Appreciate the sunshine pumping... and I In no way mean that as a jab. I for one would like to go into every spring with cautious optimism. It’s miserable not to!Shared much of the following in a private conversation and thought that I would bring a little optimism to the main board. It’s been a quite a long time since I started a thread. Maybe it’s the 80 degree weather we’ll see today or maybe seeing my brother in law plant corn this week (that brings me back to my roots!) or perhaps it was simply our recent Easter service that sparked some waive of optimism to roll away the stone that some seem to want to shove in front of the Husker Football tomb.
There has been a lot of discussion about our youth and transfer portal losses that got me to look at @TheOneders scholarship #s thread – not at who we lost, but rather who we’ve added from the transfer portal. In some ways, I think we are in really, really good shape for #s and experience in the upcoming season & beyond ’21.
Yes, current roster includes just 6 scholarship seniors (including one grad transfer – Toure) … all expected to be starters; and, roster includes 17 scholarship juniors (including two transfers – Kolarevic & Martin) … my expectation is that at least 7 of the juniors project as starters + more in the 2 deep / rotational depth. That really seems to bode well for proportioned depth through the classes. In ’22, we’ll lose the six seniors and probably CTB and probably have ~ 15 returning starters in '22. Projecting a little deeper, I can see another 15 returning starters for ’23 too.
What is also intriguing is that our incoming transfers (both scholarship & walk-ons) in will make up about 20% of our core upper classmen (counting Nouili in that group from below).
For the transfers, are these fair expectations or over-stated ‘wishes’ for those transfers?
Samori Toure (WR … grad transfer from Montana) … starter with very, high expectations
Markese Stepp (RB ... transfer from USC) ... starter with high expectations ... can he become Devine Ozigbo 2.0? Is it coincidence that Stepp picked up jersey #30 … thinking back to Mike Rozier and Ahman Green who wore that # well!
Oliver Martin (Junior WR Walk-on … transfer via Michigan and Iowa) … 2020 GP: 5; Games Started: 4; 5 receptions / 63 yards … expect to be part of WR rotation with more production than 2020
Chris Kolarevic (Junior LB transfer from UNI) … expect solid contributor & an integral part of the ILB rotation
Nouredin Nouili (Sophomore OL Walk-on … transfer from CSU) … 2020 … made travel roster on 4 games w/o any participation … expect he’ll be in the 2 deep roster for OL and will see considerable action
Levi Falck (WR … grad transfer from South Dakota) … 2020 GP: 8; Games Started: 4; 13 receptions / 122 yards / 1 TD … expect to be part of WR rotation with more production than 2020
Finally, there is Ezra Miller (Freshman OL transfer from Iowa) … not sure what to make of his contributions this season, but there has been nice press on the young man this past week though.
It certainly looks like these 7 transfers can make an appreciable difference in the upcoming season.
A few more things that I’m optimistic about for this season …
First, Blackshirts return almost entire two deep roster and added the UNI transfer (Kolarevic) to the mix. Not going to project them to be equal to ’09 Blackshirts, but they certainly have the making for a top 25 defense.
Second, reported emphasis on special teams as first session of the practice day is simply music to my ears.
Offensively, I think the team’s strength lies in the trenches with the OL and TE position group. Emphasis on running the ball & addition of Stepp suits this ‘run the dang ball’ guy just fine.
Peace … and, GBR!
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