend with seven commitments for the 2025 class. That’s not a major shock. As we said last week, the weekend was setting itself up to be more of a springboard than a tidal wave (so patience is key). 

That doesn’t mean we haven’t heard a bit since about what the recruits experienced over the weekend.

One of Nebraska’s eight official visitors was Dawson Merritt. The 4-star linebacker from Stillwell, Kansas, spoke with a number of outlets after his visit – including 247Sports — highlighting just how fluid his recruitment currently is.

After an unofficial visit to Alabama two weekends ago, Merritt moved his official visit to Nebraska up from June to the previous weekend. His reason for this was wanting to see his top schools quicker as he works toward a decision. This was his third visit to Nebraska, and his player host for this weekend was quarterback Dylan Raiola. 

What’s next for Merritt? Sounds like two official visits in June — one to Alabama and one to Oklahoma. Will he back to Nebraska for another unofficial visit before making a decision? Time will tell, but Husker fans have to feel good about the fact that he wanted to see Lincoln again as quickly as he did.

It should be an interesting couple of months on the recruiting trail, for both Merritt’s decision and plenty others. We’ll circle back with more recruiting updates in the coming weeks, especially as coaches hit the road. It should get busy pretty quickly as a result.¹

The portal strikes again

Nebraska has its first player in the portal since the end of spring ball: edge Chief Borders.

With the window closing today (Tuesday, April 30) for players to enter the portal, Borders’ name surfaced. He spent his third college season in Lincoln after two seasons at Florida, appearing in 12 games for the Huskers in 2023. He recorded a career-high nine tackles with a pass breakup during last season. He has two years of eligibility remaining.

Following Nebraska’s spring game, coach Matt Rhule said players would meet with position coaches before meeting with him directly.

“We meet with every single player, go through where they stand right now,” Rhule said on Saturday. “We can’t make promises for the future. I think the biggest thing that I’d say is, wanting them to always understand — everyone is going to have your back, everyone is going to tell you what you want to hear when things are going well . . . We talk to every single guy regardless, but a guy who’s trying to make a decision on the portal, they can come talk to us.”

Maybe it’s not to some, but the Borders decision was a little shocking to me. We’ll see how the remainder of the day plays out.²

A quiet NFL Draft

Nebraska went without a player being drafted in the NFL Draft, the second time that has happened in five years.³ With that said, a number of players have signed undrafted free agent deals. Here’s that list:⁴

Nouredin Nouili — New Orleans Saints

Phalen Sanford — Las Vegas Raiders

Omar Brown — Denver Broncos

Quinton Newsome — Denver Broncos

Anthony Grant — Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Billy Kemp — New York Giants

Marco Ortiz was invited to the Los Angeles Chargers’ rookie mini camp.

A stadium update of sorts

So, about that stadium renovation project…

Athletic director Troy Dannen was on Sports Nightly last Thursday, providing a small update about the facilities projects on Nebraska’s plate right now. Priority No. 1, per Dannen, is the completion of Nebraska’s track on Innovation Campus. He said there is about a $9 million project that has yet to be finished and bids will go out soon to get that completed.

As for the stadium project, he shared that the current plan is “on the same trajectory” as if there hadn’t been any change within leadership at Nebraska. That said, the Huskers could go back to the Board of Regents this summer once he’s been able to get a better understanding of the fundraising piece. 

Regardless, Dannen understands the need for improvements to Memorial Stadium.

"There are some very obvious things and it's not necessarily just the south endzone,” he told Jessica Coody on Sports Nightly. “We've got to get chair backs in East and West. We've got to do some concessions work. We've got to get some WiFi done . . . I hope we have expanded offerings from a concessions standpoint. I hope we go cashless and we need a good WiFi system to do that."

We’ll keep an eye on it, especially as that meeting with the regents comes up in June.

1. Worth noting that there is a new rule — which went into effect in January — for this spring. Coaches can now only visit a prospect once instead of twice.

2. While it’s possible a player could enter the portal on Tuesday and not have it known for a few days, something tells me with the amount of eyes on the portal right now won’t let many sneak by.

3. 2019 was the other.

4. As of the time of scheduling this newsletter, we’re still waiting to hear where Luke Reimer ends up. This is one I’m curious about personally.