Five burning questions heading into South Alabama week

The Nebraska football team is finally ready to kickoff the 2019 season this week with its opener against South Alabama on Saturday.

Here are five of the biggest questions still needing to be answered going into the Huskers' season opener.

The biggest off-the-field storyline of the offseason will finally get some resolution of sorts this week, as Nebraska will have to make a decision on the status of Maurice Washington for Saturday’s season opener.

Head coach Scott Frost has stated several times that he wanted to wait until there was some more clarity to the sophomore running back’s legal situation stemming from charges in California. But as Washington’s case continued to get delayed through the spring and summer, there won’t be any further movement until after the first game.

So what will Frost do? On one hand, he limited Washington for much of the spring and held him out of the spring game after news of his charges initially broke. But then Washington returned to work this fall in seemingly a full capacity.

Washington didn’t help his cause when he was cited on suspicion on marijuana paraphernalia possession in June. However, due to a new state hemp law, he has not been charged with anything yet.

Will Nebraska take the stance of innocent until proven guilty? Or will the Huskers opt for some internal discipline and hold Washington out for a drive, quarter, half, or the entire game?

Nebraska has provided answers to pretty much every notable position battle except for one fairly important starting spot.

The Huskers still have not announced who their No. 1 punter is going to be for Saturday’s opener, as the competition between Isaac Armstrong and William Przystup was one of the most competitive of any spot all offseason.

What’s unique about the punter race is that NU has two left-footed candidates who each boast quality Big Ten experience.

Armstrong replaced Caleb Lightbourn as the top punter for the final seven games last year, averaging 43.6 yards on 32 punts for the ninth-highest single-season average in program history.

Przystup also took over as a starter in 2018 as a true freshman at Michigan State, playing in four games and averaging 40.6 yard per punt with five kicks of 50 yards or longer.

Armstrong is a senior while Przystup is a redshirt freshman, so will Nebraska give the nod to the veteran or hand the keys over to its punter of the future right away?

For the first time in years, Nebraska didn’t have a quarterback controversy this offseason.

Adrian Martinez is the leader of the team and is regarded as one of the best quarterbacks in all of college football. The question is what the depth chart will look like behind him?

Nebraska has made it pretty clear that the top two options are junior Noah Vedral and true freshman Luke McCaffrey. Both players earned plenty of praise in the spring and summer, and it would appear they are truly neck-and-neck for the No. 2 spot.

Saturday’s game will likely be the best opportunity for NU to take a comfortable early lead and get Martinez out of the game. Will it be Vedral or McCaffrey who takes over first? And if both play, how will the snaps be distributed between them?

The assumption is that Vedral will be the No. 2 due to his experience and knowledge of the offense, but if Martinez were to miss any time early enough in the season, would Nebraska give its QB-in-waiting a chance to run the show?

If all goes as planned, Nebraska will jump all over South Alabama from the opening drive and get its starters off the field as quickly as possible.

That would leave ample opportunity for a number of young players who have shown flashes over the spring and fall to make their Husker debuts on Saturday.

The new four-game redshirt rule was designed for games just like this, where teams can get quality looks at first-year players in a true game day setting without costing a year of eligibility.

With so many freshmen who have impressed this offseason, don’t be surprised if new faces are all over the field in the second half – assuming the starters take of business, of course.

Frost unveiled some of the biggest news of the offseason on Nebraska’s final day of fall camp on Friday when he announced that Cameron Jurgens would be the starting center for Week 1.

Because of lingering injuries and the fact that he just moved to the position less than a year ago, there were doubts that Jurgens would be ready in time to win the job for the first game.

But some hard work in his recovery and in learning his new position have vaulted the Beatrice native to the top of the depth chart.

The question now is how careful is Nebraska is going to be with Jurgens’ workload?

The staff was very cautious with his reps in the spring and summer, and with other guys like Will Farniok, AJ Forbes, and Ethan Piper all getting plenty of offseason reps, will the Huskers continue to manage Jurgens so closely?