1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Will this be a big year in the portal for the Huskers?: December 29th, 11:25am

Episode Date: December 29, 2025

Austin and Jake what the transfer portal haul may entail for Nebraska FootballAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Back to one-on-one with D.P. Sponsored by the Downtown Lincoln Foundation on 93-7, the ticket. We are back here with one-on-one with DPP, again on a flight down to Las Vegas to take in some of the Nebraska, Utah game, which will be happening here in just a few days. Of course, the last day of the year, the last day of the year for Husker football as well. Then you will jump around and not much time to take a breath because the transfer portal will open shortly after that. In fact, on Friday, it's this week. Are we prepared for the transfer portal to open Austin?

Are we ever? I mean, it was it ever closed? Yeah, that's true. Is this transfer portal ever closed? I mean, either you're two feet in and you're one feet in. Yeah. One foot in. I'm new to this whole radio thing.

Yeah, I think Friday's going to be fascinating because the transfer portal for most people is going to overshadow maybe the biggest game of Fred Hoybrook's tenure, Nebraska, Michigan State, as long as Nebraska is able to handle business tomorrow. But the slew of announcements that we're going to get as the side enter the transfer portal is leaving its current program.

It's going to be an avalanche on social media. It's going to be crazy. Shout out to what Joe Tipton and Hayes Fawcett for all the great graphics work they're about to be paid for that's going to officially see the light of day coming up on on Friday. But yeah, Bach, I haven't really, you know, invested myself in Nebraska football in the transfer portal this much just because I don't think it's worth even projecting out, right? Nebraska hasn't played his bowl game yet. I'm sure that doesn't have

much of a determination. But I'm curious to see, especially from Nebraska standpoint, just how bad it gets or how good it is, right? Because we know Matt Rules made that the focus and we don't want guys going in the transfer portal. Trust us, stick it out here. You'll be a better player by the time you leave than you are right now. Some guys are going to leave. It's natural. I'm really curious to see who decides to stick around, maybe even based on the bowl game,

who maybe has a new lease on life or their career with the new staff and pieces of the staff that are in place. But there are always going to be those surprises for, oh, really? I thought this guy was in line to play next year. Friday's the day. We'll find out. We'll probably get some news dumps

and have a lot to talk about throughout the day on Friday, but also I think Monday, just have the weekend to see who is maybe held off a day or two to make their final determination. But yeah, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, it's going to hit like a train. Is there, you know, obviously so far, again, like you said, it's never really closed. It's, it is officially opening here on Friday, but it is, you know, you can still kind of make your intentions known. How have you felt so far? I mean, obviously, Dylan Ryola out there now, girlfriend images, you know, maybe you could come back. But outside of that,

I think Malcolm Hardsog, I don't think you've really necessarily taken a hit yet. I think Hardsog would have been a guy that you would account on to come back and help obviously made one of the biggest plays of the year against Cincinnati. But so I thought he would have been nice to have back in your secondary. But, you know, again, this is this is the time of the year. But I don't feel like any of the other departures have really hit Nebraska too much. No, I agree. Ryola, not unexpected.

Even Hartzog, to me, not unexpected. That's a young man that I think just... never got the fairest shake at Nebraska. Credit to him for being a good soldier and doing what was asked of him. But I think he did a lot of what was best for Nebraska, not necessarily for his career. That's fine.

Shout out to him as a team player. I'm just surprised he even stuck around this long. I would have thought even before last season. He might have been a guy to watch in the portal. Good player. We'll see if there's another level for him to reach or if he had maxed out maybe because of what Nebraska did, maybe in spite of what Nebraska did,

changing his positions. But really, Bach, I think the positions to watch for the transfer portal for me are going to be the lines, right? Skill position guys come and go. Defensive backs come and go. But to see this new coaching staff obviously headlined by Jeep Wade on the offensive side and then Roy Manning and potentially coach TBD on the defensive line,

those are the two groups with the most play for, I would say, for Nebraska in this Las Vegas bowl against Utah. any of those guys play well maybe they feel like they have their leg up maybe those guys don't click with the coaching staff right away at well this guy's not going to give me a chance and i hit the door seems like nebraska at least on the offensive line has some intriguing young talent defensive line tbd i know matt rule said hell on wheels coming into the year sure sure didn't manifest um so defensive line you want those guys just like the offensive line to stick around and build but nebraska didn't get much out of them maybe there's some oh just give them one more year maybe they're locked in a four-down base defense. Maybe they're not. But with those two positions, especially, that's where I'm going to be monitoring to see if any of those, especially the in-state names for Nebraska on the offensive line,

if those guys are willing to stick it out and stick around, or if Nebraska is going to have to really hit the transfer portal hard for offensive linemen, which is really tough to do. It's interesting, especially kind of what you mentioned there with kind of the younger defensive linemen. You know, we saw, you know, a Keona Davis jump in the portal in Nebraska went in there and got him back out And obviously, you know, whatever way you want to put it, the defensive line,

the, you know, the scheme, whatever, it didn't necessarily work out this year. And maybe you're kind of looking for some different bodies. But I'm going to be particularly interested there because I think there's still a lot of upside in some of that younger offensive line. I mean, obviously you're kind of waiting for Riley Van Popple to Pop. But Kate Shock, I think, kind of jumped onto the scene, Keona Dave, you know. But a lot of it was kind of early, like for both Petshock and Williams-Wanieri. It was like, okay, this was exciting.

at the beginning of the season, it did not get more exciting toward the end. I think that was part of, you know, why there's a little bit of frustration there. But, you know, just the point of, you know, Winery and Davis and Lynn Hart's going to be back, as we assume, right? And Pet Shag, I mean, Van Pobble,

you've got some names on the line to work with. Do you think they need to make it a major adjustment, get some big fish in the portal? It's going to be tough. Those guys aren't cheap out of the portal, right? You think about, you know, Gabe Moore. Is he able to stay healthy. Jalen George, I think he has another year coming from East Tennessee as well.

He knows he can be ready to go to Lafoto. You know, there's another name on the interior. Keona Davis had some flashes two seasons ago, didn't see nearly as many this year. When Ari, I thought still played well toward the end of the year, maybe not the counting stats, but I still thought, you know, teams were running away from him. I thought he held up. Sure, get more consistent, you know, setting the edge on his position. But that's a young guy in his first really, real extended action, I thought he was good, good enough for what Nebraska needed. Lenhart, to me, is just kind of a guy, kind of in that MJ Sherman camp for me where he's fine. He won't hurt you out there. Is he going to make a bunch of splash plays? We'll see.

I think a lot of it, though, does depend on, is there a leap in Keona Davis? And is there a leap in Riley Van Popple? It needs to be Van Popple. It can't be Van Fissel, if you will, for Nebraska, right? That's a guy that everyone points back to that fourth down stuff against Illinois. It's in him. it's got to be right or is it just that the best play of his career did he peak as a freshman i doubt it you like the athletic pedigree but man you'd like to see it pop sooner than later even in the tie robinson case right tie robinson came in as a a higher touted guy than riley van popple did but let's not forget that and it took tie robinson that long to become an impact player nebraska needs to make those guys impact players as sophomore so they can have really great years or really good years as

juniors and at least start testing the nfl draft water so if they go hey, you got a couple really good years out of this guy or if they say, man, look at the senior season that he's in store for. These guys can't start jumping on the scene as juniors and seniors. You know, I get it on the offensive line, maybe to an extent on the defensive line, but at that point, you're getting one and a half good years out of a player. You've got to get two and a half to three good years out of these guys sooner than later. Otherwise, it's going to start feeling like a revolving door. Well, it is interesting, especially with those positions in the modern day college football, transfer portal, everything that kind of goes on.

there because traditionally you do think you know up front especially on the big 10 okay you might you know might might get in there as a sophomore but you're really we're expecting you to start as a junior or senior and that sort of thing but the way coaches are feeling it now is like you better be able to play i mean you better be able to play today there's no promise of next year you know so i think there's just less kind of projects and in those positions in you know specifically again it just kind of takes some time so you've got to have a little bit of pay certainly development, a lot of room and, you know, a lot of work in the strength and conditioning department and all of that. But I think that's why you saw, like, they go out and get, you know,

some of some help from the transfer portal. I was like, okay, well, these guys did their kind of growing or hopefully from the outside. And so that's why I just think Nebraska is at such an interesting spot because there's a lot of young defensive linemen that should be kind of hitting that, that way, whether they have been starting. playing significantly for Nebraska, which a lot of them have been or not, it's kind of the time to turn it on. And yet a lot of people are going to point to the transfer portal and say that would be one of the top needs based on the fact that Nebraska really struggled with

rushing defense. And again, how much of that was scheme? How much of that was linebackers filling where they need to do? Obviously setting the edge was a problem. How much of that again is it's partially scheme? You have like a 220 pound linebacker blitzing off the edge. That's not going to help as much as. having, you know, a bigger defensive end.

And so I think, especially, you know, I think a lot of those pieces can work. I think what they are going to need, in my mind, is if you're going to go back to a four-man front, get a big space here. They don't have, you know, you talked about Thai. They don't have a Nash. You know, you don't have in Thai got about as big as Nash.

But, you know, you don't have like a 300 plus pound, you know, a 320-pound guy in there to kind of plug that whole record. Is that the vision for like Asua Lafoto, potentially? maybe George is maybe an undersized one of those I'm curious to see if he thinks he fits in the the four down as opposed to the three down I'm trying to scroll through the defensive line here if it pulls up so I mean Lefoteux 3-300

I think you can work with that in the middle Van Popple 6-5-295 maybe a little too tall for my liking in the middle but is one of the two of them maybe you can make it work Judy's obviously gone Mason Goldman probably more an edge Dylan Parrott 6-3-20 maybe maybe tall but at least has the the heft for it um landon davidson is a redshirt freshman 64

305 ashton murphy is that an edge or is that an interior guy i think that that remains to be seen huffkin probably more on on the exterior it's six seven um malcolm simpson is a freshman six three can he beef up to 300 and be one of those guys there in the middle tyson terry coming off injury you know as a freshman coming off injury that's probably going to be tough but can he start working his way into the rotation next year. I think if you can get LaFoto, Terry, and one other guy, you have something there to work with. I mean, even Jalen George will be a senior next year, 6.3, 285 transfers up from East Tennessee State. Is there a difference maker there? We'll see. But I think you can work with what you have as long as those guys aren't being asked to carry too

much below. That takes a breakout from a, you know, the Williams-Munary, takes a breakout from a Lennhard or someone else on the edge like a pedchok, but I'm okay with where Nebraska's out on the interior. Yeah, it's interesting. We'll see if Rob Orich and in the New Nebraska defensive staff feel the same way or if there is a lot of movement in the portal. Of course, we're just talking about adding to the portal. How many of those pieces might depart? We'll have to wait and see again. Friday is when the portal officially opens up. That's a couple of days after Nebraska's game against Utah. All right, let's go ahead and take another break. We'll be back with more on one-on-one on 93-7 the ticket.

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