Roster management in college football is a job that is almost always in motion.
College coaches are always recruiting, transfers have become more prevalent and numbers are always being juggled in some form or fashion.
Nebraska has been limited this offseason with scholarships since signing 23 scholarship players for its 2020 class in December.Â
Head coach Scott Frost and company added a scholarship punter in Daniel Cerni this spring, filling one of two remaining openings. The final spot remains open, though NU is in pursuit of junior college defensive back Nadab Joseph out of Independence (Kansas) Community College. If the Huskers don’t land him, they could pursue another late addition, as they did with defensive lineman Keem Green last summer.
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Nebraska hasn’t stopped adding new players to the roster, though. In fact, the program has managed to find some interesting pieces with short and long-term intrigue without spending scholarships.
This, in some ways, has been the offseason of the Division I walk-on transfer.
Since last season ended, Nebraska has added five players who were on scholarship at other Division I schools. Each of them is set to begin his Husker career as a walk-on: Colorado State offensive lineman Nouredin Nouili, LSU kicker Connor Culp, South Dakota wide receiver Levi Falck, Arizona State tight end Jared Bubak and, most recently, Iowa offensive lineman Ezra Miller.
Since Frost was hired, the Huskers have put an emphasis on walk-ons and taken big classes of them out of high school in each recruiting class. It will take years before there’s a consistent average known about how many of those players, overwhelmingly from the state, turn into true contributors. Right now, sophomore linebacker Luke Reimer looks on track to be a real factor and NU is high on incoming wide receiver Ty Hahn. Trent Hixson won a scholarship and a starting job, though he predated Frost’s staff. He’s a model, though, for how a lineman here and there could develop and turn into a contributor.
These five transfers, though, should be viewed perhaps in a somewhat different light. Three of them — Culp, Falck and Bubak — are graduate transfers. That’s not necessarily to say they will be guaranteed contributors, but they are coming to Lincoln for an opportunity.
Bubak is a Lincoln native and jumped at the chance to play his final season in his hometown. Culp had the place-kicking job at LSU and then lost it in consecutive years to kickers who pushed for All-American-type status and has a great chance to win the job in Lincoln. Falck showed himself a productive player at the FCS level and will have a chance to compete for a role with a Big Ten program.
While it’s easiest to project a role for Culp — the place-kicking job is wide open and, though he hasn’t held a starting job since 2017, he has the most Division I kicking experience on the roster going into preseason camp — the most intriguing additions are Nouili and Miller because of their youth.
Both were freshmen in 2019. Nouili was a former German exchange student at Norris who picked up recruiting interest during his senior season and eventually picked Colorado State over several FCS options and a walk-on spot at Nebraska. Then he won a starting job as a true freshman and appeared in seven games before transferring after the season.
Miller was a four-star prospect who cheered for Iowa his whole life and verbally pledged all the way back in April 2017. He signed and redshirted and then medically retired, eventually saying he stepped away from the game because of struggles with anxiety and depression.
Both will have to sit a year without an NCAA waiver and both would have three years of eligibility remaining beginning in 2021.
Both, though, will also have ample opportunity to earn a scholarship during their time in Lincoln, and that’s a key to the conversation.
The NCAA quietly tweaked a rule in the past two years that allows walk-ons to be placed on scholarship after one year without counting toward a 25-man class limit. Previously, walk-ons had to wait two years.
So Nouili and Miller — along with regular walk-ons such as Reimer, Hahn and others — could theoretically be multi-year scholarship players at Nebraska if they earn a spot.
This, of course, presents more wrinkles for a coaching staff to manage in terms of space, but the rate of transfers in college football is making keeping a full roster more and more difficult. Schools don’t pick up extra room beyond 25 new scholarships per class when players transfer out. If there’s a wave of attrition, that can cause roster holes.
Nebraska, for example, has had 14 scholarship players transfer this offseason. Not many of them were sure bets to contribute in 2020 and beyond, but that’s still more than 15% of the available scholarships. Adding five Division I walk-on transfers doesn’t fully fill that void numberswise, but in this instance, it looks like a group that could push for playing time and maybe add depth down the road along the offensive front line.
The latest updates from the Nebraska football recruiting trail
Campus and in-home visits are on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. But recruiting isn't necessarily slowing down. Here's the latest from the Huskers.Â
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