Five things we learned from NU's Signing Day press conference

Nebraska head coach Scott Frost met with local media on Wednesday to give the latest on what has been a whirlwind offseason for the Huskers thus far.

Here are five of our biggest takeaways from what he had to say…

After four-year starter Adrian Martinez officially moved on and eventually transferred to Kansas State, Nebraska found itself with a significant void to fill at the quarterback position this offseason.

The Huskers replaced Martinez with not one but two transfer portal additions in Texas junior Casey Thompson and Florida State redshirt freshman Chubba Purdy.

They joined returners Logan Smothers, Henrich Haarberg, and incoming freshman Richard Torres to give NU its preferred number of five scholarship quarterbacks going into the spring.

Frost was asked about the narrative surrounding the QB situation that Thompson would be the presumed starter in 2022.

“Yeah, that’s not my narrative,” Frost said. “There’s a lot of narratives around that aren’t really based on fact. He’s going to have every opportunity to start, and he knows that. The other guys are going to get their opportunities too. We’ve got a lot of time to work with them over spring ball and fall camp to figure it all out.”

Frost said he hadn’t gotten to see Thompson or Purdy do much throwing since they arrived on campus, but he was immediately impressed with both players’ willingness to step up as leaders from Day 1 - especially Thompson.

“The biggest thing I’ve noticed already is just the leadership component from those guys and the energy coming from those guys, and that’s what a quarterback is supposed to do,” Frost said. “He’s supposed to pick up the level of play from everybody around him. That’s tough to do in your first two weeks on campus, but (Thompson) is doing it…

“We need leadership from that position. We need a guy that’s going to say, ‘Hey, get behind me. We’re going to go win this thing, and I’m going to lead you there.' You get that feeling from both of those guys.”

There may not have been a more glaring issue among Nebraska’s many struggles last season than the mess that was its special teams.

After trying to handle the game’s third element via a collective staff effort and dual-titles within the coaching staff, Frost finally pulled the trigger on a full-time special teams coach with the promotion of analyst Bill Busch.

“If you’ve been in Nebraska, you know that’s been an issue for us,” Frost said. “(Busch) was able to help us from a scheming standpoint last year with special teams, and I think in a lot of ways we got better. It was tough with him not being out on the field coaching.”

The Huskers also hit the transfer portal to add two new specialists in Furman kicker Timmy Bleekrode and Montana punter Brian Buschini.

Frost confirmed that sophomore punter Daniel Cerni had been placed on a medical scholarship, leaving Bleekrode and Buschini as NU’s only two scholarship specialists.

“First and foremost, we’ve got to do a better job at specialist than we did last year,” Frost said. “It wasn’t all necessarily those kids’ fault. We had a kicker (Connor Culp) that had a great year the year before and just had some injury issues. We did well at punting the ball at times, and other times it was disastrous. Trying to get those (new) guys in there will certainly help.”

Frost is also hoping Nebraska’s return game takes a big step forward this season. The Huskers brought in former five-star receiver and return man transfer Trey Palmer from LSU, one of a handful of potential upgrades in the kickoff and punt return games.

“We haven’t had a guy that we feel great about bringing the ball out of the end zone on kickoffs or giving us a chance to score on a punt return…” Frost said. “There’s several in the receiver room, running back room, and DB room that I think have the ability to do it. Trey’s certainly one of them.”

While Nebraska was able to bolster its depth at several key positions over the past three months, one of the biggest questions still needing to be answered going into spring ball is the makeup of the offensive line.

The Huskers return eight players with starting experience and then added transfers Hunter Anthony, who started five games at Oklahoma State, and Kevin Williams, who started 19 games at Northern Colorado.

Now the task for Frost and new offensive line coach Donovan Raiola is figuring out which five of those players will eventually make up NU’s starting o-line this season and if any position changes need to happen to find that group.

“I don’t know for sure yet where the pieces will all fit together, but spring ball will help us tell that,” Frost said.

Frost confirmed on Wednesday that sophomores Turner Corcoran and Teddy Prochazka would be out or limited in the spring.

Corcoran missed last season’s opener at Illinois due to injury but returned to start the final 11 games. He started nine games at left tackle and two at right tackle.

Prochazka helped spark Corcoran’s move to the right side by taking over as the No. 1 left tackle for two games before suffering a season-ending injury.

Nebraska must also replace three-year starting center Cameron Jurgens, who declared for the 2022 NFL Draft. Frost hinted that Corcoran could be an option at center depending on what happens at tackle.

“Turner’s a guy I think is probably capable of playing all five positions if we needed him to,” Frost said. “Turner, in particular, we’re probably going to have to figure out where he fits the best.”

Nebraska’s offseason makeover started with Frost replacing four offensive assistant coaches with new offensive coordinator Mark Whipple, assistant head coach/receivers coach Mickey Joseph, running backs coach Bryan Applewhite, and Raiola on the offensive line.

As difficult as it was for Frost to let go of some of his closest friends and colleagues, he admitted that the additions had injected new energy into the program.

“There have been a lot of changes - some of it was needed, and some of it was not a lot of fun to do,” Frost said. “Some of the guys that aren’t here anymore were my best friends, and they’re great guys and great coaches. But I’m also really comfortable with the guys we have now.

“It’s been a lot of fun for me to be in the room talking some new ideas and new ball with people. If you’re done learning, you’re done growing.”

Frost said he’d already started to develop strong chemistry with his new coaches, but they were still ironing out some kinks in terms of “marrying the systems” of what NU did before and what the assistants have done.

Frost said his goal was to add new offensive concepts and schemes while retaining as much of the “language” the players were used to as possible.

“It’s been interesting with guys coming from different places,” Frost said. “The staff that we had had been together for so long that we all spoke the same language, knew the same things. That was good from a continuity standpoint; maybe not great from a fresh idea standpoint.

"Now it’s kind of flipped. We have a lot of fresh ideas and a little bit of a language barrier.”

Along with Corcoran and Prochazka, Frost gave injury updates on a few more notable players going into the start of spring practices.

Senior tight end Travis Vokolek underwent offseason surgery and will miss the start of spring ball. Frost also said senior outside linebacker Damian Jackson would be out for the spring.

Some good news was redshirt freshman running back Gabe Ervin Jr. “will be getting close by that time” to return to action. Ervin started two of NU’s first four games before suffering a season-ending injury at Oklahoma.

Frost also said sophomore safety Javin Wright was on track to return to the team after dealing with a scary blood clot situation that ended his 2021 season after two games.

“Everything looks good with Javin,” Frost said. “Once he had a blood clot, we had to make sure that wasn’t something genetic that was going to happen over and over. All signs point to the right place right now that he’s going to be able to continue (playing).”