The buzz of the opening day of the early signing period has quieted, but Nebraska’s 2019 class is still growing.
On Thursday, Iowa Western Community College center Joshua Wegener announced he would walk on at Nebraska.
https://twitter.com/Josh_Wegener52/status/1075819371774251008
The 6-foot-2, 280-pound, Iowa product played two seasons for the Reivers and lost a total of two games. He played both on the offensive and defensive lines and comes to Lincoln as the top-rated JUCO center in the country, according to Rivals.
Nebraska signed 23 scholarship players Wednesday (two JUCO guys, Desmond Bland and Dedrick Mills, will wait until February for academics) and none were centers. Bland could very well start his Husker career at center but until he’s in the boat, Nebraska most likely wouldn’t rely on that.
There will be an opportunity for Wegener.
Over the past two seasons, Nebraska has used three different centers and all three are gone. Last year, Cole Conrad opened play as the starting center but injuries forced Tanner Farmer from right guard to center. Farmer finished out the season the starter with Conrad backing him up.
With both gone, Nebraska’s center options get interesting. Redshirt freshman Cam Jurgens arrived on campus with the 2018 class as a tight end but moved inside to center midway through the year. Head coach Scott Frost has said on multiple occasions he sees a bright future at the spot for one of Nebraska’s more talented athletes.
But a foot injury meant Jurgens played in only one game. Worse, it kept him off the practice field and lost him valuable reps at center.
Behind Jurgens, Nebraska has redshirt freshman Will Farniok. Farniok could play center or guard and last year Nebraska used him as a fourth center behind Farmer, Conrad and Hunter Miller.
Miller, another walk-on, will be a third-year sophomore in 2019 with only two games of experience under his belt.
As long as Jurgens is healthy enough to go in the spring, he figures to be a guy Nebraska will give every opportunity to win the job. Wegener won’t have Big Ten experience but he’ll have playing experience and that might give him a shot at earning playing time.
Derek is a newbie on the Hail Varsity staff covering Husker athletics. In college, he was best known as ‘that guy from Twitter.’ He has covered a Sugar Bowl, a tennis national championship and almost everything in between (except an NCAA men’s basketball tournament game… *tears*). In his spare time, he can be found arguing with literally anyone about sports.
