SPECIAL TEAMS
With Nebraska’s roster mostly settled barring summer additions or attrition, Hail Varsity has been running through the team and breaking it down position-by-position in terms of scholarship and walk-on players.
We’ve already covered offense and defense, which leaves special teams and an overall round-up of where Nebraska stands from a roster standpoint.
Place Kickers (5)
Walk-on (5): Connor Culp (sixth-year senior), Chase Contreraz (third-year sophomore), Gabe Heins (third-year freshman), Tyler Crawford (second-year freshman), Kelen Meyer (first-year freshman)
Departures (1): Ryan Novosel (walk-on)
Punters (3)
Scholarship (1): Daniel Cerni (second-year freshman)
Walk-on (2): William Przystup (fourth-year sophomore), Grant Detlefsen (third-year freshman)
Departures (0): none
Long Snapper (4)
Walk-on (4): Brig Banks (fifth-year junior), Cade Mueller (fourth-year sophomore), Cameron piper (fourth-year sophomore), Camden Witucki (second-year freshman)
Departures (0): none
Overview (12)
Scholarship: 1
Walk-on: 11
CLASS BREAKDOWN
- Sixth-year senior: 8 (6 scholarship, 2 walk-on)
- Fifth-year junior: 15 (11 scholarship, 4 walk-on)
- Fourth-year junior: 6 (5 scholarship, 1 walk-on)
- Fourth-year sophomore: 21 (7 scholarship, 14 walk-on)
- Third-year sophomore: 5 (3 scholarship, 2 walk-on)
- Third-year freshman: 32 (16 scholarship, 16 walk-on)
- Second-year freshman: 31 (15 scholarship, 16 walk-on)
- First-year freshman: 40 (21 scholarship. 19 walk-on)
- Total: 158 (84 scholarship, 74 walk-on)
In total, by eligibility Nebraska has eight seniors, 21 juniors, 26 sophomores and 103 (!!!) freshmen.
Five of the six scholarship sixth-year seniors don’t count towards the 85-scholarship limit, which means Nebraska currently has up to six open scholarships to give out. However, Nebraska can only use two of them to bring in players from outside the program as part of its 2021 class because of the 25-player limit; any others would go to walk-ons already in the program.
Nebraska has 21 juniors who would normally be entering their senior year this season if not for the COVID-19 pandemic, 15 of which are heading into their fifth year of college. They’ll face the same decision this year’s seniors did, whether to return for another year or move on to the next stage of their lives.
The freezing of eligibility and the new one-time free transfer rule is going to make roster management pretty crazy for coaches over the next three years until all the pandemic players cycle through and the transfer portal settles down somewhat.
Jacob Padilla has been writing for Hail Varsity since 2015. He covers football, volleyball men’s basketball and prep sports. He also co-hosts the Nebraska Preps Postgame and Nebraska Shootaround podcasts for the Hurrdat Media and Hail Varsity podcast networks. His love of basketball can best be described as an obsession and if you need to find him, he’s probably in a gym somewhere watching, coaching or playing hoops.
