4/28/2020 football Edit

Final take: It was a tough decision, but Vedral made the right call

Sean Callahan • InsideNebraska

Publisher

Sean Callahan has worked with Rivals.com since 2000, and has been the Publisher of HuskerOnline since 2007. He also reports for KETV Channel 7 in Omaha, NET's Big Red Wrap-Up and KFAB Radio in Omaha.

Noah Vedral's dream was to play at Nebraska.

The Wahoo (Neb.) Bishop Neumann product is the son of former Husker tight end Mike Vedral, and the nephew of former Huskers Matt Turman (QB) and Jon (WR) and Mark Vedral (LB).

In 2018 and 2019 Vedral got that opportunity. He started two games for the Huskers vs. Minnesota and Indiana and led them to a fourth-quarter victory against Northwestern. He even joined the Nebraska basketball team for a game in 2020 at the Big Ten Tournament.

However, most importantly Vedral got his undergraduate degree at UNL in three years with a nearly perfect 4.0 GPA.

With that said, Vedral had a very difficult decision to make. Stay at NU where the deck was stacked against him with quarterbacks like Adrian Martinez, Luke McCaffrey and Logan Smothers on the roster.

Or pursue a new challenge where the road to being a starting quarterback might be clearer.

Vedral's father Mike (right), and his two brothers Jon (left) and Mark (center) all played at Nebraska. They stood together on the sideline for Noah Vedral's first spring game in 2018. (Sean Callahan)

This wasn't easy at all for Vedral I'm sure, but he chose the latter. And if anyone knows Vedral, he didn't just come to Nebraska to be on the sidelines

Ever since I've known Vedral, his dream was to be a starting quarterback at the Division I level.

He attended more camps and received more outside quarterback instruction than any prospect I've dealt with in my 20 years of covering in-state recruiting. He knew being a Division I quarterback recruit in the state of Nebraska would not be easy. Luckily Scott Frost believed in him and offered before his first season at UCF in the spring of 2017.

Vedral believed in Frost enough to follow him as a walk-on for one semester at NU when he left Central Florida, before going on scholarship in the summer of 2018 at Nebraska.

Vedral didn't put in all that work for limited opportunity. He wants to be a starter, and the reality is at Nebraska that was going to be very difficult to happen. Unfortunately, because of COVID-19 and the cancelation of spring practice, he was really never given that chance at Nebraska this past March and April.

NU did not want Vedral to leave. They still hold him and his family in very high regard. He's been with Frost and this staff longer than anyone. They know his value and worth, but the reality is being a starter this season at Nebraska would be very difficult.

And like former LSU QB and Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow, Vedral knew the value of what being a two-year graduate transfer might do for him. He's put himself in a great position to graduate three years and now will more than likely get an opportunity to walk into a situation where he might win a starting quarterback job in 2020. Nobody wanted Vedral to leave, but at the same time, nobody can blame him either.