The Unknowables: What if Carter Nelson is ready to go right away?

Nebraska has done well to bolster its pass-catchers for 2024, and that's before you factor in Nelson, the fifth-best recruit NU has signed since 2011.

Courtesy Nebraska Athletics

Nebraska’s Walter Payton arrives on campus next month.

That’s not my comparison, it’s the head coach’s…sorta.

Matt Rhule didn’t say 4-star 2024 signee Carter Nelson is the next Walter Payton, but days before early signing day last December, the head coach tweeted a gif of Payton launching himself over the offensive and defensive lines into the end zone. No commentary, no context, just the image of Sweetness taking flight.

A few days later, Rhule said it was a reference to Nelson, the Ainsworth athlete who could’ve gone anywhere to play football.

“I told him we’re going to hand him the ball like Walter Peyton on fourth-and-1 and let him dive over the top,” Rhule said. “That’s our goal for him, a position-less player.”

Chalk it up to the growing ubiquity of early enrollees and the ever-present promise/portent of the portal, but as I’ve spent the offseason trying to assess Nebraska’s potential for 2024, I’ve often forgotten that the Huskers are adding Nelson to the mix, a freak athlete with a Bunyanesque backstory. He was busy during the spring, leading his high school basketball team to state and then medaling at the state track meet last week.

Nelson isn’t a “known” right now. Dylan Raiola isn’t either, but at least with him we got a spring game, a few practice glimpses and everything the coaches chose to say about him to add to what we knew of Raiola as a recruit. There was none of that with Nelson, so there’s less anyone can say confidently about him as a college football player at this point.

That makes him perfect for The Unknowables, an occasional offseason series focused on things we can’t prove about Nebraska yet. Just because we can’t prove something doesn’t mean we can’t talk it out and imagine the impact on the season ahead.

So, what if Carter Nelson is ready to go right out of the gates as a true freshman?