From September of 2014 to July of 2015 tight end Jared Bubak was committed to Nebraska.
The former Lincoln Christian standout ended up signing with Arizona State in 2016, but after getting both his undergraduate and masters degrees, Bubak announced on Saturday he’ll play his final season for the Huskers as a walk-on.
“It’s always kind of been at the back of my mind when I was at ASU,” Bubak said of his decision. “I came to watch my brother at state basketball a couple of months ago when all this craziness started. I’ve been back for a little bit, and always was kind of thinking about it. I just always had that ‘what if’ I went to Nebraska. I really didn’t want to live with that for the rest of my life. I just knew I wanted to come back here for my last season.”
The 6-foot-5, 250-pound Bubak originally committed to former NU head coach Bo Pelini during his final season at NU but opened things back up when Mike Riley took over in 2015.
A visit that summer to Arizona State changed things for Bubak, as he flipped his commitment to the Sun Devils.
Bubak was a part of a 2016 tight end class in Nebraska that included three others that signed with Power Five schools – Omaha South’s Noah Fant, Lincoln Southwest’s Nick Lenners and Norfolk Catholic’s David Engelhaupt. Fant went on to be a first-round draft pick at Iowa, Lenners is currently Kansas State’s starting tight end and Engelhaupt walked away from the game before Scott Frost’s first season at Nebraska.
While at ASU, Bubak played for two different head coaches in Herm Edwards and Todd Graham, along with four different offensive coordinators.
Most notably, Bubak was recruited originally in Mike Norvell's offense, but he left Arizona State for Memphis in January of 2016 as he got to campus. Originally, Bubak was sold on the vision of how Norvell planned to use the tight end, which was more as a receiver in match-up situations. Those plans changed the minute Norvell left.
“I think the week I got here he had moved to Memphis,” Stoll said of Norvell. “It was just kind of the transition of switching to a new OC and the reality of that.
“The biggest thing for me at ASU was it was 'all block' and 'no rock.' I think Jack Stoll himself had more receptions than our entire ASU core did the four years I was there. I think we had 12 total catches as a tight end unit in four years. That was the biggest thing for me. Just getting over my own ego, and just know that blocking is what we have to do for the team to win.”
In all, Bubak saw 42 snaps on offense and 65 on special teams the last two seasons at Arizona State according to PFF. He was only on the field for a total of three passing plays in two years and didn't have a single ball thrown his way.
Bubak knows he's walking into a very crowded tight end room in Lincoln, and he's looking forward to joining the competition with veterans like Jack Stoll, Austin Allen and Travis Vokolek.
The only player on the current NU roster he has a relationship with his sixth-year senior offensive lineman Christian Gaylord, who he became close with while committed to Nebraska in 2014-2015. Bubak will join the Husker program on Monday.
“It didn’t really matter if Nebraska had offered me or not,” Bubak said. “I was going to come here.”
