We hit on several things we learned over the first week of spring practice and more in today's 3-2-1 column.

1 - New OL coach Donovan Raiola has a unique love for Nebraska

Nebraska's new offensive line coach Donovan Raiola obviously grew up watching Nebraska football. His older brother Dominic was an All-American at NU and the first recipient ever of the Rimington Trophy given to college football's best center.

However, as Donovan Raiola grew up, he wasn't recruited by the Big Red and ended up playing his college football for another former Husker in Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin.

Even though Donovan Raiola never put on the Scarlett and Cream in Lincoln, his memories of Nebraska have always stayed with him. Lincoln is a place he's always wanted to be, and he's finally here.

"It was my favorite college football team," Donovan Raiola said. "We would wake up at 6 a.m. in Hawaii and we would be cheering our asses off for them. I remember Dom's redshirt freshman year and they played at Texas A&M and they lost a tough game. I felt like it was the end of the world. Ever since then, I always followed Nebraska football. Even though I went to Wisconsin I always followed Nebraska football. It was that special to us."

With that said, Donovan Raiola knows this is a different era, but there are still some things from his Wisconsin days, or even the old Nebraska, he wants to instill in his line this spring.

"It's 2022, so we aren't trying to be who we are not," Raiola said. "But it's good to understand how it was built with attitude and effort. Mental toughness, physical toughness and discipline. Those are some things we are working hard to instill."

Raiola's job this spring will not be easy. Not only is he undermanned this spring, but he also has to reshape an offensive line that was graded as one of the worst in all of Power Five Football, according to PFF.

"The biggest thing for me is getting them to believe in themselves," Raiola said. "Just believe in what you are doing. It doesn't matter who you are playing against. Just believe in what you are doing and everything will be ok."

2 - Travis Fisher is not handing anyone a job in his secondary

One of the more interesting groups to watch this spring will be the development of Travis Fisher's secondary.

When you flashback to December, nobody had any idea what this room was going to look like.

Over the off-season, Fisher added seven new players to his room, including two Division I transfers and two JUCO products.

Fisher said he wanted to create an environment where guys aren't just handed jobs.

"Too many people in this world just want things handed to them," Fisher said

By signing seven new players, including five that are here this spring, nothing is going to be handed to anyone.

Today, Fisher has things broken up like this: The old guy group and the new guy group. If someone from the "new guy" group gets brought up to the "old guy" group, he said it's telling.

From there he'll move an "old guy" down to the "new guy group."

"What do you think that tells a guy when they get brought down to the new guy group," Fisher said.

This is set up to be a highly competitive spring for Fisher's room.

3 - High school football coaches leave a huge impact on their players

When I heard Nebraska linebacker Nick Henrich talk about the impact his former high school coach Paul Limongi had on his life, something like that makes anyone flashback to those times.

Whether it was a teacher or a coach, odds are you had someone in your high school days that shaped your life forever.

This past week, the Omaha sports world said goodbye to one of those people in former Omaha Central head football coach Joe McMenamin.

There was about a 10 to 15-year run where all of the major Division I talent in Nebraska ran through McMenamin at Central, headlined by players like running back Ahman Green.

This week many of those players said goodbye to McMenamin in a social media video tribute.

Some of the things McMenamin did for his players back then to set up trips to Australia and Hawaii for players from Nebraska to play in special all-star football games. What an incredible experience, and nearly every one of those players from Central that played in those all-star games talked about it on the video and the fundraising efforts they did to make the trip happen. He was more than just about football, he created life experiences for his players, and it was touching to hear them all talk about him and the impact things like those trips had on them at a young age.

McMenamin was also the creator of what's now known as the Locker Room Football Jamboree in Omaha. Back then, Outback Steakhouse was the sponsor of the camp.

He wanted to create a camp setting for Omaha Public Schools teams and their coaches that didn't require them to pay thousands of dollars and travel hours away.

McMenamin's son just recently finished up as the head coach at Wayne State, where he led them to one of their best seasons in years. He has since moved on to take the wide receivers coach job at Tulane.

1 - What is your biggest position group concern this spring?

The biggest position group question right now in the spring has to be the defensive line. With Casey Rogers sitting out with an injury, you are looking at a first-team until that includes guys like Nash Hutmacher and Colton Feist with Ty Robinson.

For Mike Dawson's group, it's really non-debatable at this point that someone in the group that includes guys like Mosai Newsom, Ru'Quan Buckley, Jailen Weaver and Marquis Black must step up.

The loss of Jordon Riley at the time didn't feel big, but now you would love to have the potential 20 snaps per game he was going to be able to give you. With that said, it's inevitable the Huskers will have to find at least one more piece from the transfer portal.

2 - What position coach could make the biggest impact right away this spring?

When you talk about position coaches that have the chance to make the biggest impact this spring, you really could go in several directions.

Today, I lean towards wide receivers coach Mickey Joseph. He's got two veteran additions he's brought into the room with what NU brings back in 2022.

I think Joseph has the ability to push and challenge this group in a different way than what we saw a year ago. With who Joseph has previously coached at LSU, he's not going to have to pamper anyone. He's going to challenge guys and make the entire room better by doing so.

We've seen Nebraska basketball head coach Fred Hoiberg's team put together their best stretch of basketball arguably in three years this past week.

I obviously do not expect the Huskers to win at Wisconsin on Sunday, but I do predict they will get at least one win at the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis as the 14th seed.

Sean Callahan can be reached at sean@huskeronline.com and he can be heard each day at 6:45 am and 5:05 pm on Big Red Radio 1110 KFAB in Omaha during the football season. He can also be seen on KETV Channel 7 in Omaha during the fall and each week he appears on NET's Big Red Wrap-Tuesday's at 7 pm.