Husker Extra Podcast: Updating Nebraska’s AD search and draft season for NU’s Banton, Schwellenbach
As the countdown to the beginning of Nebraska’s preseason camp continues, the Journal Star is counting down its annual list of the 30 Most Intriguing Huskers.
The list, as always, is not about the 30 best players or the 30 most important players, but is based instead purely on intrigue. We’ll cover breakout candidates, new faces, old heads and more. The list tends to skew toward youth and inexperience because, well, those types of players are intriguing. But there are more than a few regulars, too.
No. 30: Thomas Fidone, tight end, freshman
No. 29: Will Nixon, wide receiver, freshman
No. 28: Noa Pola-Gates, defensive back, redshirt freshman
No. 27: Sevion Morrison, running back, freshman
No. 26: Bryce Benhart, right tackle, redshirt freshman
No. 25: Myles Farmer, safety, redshirt freshman
No. 24: Casey Rogers, defensive lineman, sophomore
No. 23: Oliver Martin, wide receiver, junior
No. 22: Nash Hutmacher, defensive lineman, freshman
No. 21: Heinrich Haarberg, quarterback, freshman
No. 20: OLB Javin Wright, rfr.
Last fall, Wright was on the verge of earning some run in Nebraska’s secondary when he suffered a season-ending knee injury during camp.
A frustrating outcome for a young player NU coaches are high on, no doubt, but Wright came back and impressed again this spring despite doing it mostly at a new position.
Wright is a unique player on the roster because he possesses a defensive back’s skill set with the frame (6-foot-4 and 220 pounds) of a pass rusher. As it turns out, defensive coordinator Erik Chinander and company have a position for just that type of player. Wright and freshman Isaac Gifford – if there were one player on the roster who didn’t make this list but perhaps should have, it might be Gifford – started grooming this spring to back up senior JoJo Domann in the outside linebacker/nickel spot that Domann has played very well the past two years.
Wright and Domann are much different players in frame, but both feel good about their ability to run with receivers and play in coverage. Wright put that on display during an open April practice when he ran with slot receiver Samori Toure up the middle of the field and made a leaping, twisting, one-handed interception.
Domann played every defensive snap over eight games in 2020. That’s a lot to ask or expect over a full-length campaign this fall, meaning Wright and Gifford are likely going to get at least some opportunity to play.
What will be particularly interesting to watch with Wright is the development in all of the other areas required of second-level players like setting the edge, rushing the passer and holding up at the point of attack.
– Parker Gabriel
