Oregon 4-star RB transfer Dante Dowdell commits to Nebraska

Since the October decommitment of Kewan Lacy, a talented four-star running back in the 2024 class who signed with Missouri, Nebraska football has been searching for another young running back to add to its room.

The Huskers found one, and they went to the transfer portal to do it: Former Oregon running back Dante Dowdell announced his commitment to the Huskers on Saturday via social media.

Dowdell a four-star prospect in the Rivals transfer rankings, and he is rated as the No. 6 RB and No. 88 overall player in this year's transfer portal cycle.

Dowdell spent the 2023 season with the Ducks as a true freshman and played in six games, where he rushed for 90 yards and one touchdown on 17 carries. The Mississippi native will have four years to play three seasons.

The 6-foot-2, 218-pound Dowdell took an official visit to Nebraska during the Jan. 5-7 weekend. It was on that visit where Dowdell met with the Huskers’ five-star quarterback signee Dylan Raiola, who was in town to help with the program’s recruiting efforts.

In his first season on campus, Dowdell was behind veteran running backs who saw major success, like Bucky Irving (1,063 rushing yards, 10 touchdowns), Jordan James (696 yards, 11 TDs) and Noah Whittington (146 yards, two TDs), who suffered a season-ending injury in the fourth game against Colorado.

Irving declared for the NFL Draft while James and Whittington are expected back.

“Oregon has a bunch of good problems. It wasn’t because of any bad blood or bitterness, nothing like that. The running back room is just deep,” Dowdell's father, Lawrence Hopkins, told Inside Nebraska in December. “At the exit meetings, they pretty much said, ‘Hey, next year has the potential to look like this past year,’ because they had so much success with two (running backs). They were intending to pretty much just use Jordan James, and Noah will be 100-percent healthy.

"If Dante hadn’t burnt his redshirt, he probably would’ve stayed. But given his redshirt was burnt, it was best for him that he make the decision to seek opportunity elsewhere.”

And opportunity is what Dowdell will have in Lincoln.

The Husker running back room loses veteran Anthony Grant, who exhausted his eligibility, and returns two more veterans who are coming off season-ending injuries sustained in 2023, including Gabe Ervin Jr. (dislocated hip) and Rahmir Johnson (dislocated shoulder). There’s also third-year back Emmett Johnson, who rushed for 411 yards and two touchdowns on 90 carries in 2023, and second-year back Kwinten Ives, who didn’t record a carry in 2023 and redshirted after playing in four games.

“For us, when we looked at the depth chart for Nebraska, I saw, realistically, there’s one guy on there. They have two injured and they’re still injured,” Hopkins said in December before Dowdell's visit. “That could leave a pretty wide-open room for Dante to get there, compete and make a difference. That’s why he’s giving Nebraska such a nice look.”

Dowdell was one of the best recruits in the nation coming out of Picayune Memorial High School. The four-star prospect was ranked No. 109 overall and the No. 6 running back in the country.

As a senior in 2022, Dowdell rushed for 2,165 yards and a whopping 31 touchdowns while earning the MHSAA 5A Mr. Football honor. As a junior, he racked up 2,555 yards and 28 scores.

“What he does really well on a football field is intimidate a defense,” Hopkins said of his son. “He’s not one of those backs who’s trying to dodge contact or shy away from it, granted, he’s smart about it at the same time. But he’s a one-cut back. He’s going to make his cut, see his hole and he’s downhill from there. He’s not going to do all that dancing around. He’s going to fall forward every time.”

Dowdell is the third transfer Nebraska has taken this offseason, joining cornerback Blye Hill from St. Francis (PA), an FCS program, and receiver Isaiah Neyor, formerly of Texas and Wyoming.

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