Husker Hurry Up: Football roster release, massive recruiting wins

Good morning, and welcome to Husker Hurry Up! This is your guide to news, analysis and other tidbits as we get you caught up and prepared for everything that’s going on in Nebraska football, recruiting, volleyball, basketball and more throughout the week. So grab your coffee and sit down to read up on your favorite Huskers players and teams.

Or, grab that coffee to go and listen to the Husker Hurry Up on the Inside Nebraska Podcast, available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Nebraska released its updated football roster on Wednesday, and two notable items caught pretty much everyone’s attention:

1) Teddy Prochazka’s gains: The second-year offensive lineman was already a big, big dude. But he’s now listed at 6-foot-10, 320 pounds after being listed at 6-foot-9, 305 pounds as a true freshman. Prochazka is the second-highest ranked player from the Huskers’ last three recruiting classes, and he is highest-ranked in terms of size on the Huskers’ current roster.

He’s the tallest player in Nebraska’s group and is the eighth-biggest in terms of weight behind defensive linemen Jailen Weaver (6-8, 345 pounds), Nash Hutmacher (6-4, 330) and fellow offensive linemen Dylan Parrott (6-5, 340), Noah Stafursky (6-4, 325), Keegan Menning (6-5, 325), Hunter Anthony (6-6, 325) and Kevin Williams Jr. (6-6, 325). Bryce Benhart isn’t far behind, though, as the offensive lineman is listed at 6-foot-9, 315 pounds.

2) Defensive positioning changes: The Huskers now have the EDGE and Nickel (NICK) listed on their roster. It’s just another reflection of what we have been writing about over the last month: Defensive coordinator Erik Chinander and Co. are continuing to evolve their defense.

When Nebraska landed the commitments of both Maverick Noonan and Riley Van Poppel – in addition to its continued prioritization of players such as Ashley Williams Jr. and Cameron Lenhardt – it was a keynote sign that the Huskers are wanting to create a bit more chaos, we’ll label it, with their defensive looks. A consistent rotation between a 4-3 look and a 3-4 front with an extra defensive back on the field is imperative to match the advancement of high-powered college offenses that Nebraska will face in coming years – at least if the program gets to where it wants to go and eventually compete for Big Ten championships again.

That took another subtle step this week with those official listings as Ochaun Mathis, Garrett Nelson and Caleb Tannor are three of the notable players who are listed as EDGE players. And Isaac Gifford, Chris Kolarevic, Gage Stenger and Javin Wright are a handful of players who are now listed at nickel.

We are going to go a bit more in-depth later today, but Nebraska is coming off a huge recruiting week – and the Huskers may not be done just yet.

Landing Georgia receiver Barry Jackson, Texas linebacker Dylan Rogers and Louisiana receiver Omarion Miller was a terrific three-man haul in a four-day span. You can be upset about Jackson and Rogers being three-star prospects if you wish, but those two guys are talented and represent an important shift for the program’s potential trajectory. Again, we will expound on that later.

The Huskers are now at 13 commitments in the Class of 2023, and it’s possible they will be adding lucky No. 14 this week.

Offensive linemen Amir Herring and Cayden Green are set to announce their decisions today and tomorrow, respectively. But I don’t feel good about the Huskers’ position with either of them, and I will not be putting in a FutureCast for either to land with Nebraska.

But there are some rumblings that another commitment could be on the way at some point soon. That’s all I can say because, well, that’s pretty much all I know. The digging shall continue as Nebraska sits in a good position, overall, in this class.

Will Bolt and Huskers pitching coach Jeff Christy continue to add talent to their program. The latest was Incarnate Word transfer Michael Garza, a pitcher who announced his transfer to the Huskers on Wednesday.

The right-handed thrower is a super senior with one year of eligibility remaining, and he brings experience to the table with 99 innings pitched across 37 appearances in his four years of college ball. He amassed a 3-4 record with a 5.58 ERA and 81 strikeouts in 73 innings as a starter last season.

Garza is the Huskers’ 14th transfer addition of the offseason.

At long last, and after much clamoring from the Inside Nebraska message board community, we are fully staffed.

We added Steve Marik and Geoff Exstrom to the Inside Nebraska team on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, and we are now done adding full-timers to the squad.

Greg Smith is our senior recruiting analyst, Steve will be our lead football and men’s basketball beat writer, and Geoff will be our lead volleyball and baseball beat writer. Those three are in addition to Nate Clouse, Jansen Coburn and Trenton Bond.

I encourage you to give Greg (@GregSmithRivals), Steve (@Steve_Marik) and Geoff (@Ex_On_Sports) each a follow on Twitter. And feel free to give Steve a shout on our message board from Tuesday, and welcome Geoff on our message board from Wednesday.

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