2024-25 Nebraska Football Roster Attrition + Graduation

[nja13]

Might have seen EJ's raise and wanted more $.

Or he saw the No. 1 next to EJ's name on the depth chart.

 

[Kazman5k]

If we’re going 3 yards and a cloud of dust I want it to be the great white hope Connor booth

 

[herbsinator]

I just can't get worked up about Dowdell leaving.
When Johnson was in the portal, a lot of people were saying, "He's a mid back. Dime a dozen. Not a big loss."

That's how I feel about Dowdell. He missed the hole half the time and never made a defender miss. Surely we can find another 225 pounder to lower his head and run straight ahead.

And we don’t have an unlimited amount of money to spend, so we can’t go around overpaying RB2s when we don’t have any OTs or WRs.

 

[nja13]

This is really the first year Nebraska has had a significant number of players go into the portal, and it has changed my perspective on portal players.

Seeing FSU fans get mad that Tony White wasn't bringing Jamari Butler and a bunch of our backups with him. Seeing FSU classify James Williams as a "huge get." Seeing Princewell and Williams as the No. 1 and 3 ranked portal pass rushers, sandwiching a player we were really excited about getting and another guy we liked (Olds) ranked below those guys. Hearing Michigan is interested in Dante Dowdell. Seeing big time SEC teams fight over Nate Boerkircher.

It makes me take a step back when looking at players we are excited about. They are probably flawed players whose former fans are looking at us like I am looking at those teams in the above paragraph.

It probably helps that the only two players I really felt bad about losing, Davis and EJohnson, ended up reversing course and staying. But if our own losses are typical of what you get from the portal, I need to temper my expectations (while still crossing my fingers for the next Trey Palmer).

 

[Ironwardog]

I just can't get worked up about Dowdell leaving.
When Johnson was in the portal, a lot of people were saying, "He's a mid back. Dime a dozen. Not a big loss."

That's how I feel about Dowdell. He missed the hole half the time and never made a defender miss. Surely we can find another 225 pounder to lower his head and run straight ahead.

This right here. I remember getting pissed alongside half of this board when EJ would make a couple of good runs then boom back to DD who would run into the back of his offensive lineman and try to push the pile while EJ would see the damned opening and use his line better even when Satt was the OC. I think if we had lost EJ to the portal and kept DD Holgerson would do a pretty good job of using his strengths and setting up the play for him to work but it’s a lot easier with EJ who has vision. It’s a bit of a loss because occasionally you need a big physical back but like you said we should be able to pick someone up out of the portal that’s of similar quality for lesser $$.

 

[vailhusker]

 

[nja13]

So anyone have a count on how much further we have to go to get to the 105? I'm sure after the bowl game there will be an exodous of fifth-string walk-ons that will just quitely disappear, but we have to be making some progress in our needed attrition.

 

[Flabio]

So anyone have a count on how much further we have to go to get to the 105? I'm sure after the bowl game there will be an exodous of fifth-string walk-ons that will just quitely disappear, but we have to be making some progress in our needed attrition.

I think they had to cut 50 so halfway there with just the portal entries based on the tweet above. As you noted likely a lot of walk ons that won’t even announce they’re out or done either football.

 

[Tsakoi]

I'm not concerned about replacing Dowdell. Stupidly, college football has been turned into a mercenary free for all instead of a sport. Dowdell came to us as a mercenary. If he was interested in winning football games he would have stayed at Oregon who is undefeated this year.

Running backs in the portal are plentiful. We have 5 in the room already. This doesn't bother me.

Dude was a starter that got all of the goal line carries. The only thing another school could offer him is more money. Or maybe Dana told him the he lost his starting spot this week in practice to EJ. So he'll only stay if he's the starter. Football has become pretty dumb.

 

[Carm]

So anyone have a count on how much further we have to go to get to the 105? I'm sure after the bowl game there will be an exodous of fifth-string walk-ons that will just quitely disappear, but we have to be making some progress in our needed attrition.

we don't have to be at 105 until around 8/20

 

[Tsakoi]

Speaking of the RB room, does anybody have any info on the injury Booth suffered at the end of the year? Is he ok? What's his status?

 

[cwessel76]

I'm not concerned about replacing Dowdell. Stupidly, college football has been turned into a mercenary free for all instead of a sport. Dowdell came to us as a mercenary. If he was interested in winning football games he would have stayed at Oregon who is undefeated this year.

Running backs in the portal are plentiful. We have 5 in the room already. This doesn't bother me.

Dude was a starter that got all of the goal line carries. The only thing another school could offer him is more money. Or maybe Dana told him the he lost his starting spot this week in practice to EJ. So he'll only stay if he's the starter. Football has become pretty dumb.

I might legit stop following CFB if the status quo continues. This is sucking the fun out of the sport.

 

[Juro]

I might legit stop following CFB if the status quo continues. This is sucking the fun out of the sport.

With shared revenue coming in, contracts are going to be the next thing that school admins push the NCAA for.

Student athletes are taking advantage of schools by using the portal to gain more money, so in the end, schools are going to want to push the NCAA in some type of capacity on this. School staffs will not want to re-recruit their players every year and have to worry about tampering to get those players in the portal while their contracts are active.

Its going to suck because its going to be a minor-league NFL, but its still college football in the end.

 

[BorWhiskey]

I'm not concerned about replacing Dowdell. Stupidly, college football has been turned into a mercenary free for all instead of a sport. Dowdell came to us as a mercenary. If he was interested in winning football games he would have stayed at Oregon who is undefeated this year.

Running backs in the portal are plentiful. We have 5 in the room already. This doesn't bother me.

Dude was a starter that got all of the goal line carries. The only thing another school could offer him is more money. Or maybe Dana told him the he lost his starting spot this week in practice to EJ. So he'll only stay if he's the starter. Football has become pretty dumb.

It’s really teaching young dudes how to become old dudes. What minimal adversity is like and how to tuck tail and run away from that. A lot of growth in this generation. Can’t wait to harvest the fruits.

 

[doublewing]

I might legit stop following CFB if the status quo continues. This is sucking the fun out of the sport.

I've found myself having less interest in the off-season portal nonsense and recruiting because of this. Most of my interest has simply shifted to watching the games because staying up with the roster is futile and the recruit or transfer that brings the program hope will go school shopping the next season.

Love watching the games but it really has become a stupid sport outside of that.

 

[Frogsker30]

We’re gonna need at least one or two portal rb.

Rn we have
1. EJ
2. Ives
3. M. Nelson
4. Booth
5. Parker

I don’t know about you but that’s relying on a lot of unprovens

 

[SlumpBuster]

I do wonder if past portalers are on average more likely to be future portalers. Like some of these dudes are in their 3+ school in as many years. I'm sure the other large chunk is the Boerkircher's who want to get set up with a nice chunk of change in their final season, which is totally fair

2nd marriages are more likely to end in divorce than the first.

 

[SlumpBuster]

I mean, the dude can't make the first man miss to save his life. It's really remarkable.

More than that, he's just terrible at reading holes. I love the way he runs, but man so many times there was a huge hole that he just completely missed. If the hole opens up right where it's supposed to be, he's great

 

[SlumpBuster]

This is really the first year Nebraska has had a significant number of players go into the portal, and it has changed my perspective on portal players.

Seeing FSU fans get mad that Tony White wasn't bringing Jamari Butler and a bunch of our backups with him. Seeing FSU classify James Williams as a "huge get." Seeing Princewell and Williams as the No. 1 and 3 ranked portal pass rushers, sandwiching a player we were really excited about getting and another guy we liked (Olds) ranked below those guys. Hearing Michigan is interested in Dante Dowdell. Seeing big time SEC teams fight over Nate Boerkircher.

It makes me take a step back when looking at players we are excited about. They are probably flawed players whose former fans are looking at us like I am looking at those teams in the above paragraph.

It probably helps that the only two players I really felt bad about losing, Davis and EJohnson, ended up reversing course and staying. But if our own losses are typical of what you get from the portal, I need to temper my expectations (while still crossing my fingers for the next Trey Palmer).

Yep. People always automatically assume the next guy is the upgrade, but 90% of the time there's a reason they're in the portal.

I never understood why people hate on our defensive kids (like Williams) though, because clearly we've had decent defenses and Williams shows some ability (needs some coaching tho). I'd love to have him for a few more years. Princewell as well.

Boerk is a solid blocker and will get you 2-3 catches a game in decent moments. There's some value to that.

Gbayor I was sad about too.

It's definitely not an automatic every new guy is going to be an upgrade over these dudes. DD specifically though to me is purely a depth guy and it'd be nice to have him but not a huge loss.

 

[Baron Winnebago]

Yep. People always automatically assume the next guy is the upgrade, but 90% of the time there's a reason they're in the portal.

I never understood why people hate on our defensive kids (like Williams) though, because clearly we've had decent defenses and Williams shows some ability (needs some coaching tho). I'd love to have him for a few more years. Princewell as well.

Boerk is a solid blocker and will get you 2-3 catches a game in decent moments. There's some value to that.

Gbayor I was sad about too.

It's definitely not an automatic every new guy is going to be an upgrade over these dudes. DD specifically though to me is purely a depth guy and it'd be nice to have him but not a huge loss.

Yeah. I don't think it's wise to assume we're upgrading at every position. But at the same time I think people need to accept that you'll enter the season needing some guys who are currently on your roster to take leaps.

Who would have guessed like 3 years ago that Gbayor would be a significant loss?