As the start of Nebraska spring football creeps closer —ÌýNU's first practice is March 9 —Ìýthe Journal Star is looking at Husker underclassmen who face particularly critical junctures. Spring is important for every player — no quarterbacks are on this list, for example, but the coming weeks will be an early litmus test of whether anybody can push Adrian Martinez for the starting job — but maybe particularly so for these guys.
This series will run in print Tuesday through Sunday and we'll start a new set — redshirts to watch — next week.
Tuesday: Junior outside linebacker Caleb Tannor
Thursday: Junior wide receiver Jaevon McQuitty
Austin Allen and Kurt Rafdal, juniors, tight end
The Nebraska tight ends group returns everybody — and then some — ahead of the 2020 season, and that’s going to make for a deeply competitive room for position coach Sean Beckton.
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Linebacker Caleb Tannor opens a six-part series examiningÌýNebraska underclassmen at critical junctures with spring ball approaching.
Senior Jack Stoll and juniors Allen and Rafdal, the program's top trio going into 2019, are returning, but so is emerging redshirt freshman Chris Hickman. Most intriguing, perhaps: Junior Travis Vokolek comes off a redshirt season after transferring from Rutgers and sitting out last fall.
So, what does it mean for Allen and Rafdal? They are entering their fourth years and are going to have to fight for playing time.
Allen was ahead of Rafdal for all of 2019, starting four games and playing in all 12, while Rafdal was a reserve who appeared in six contests.
Allen, an Aurora native, was widely picked as a breakout-type candidate going into the fall, but he finished with just seven catches for 83 yards. None of the tight ends really got on track — Stoll led the way with 25 catches for 234 and the group’s lone touchdown of the year — which makes for a wide-open race this time around.
The staff is high on Hickman, who accelerated from not physically ready to play over the summer to a trusted H-Back and blocker by November. Vokolek, at 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds, is thought to be a potentially dynamic weapon.
So, where does that leave Allen and Rafdal? Not out of the picture, by any means, but everybody in the room is going to have to work hard to crack Beckton’s two-deep.