Transfer QB target emerging for Nebraska football, plus a new commitment and more

Hey, Husker fans

Welcome to another episode of the Husker Big Red podcast with Chris Peterson and Danny Gillette

As always, go Big Red. Good morning, Husker fans

Welcome back to the Husker Big Red YouTube channel. Like I said, Chris Peterson

And joining me is Danny. How you doing on this Monday morning

There's never a shortage. of news in Lincoln, Nebraska, or surrounding the Nebraska Cornhuskers anything

And that's what I'm finding out. That's what I've been finding out over the past four years

But I'm doing good. A lot of news this weekend. And it seems like the transfer portal quarterback targets are starting to come into focus a little bit here

Yeah, so the transfer portal officially opened today on Monday. so it's going to be a bit of a wild ride

You know, Kyle McCord actually just entered the transfer portal from Ohio State. So, you know, talking about quarterbacks, that's another one that's going to be, you know, in the mix

Brian Day wasted no time with Kyle McCord. Yeah, it's crazy. I don't blame him

I mean, we'll see. But, I mean, if you look at it, I mean, hell, I would take Kyle McCord and in half a heartbeat

He can come play in Lincoln next year because, like, you look at his numbers, man. He had a pretty good season this year

So, I mean, yeah. You take away Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka, Buka, then what do his numbers look like

Because we don't have those in Lincoln. I'll tell you that. We don't have those types of wide receivers

I mean, I agree, but I still think Kyle McCord, Nebraska, I'll just say this

Nebraska would be lucky to get Kyle McCord, a quarterback as good as him on their roster next year

So we'll see. In terms of that, you know, one thing that has happened, Nebraska is visited Will Howard over the weekend

weekend, which I find still interesting since the transfer portal not even officially open

I don't know how coaches can I do that. But regardless, Lincoln Riley paid him a visit

This is according to Kansas State site on three. And Miami and Wisconsin or two other teams in the mix

So he's ranked right now. Will Howard is the number two player in the On3.com Transfer Portal rankings

I'm assuming that's going to change, though, because some other big names are about to hit, like Kyle McCord

I would think I would be ranked above Will Howard, honestly. Yeah. But anyway, what do you think about Nebraska's chances of landing, Will Howard

I mean, is that realistic? Is it, you know, are they going to be able to pony up the money to get this guy

Is it realistic? I'm not sure because you have USC and you have Miami also in the picture

And those are two schools that, quite frankly, can sell things a bit more

than Nebraska can at the moment. USC is obviously the program that I'm most worried about

because say what you want about Lincoln Riley as a head coach, but he does have a good history of developing quarterbacks

And, you know, we'll have to see if Nebraska will be able to, you know

sell the program and pony up enough cash, quite frankly, in order to get Howard

You know, I saw comments on some of our articles the other day saying that

you know, is this the best that we can get? Well, Will Howard is a pretty good quarterback

I was just watching some of his film yesterday, as a matter of fact

He can stand in the pocket. He can make the deep throws

He's also, you know, he's, you know, deep throws are only one facet of his game

He's very good at the intermediate throws as well. And he makes good decisions with the football

So it's no surprise that, you know, as of this taping, he's the number two quarterback

in their number two player, excuse me, in the Transva Portal rankings

At the very least, you know, the visit over the weekend shows me that Nebraska is not wasting

any time in trying to find a TransC portal quarterback. And, you know, that certainly counts for something, especially when, quite frankly

you're going to be, you know, recruiting against the big dogs. Yeah, it will be interesting, too, to, you know, like I said last week, I mean, there's going to be

more guys, you know, I would expect some. Georgia quarterbacks to be in the transfer portal, you know, probably this week

For any of those guys. Yeah, because they're not in the playoff this week

So, you know, we'll see how that, how that plays out. But there's going to be some other, you know, some other guys that enter into the portal eventually

I think Malik Murphy from Texas is probably going to go unless, you know, or Arch Manning

I mean, one of the, I doubt Arch Manning's going to, but one of those guys, it would be pretty wild to me if Arch Manning is going to sit for another year behind Quinn Ewers down in Texas

but who knows that's i you know that might be how it works out um i do think that it's silly that

people are saying like is will how are the best we can get i think he would be perfect for this year

because he's he's got one year left so it doesn't doesn't mess up anything with daniel

who the coach who matt rule and i believe it was marcus satirfield just to do the in-home

visit with um this weekend so that that was good to see just to make sure that you know you got

that commitment locked up here with two weeks to go um but you know i i just think that how are

would be great because he's not, you know, he's not a long-term threat to Daniel Kalen. Kaelen can learn under him and then potentially, you know, he could be ready during next season

And I do think that if Nebraska brought in Will Howard, I do think that Chubba Purdy would be gone

That's unfortunately, that's how it works out. I mean, I hope that Chubbapurdy would stay and compete, you know, because he would still have eligibility

But most likely, I think he would probably be gone. But, you know, that's just kind of how it works out

I wouldn't blame him for leaving me at all. I mean, he's had to sit behind, you know, Logan Smothers and Casey

Thompson and now, you know, Jeff Sims and Heinrich Kharberg, who both kind of fell off at one

point or another during the season, so I wouldn't blame him at all for transferring. But, you know, I mean, at this point, we have to win, and we have to at least make a bowl game

And, you know, we need help at the quarterback position. And I think Howard would be a good fit

We have to see you watch As soon as we done recording this there going to be a ton of other big name quarterbacks in the transfer portal But as of right now I would love Will Howard and Lincoln

I hadn't really watched any tape of him until yesterday. And I was really impressed

It was also worth noting that Kansas State ran with him a lot when the Wildcats got into the red zone

And he had, I believe it was nine rushing kids. touchdowns, either eight or nine rushing touchdowns on the year, and a lot of those were just, you know

design quarterback runs into the end zone. So he's not completely a pocket passer. He can move a little

bit when necessary, and that's always a good thing to have in your back pocket, you know

no matter what type of quarterback you are. Yeah, 19 career touchdown, rushing touchdowns for

Will Howard has two seasons with over 350 rushing yards. So he is a dual, he is a dual threat

but he throws the football. I think he completed 64% of his passes last year

So he is a high-level passer. He's developed over the course of his career

And yeah, he would be a good option. But there's a lot of other, you know, we've talked about Blake Shapen

I brought up M.J. Morris at Hustierbigred.com. I know he's a younger guy, but I think he would be, you know

if some of the top targets don't, you know, work out, I think he would be a good guy to land at some point

I just think Nebraska needs a quarterback from the transfer portal that can be that started somewhere else

I don't want somebody, you know, I mean, I guess you could make an exception maybe if it was like Brock Vandergriff or something like Georgia

But outside of someone like that, I would like somebody that's at least, you know, started some games

I know M.J. Morris hasn't started a lot. But, you know, when I was looking at his numbers, I mean, he's got like 200 career pass

He's got 190 career pass attempts and 14 touchdowns. Chabapurdy in his Nebraska career, or I mean, in his entire career, I think he has like 169 passes and he has six touchdowns

So, I mean, even just looking at those two players, like M.J. Morris playing at North Carolina State is throwing a touchdown like, you know, throwing a lot more touchdowns per pass attempt than Chubbapurdy

So I do think when you look at guys like that, there is potential

But I do, I would like to see him get Will Howard because I think he's the kind of guy that could get this team to winning

eight or nine games next year. And truth be told, I am still the conductor of the Grayson McCall train

So I would like to see him maybe in Lincoln. And actually, we may get a chance to see him in a couple weeks as the Hawaii Bowl will be on ESPN on December 23rd at 1030

I might stay up to watch that just to see, you know, in live game action, you know, what McCall is like

And, you know, the thing that I honestly like about McCall is, you know, last year, 2020

2020, 23 was a bit of an outlier. He had 10 touchdowns at six interceptions, but overall, you know

you look at his, you know, 22 numbers, 24 touchdowns, two interceptions, 27 touchdowns

three interceptions in 2021. And then in 2020, 26 touchdowns and three interceptions. So one of our

biggest problems was interceptions and, you know, overall holding on the football. You know

McCall has, you know, historically shown that he can take care of the ball. And, you know, on top of that, he, you know, he's never had a completion percentage below 65% in his career

So that, that kind of checks all the boxes for me as the type of quarterback I want, somebody who's, you know, accurate, somebody who limits the interceptions and the turnovers

And, you know, somebody, I mean, this is another good one to throw here

you know, he averaged 8.6 yards per pass in 2023, 9.1 in 2022, and 11.9, 2021, 10 yards per pass in 2020, all to say he can get the ball down the field as well

So, I mean, he kind of checks all the boxes for me, you know, and what I would want for a quarterback for Nebraska moving forward

Yeah, I like Grayson McCall, too. He's definitely in my, you know, if I probably have the top three of veteran, you know

guys that I think it's like realistic that would be a good fit I'd say will Howard

um grace and mccall and Blake Shepin probably are my top three um I think all those guys

would be an upgrade um and would give Nebraska just some stability at the position which

they just didn't have this year um I would say my top three is about the same too except maybe

at three I'd put Riley Leonard but I mean we're pretty much on the same page for

the transfer quarterbacks because I would really like Leonard honestly I liked him at Duke

so he wouldn't be a bad ad in my opinion either. Yeah, we'll see if that changes if he allows, if he talks to other teams because he first, when he went in there

he had a no contact designation so you couldn't even contact him. But we'll see if that changes

At any rate, to switch over to high school recruiting here, moving along on, I can't believe

this was Saturday morning, I think, that C.J. Simon committed. At 2025

Yeah, 2025 recruit out of Oklahoma. Oklahoma, six foot, about 160 pounds

He is coming to Nebraska as a receiver. Kind of a slot receiver type reminds me a lot of Billy Kemp

When I actually watch this kid's highlights, you know, sorry for the

but he reminds me of AJ Hemming, the guy that plays for Northwestern now. He used to play for Michigan, return guy, slot guy

He's built like a, because he does play some running back too. He does

So he's built a little thicker. And, I mean, I would like to see him, you know

grow out a little bit more, but I think he's not ranked right now, but I believe that he will be

And I think that this is going to be a guy that, again, Nebraska is getting in early and, you know

that hurt with some other guys like Carlin Jones and Kiwan Lacey. But I feel like this is going to be a similar situation where some, you know, because he visited Oklahoma and Notre Dame have been talking to him that haven't offered

But I think his offer sheet is going to grow and he'll definitely be ranked at some point here

So like this commitment for Nebraska, you know, good play. player out of the state. And I like that, you know, Garrett McGuire, you know, lands another talented

kid Absolutely And I always say I would rather land these kids and then have them decommit than to not try at all And you know this is another classic case as you mentioned of you know recruiting a kid and getting a kid to commit before you know his profile really blows up

And it is going to really blow up. And quite honestly, Nebraska's kind of been, you know, heavily involved in his recruitment

over the past year or half a year. So he first took a visit on April 15th and then he took another visit on April 22nd

and he visited on September 16th as well. So this wasn't just a commitment out of the blue

Nebraska had been doing their homework on Simon. And, you know, I hope he stays committed in the recruiting world

2025 is a long way away. But I like the commitment initially

I like that Garrett McGuire. I mean, just off the top of my head, he's landed C.J. Simon, Isaiah McMorris

Daveon Hall, and a couple others. So he, so McGuire is definitely proving his worth

on the recruiting trail as well. And, you know, I think Simon, Simon will add another explosive body to what is going to be a very promising and talented wide receiver room

Yeah, and the 2025 class, it's the fourth commitment, ranked 18th early right now with, you know, Caden, Vermas and Tyson Terry

I'm also being in that mixed, Conner Booth. So some nice guys there, a good start for that class

And, you know, I like where Nebraska sits there. good commitment on that front

You know, I think Alex Mansky, obviously, is the guy I'm looking at in 2025, you know, talking

about quarterbacks. I believe that they were, the coaching staff visited him again

So that's a big name to watch. And, yeah, besides that, I mean, really in recruiting, you know, there's some 2024 guys to look

at Lamar Radcliffe, you know, trying to think of Trey Richardson, you know, Damand Demas is another

name that's kind of still out there. return guys. That's another thing, though, about C.J. Simon, is return guy. He can return kicks

So that is something Nebraska definitely is trying to address, which is they do need to get a dynamic return guy because that part of the game wasn't good enough this year, which didn't help when Ramir got hurt either

But I like this commitment. And again, I think, you know, as much as Nebraska fans want this team to jump into the transfer portal, I think that that's going to be limited

I think they're going to only add a few guys in the portal. And they're just going to continue to. to invest in high school recruiting and development

I think that's the right way to go long term. Which makes me wonder if that $1 million donation for recruiting will go to a quarterback

for this year or something like that. It's not like they're necessarily going to spread it around a ton to get transfer portal guys

I think. But we'll see. I mean, you know, this 2025 class is setting up nicely

I'm most excited about Tyson Terry, but I like all the commitments in the class

And speaking of Terry, you saw, you know, how excited he was that Tony White was returning

So that's always a good sign, too. And I know that we're all excited for that news

And, you know, I think this class, I think this 2025 class is going to be another strong one

And I like that the foundation of the class is already being built

It started being built really around April. And hopefully they can continue to add to it

So now let's talk about yesterday. It was a rough day for Nebraska basketball, 89 to 60

Creighton just went off. I think they made 14 three-pointers, a lot in the first half

Baylor, Shireman, or whatever the hell his name is. They left him wide. Nebraska apparently didn't know his name either because they left him

wide open continuously in the first half. Their best shooter drove me crazy

And, yeah, they did that run at the end of the first half. They kind of fell apart

they got the technical foul, you know, like the case they hit that three, and then they come down and they foul on the three, and then they give them five, you know, free throws. And they just never recovered from that. So what, what did you, what were your takeaways from this beat down by Creighton

shit i wish we had baler shireman that was my takeaway and uh because he was because he was in our uh he was in

we were in his final group last may and then he went to Creighton and of course he went bananas and he

was all excited i wasn't excited i kind of honestly started uh hanging up the christmas decorations midway

through the second half but um yeah no it was just a tough it was just a tough night um you know

and they even mentioned it on the broadcast guest, you know, the Huskers collapsed a lot inside. And I don't know if that was the best

plan of attack against Creighton because as soon as they collapsed inside, it just allowed their

shooters, you know, wide open looks. And by the time Nebraska realized it, you know, Baylor

Shireman had already hit, you know, five three-pointers. And they were late getting back to the

top shooters. So it was just a rough defensive night. You know, people want to say, ooh, you know

this is what you get when you don't play a cupcake. I mean, sure there were some easy games at the beginning of the schedule

but, you know, a game like Oregon State or Duques, I mean

they're not exactly cupcakes either. And let's not undersell Creighton here. They were, what, the number eight team in the

or number 10 team in the country, if I'm not mistaken? Number 15 in the AP poll, but, yeah, they were in the top 10 recently

So they're good. And, you know, I think, I think it's just, it makes me happy that we won last year

but Sunday was a little bit rough, and, you know, it just seemed like they couldn't stop the three

Yeah, it was, you know, it was just weird to me because they played so well offensively

Just that the communication issues are, I'm not sure what happened, but too many uncontested

you know, three, you know, if you're running at a guy for a three point shot, that's basically an

uncontested three and you just can't do that. And then you only make two, three-pointers on the offensive end

I thought they had the old from three. Yeah. And, you know, even if they didn't even shoot the ball well on two, on two-point shots

which I thought was going to be a real key to the game because, you know, that

I mean, basically if you're going to win, teams that win college basketball games

they really good two percentage They have good two percentage field goal you know percentage on offense and you know really solid two percentage defense And Nebraska has been really solid in both two and three percentage defense

But I think yesterday they shot like 48 percent on their two-point attempts

You know, like they really tried to work it inside. Gary, Rinkman, you know, he just didn't quite work out

And then it kind of snowballed on the other end. So, you know, I do think that

I mean, I think I wrote, you know, it somewhat invalidates the start a little bit, the 7-0 start

just because they got beat so badly. And I think, you know, Fred was talking about, like, in the NET rankings and things like that

how margin of victory last year, you know, really hurt them. And then you come out and lose by 30 points at home in your first quad one game

So it's not a great look, but, you know, they've got two big 10 games this week and then Kansas State

So the next three games, like, they don't have time to, you know, to pout about this

They got to play Minnesota on, I think it's Wednesday night. I believe so, yeah

So, you know, that's not going to be, I mean, Minnesota has struggled, but last year that game went to overtime

And then you have Michigan State, you know, next Sunday, and then a week off before you play at Kansas State

So, I mean, three, you know, the bottom line is they just got to find a way to win

you know, at least one of these games. But I would say, you know, it would be great if they could find a way to win one of these two

conference games and then win that game against Kansas State. but that's going to be a big ass with that one being on the road

Yeah, it definitely is. And, you know, I think this, we had an easier month of November

I think this month of December is really going to test the program here

And we'll see what happens. But, you know, I think at the same time, this is a good test for conference play

which is honestly coming up, coming up, well, I mean, we're already playing Minnesota

But I mean, like, the winter conference slate, you know, It's coming up pretty quick

I can't believe I'm even saying that, but time is flying. And so I think even if they lose, these tough games will prepare them for the winter conference slate coming up, quite honestly, pretty shortly

Yeah, it's crazy how quickly things come up. And, you know, you got 20 big 10 games

So, I mean, that's going to be, you know, they got to win about 10 big 10 games

I really believe that. Yeah, and after, you know, Kansas State, you got North Dakota

and looks like South Carolina. So, I mean, really. That's not going to be easy either

Those two are uneasy. So five more, five games in the month of December

Let's see. So, yeah, three non-conference games. That's left. That's it. That's all the Huskers have left

So be important to, you know, try to win as many of those as possible

And, you know, because I think that 20, you know, if you can get to about 20 wins, Danny Ney, when he was the head coach back here back about 30 years ago

used to talk about, you know, if you get to 20 wins, that used to be kind of the benchmark

for the NCAA tournament. It's not always there anymore, but I feel like if this team gets

about 20 wins, they're going to have a good opportunity to make the NCAA tournament

Yeah, and I would do wonders for recruiting and, you know, for the job security of Fred

Oiburg. I mean, you know, I think this is the most talented team he's had since he's been

in Lincoln, and it would just be a shame to waste it. Now, of course, I feel like we maybe would have

one, you know, a little bit more had the injuries not occurred, you know, last season

but, you know, at the same time, you know, you just got to play the hand of your dealt

I think Nebraska basketball, you know, I think 20s still an achievable goal

but, you know, Sunday's game was definitely a reality check. And then before we wrap up here, let's touch on the volleyball team, still alive

advancing to the Sweet 16. They swept Long Island on Friday, swept Missouri on Saturday

day. They will be playing Georgia Tech next on Friday, I believe. And so kind of interesting because

Georgia Tech upset Florida. We almost, it was almost going to be in a rematch, not a rematch, but Merritt

Beeson, one of Nebraska's top players was going to be facing her old school in Florida. But they

were knocked off by Georgia Tech, who's ranked 12th in the country. So they're coming into Lincoln

and then I believe it's also Kentucky and Arkansas, the other two teams. So the Huskers have two more

games at home this Friday and Saturday to try to reach the final four

And hopefully, you know, they can keep it rolling. But they were, they were pretty, you know, pretty locked down last weekend

There was no, you know, they didn't look ahead. They hit the ball really well. Defense was good

So, you know, it's a, they're a tough team to beat, especially, you know, at home

And, you know, and, you know, Nebraska has three of the 24 remaining teams in the Division

1 and Division 2 volleyball. tournaments. So that's just a little over 12%. And, you know, it's remarkable the consistency

You talk about, you know, some of the other programs here that may not be as consistent, but

you know, they're advancing to their 12th consecutive suite 16 and, you know, a 30 and one overall

record. And, you know, it's just the machine keeps on rolling for Nebraska volleyball. And, you know

it's been an incredible year starting from, you know, opening at Memorial Stadium and now

and now it's trophy season, as the kids say. And I think Nebraska volleyball should be able to

make some noise here over the next couple days. And yeah, really, you know, bright future too with

you know, Harper Murray, Berg and Riley and Andy Jackson all freshmen, you know, Merritt Beeson

just a junior. So a lot of, you know, if they can win this championship this year, there's no reason

to think they can't have a good shot at winning again next year. So let's see what happens

First things first, though, got to get to the got to get through this weekend to the final four. So that's one thing to look forward to

And I guess the other thing, you guys, is just watch the transfer portal. Hopefully there won't be too many Nebraska guys jumping in there

But there's going to be a lot of news here over the next week. So make sure that you guys are hitting a subscribe button if you haven't already

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