The Weekly Rundown: Heading into Week 2 of spring practice

We set the stage for Week 2 of spring practice and more in the Weekly Rundown Column.

You have to feel pretty good about these things right now:

OL Cameron Jurgens: Nebraska's four participants in the NFL Combine this weekend all helped their draft stock in some shape or form.

I thought offensive lineman Cameron Jurgens helped his stock the most. Jurgens quieted a lot of local critics questioning his decision to go pro by running a 4.91-second 40-yard dash.

I think Jurgens knew if he got into the combine, he would put up big numbers. He is an elite athlete. How many other athletes do you know that won shot put and discus all four years in high school and also played running back?

Jurgens thrives in this setting and he's not afraid to compete. I'll never forget after he won the state shot put and discus titles as a junior. He skipped the medal ceremony so he and his family could drive to St. Louis for the Rivals Camp Series event the next day. From there, Jurgens earned an invite to the Rivals Five Star Challenge - he's the last in-state prospect to take part in that event.

Going back and watching those old clips, Jurgens was catching passes as a tight end from Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields and Matt Corral. Little did he know he would be an offensive lineman a year later.

Give Scott Frost credit. He knew where to put Jurgens for his long-term future. That was something Rivals always had a hard time with when he was a recruit. Everyone agreed he was a four-star football player, but nobody knew where he fit best. The national team did not think he was a four-star tight end, but instead a four-star football player. Jurgens is now poised to play in the NFL for a long time.

WR Trey Palmer: Lots of strong reports out of spring practice Week 1 on WR Trey Palmer. He's poised to quickly become a leader and I'm told his speed has really flashed in practice.

OC Mark Whipple: So far, Mark Whipple is doing exactly what Scott Frost wanted and needed him to do. He's running the offense in practice. Frost can now sit back and watch as a head coach. It's a much different feel than the previous four years.

I know on Saturday it was very noticeable as he was able to visit more with some of the recruits in practice for NU's Junior Day. Before, that would have been very hard to do running the play script in practice.

On-campus recruiting events: Nebraska has now had three on-campus recruiting events in the last six weeks. They continue to get several key targets on campus, and Saturday NU hosted another successful event.

This is so important. Everyone wants to talk about how bad the 2021 class started off, and not having events like this played a huge factor. I get that every other team in the country was in the same boat, but Nebraska needs to get people on campus as much as anyone to debunk stereotypes and preconceived notions about the city of Lincoln and the state of Nebraska. These three events, along with the Apr. 9 Red-White game, should set things up very nicely for the 2023 recruiting class.

The best worst sports year ever: Here's my bad joke of the Weekly Rundown Column: 2021-2022 will go down as the best "worst" sports year ever.

Between all the stats provided about NU's 3-9 football season and now what's happening with Fred Hoiberg's squad being the first 20-loss team to win back-to-back games against ranked teams in over 50-years...I mean you can't make this stuff up. We may never see anything like this ever again.

These were my surprises of the week:

Nebraska basketball: Over the summer, when I spent some time around the basketball program, there was a high level of confidence from everyone. They all thought they had the pieces to make this go. That's why when NU got off to a historically bad start, it was hard to figure out why?

Now this team is playing at the level people inside the program thought we'd see all year. It's unfortunate it took this long, but this mini-run should stop the bleeding on basketball season ticket renewals for next year and make for a fun week in Indianapolis.

Husker fan rumors taking on a life of their own: Sometimes I don't know how these things get started? Here are some of my favorite Husker rumors over the years that were completely false:

-Bob Davie taking Frank Solich's DC job in 2002.

-Chris Del Conte was seen at a Husker game before Bill Moos was hired.

-A special USA Today story coming out on the Nebraska basketball team.

-Bo Pelini was resigning before the Penn State game in 2013.

-Bill Moos was going to be forced out in January of 2019.

This weekend we had another bizarre rumor hit the internet Husker echo chamber.

This weekend's fun was in regards to Nebraska's Aug. 27 game in Dublin. Social media speculation began to run wild Saturday that the game was going to be moved from Ireland to Las Vegas. There were no facts or anything behind this, just a few vague posts and the next thing you knew everyone was asking about it.

On Sunday, event organizer Brendan Meehan reached out to me confused about how and where any rumor like this would start. They control the event in Dublin and have a multi-million dollar signed agreement with both Nebraska and Northwestern, as the Wildcats gave up one of their home games to play in Ireland. If anything is going to happen to this game, Meehan is going to be the first to know.

"Where did they come from," Meehan asked in an email? "It's the first I have heard and I would like to think I would know!"

Chalk this one up to another crazy Husker rumor gone bad. Nothing has changed with the Aug. 27 game in Ireland. In fact, Nebraska is set to send over another group of officials sometime in April to check out the set-up again.

Questions still surround these things:

Defensive line depth: With no Casey Rogers in spring practice, depth is very much a concern on the defensive line. However, if you caught my Husker Chat Live on Friday, inside linebacker Garrett Nelson more or less confirmed they are defensive ends now. They even are doing some different things in the weight room than before.

With that said, they still need to get at least one more quality body on the defensive line that can play inside.

The "old guy" group in the secondary: Lots of guys in the secondary are in the "make or break" spring category. Travis Fisher calls his groups the "old guy group" and the "new guy group."

In that "old guy group," this is a big spring, particularly for guys like Noa Pola-Gates and Braxton Clark. Back in December, they were penciled in as possible starters, now five newcomers have joined the party this spring and will make that a very interesting battle.

The plan at offensive line: Lets call it what it is. Without Teddy Prochazka and Turner Corcoran going through spring ball, we are going to learn very little about the starting group. The main thing we are going to learn is about Donovan Raiola and the teaching style he brings to the table.

Moving forward, this has my attention:

Scrimmage 1 on Friday: Nebraska will practice Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week. The Huskers will use their first of three spring scrimmage dates on Friday. What will come out of this first scrimmage?

QB Casey Thompson: All reports are he had a good first week. What will the buzz be about Thompson this week when we get access to the team again? We have not talked to players or coaches since Monday.

Baseball weather this weekend: March weather in Nebraska is always fun. One day it can be 80 like last Wednesday and this weekend on Saturday it's going to drop down to 1 degree in Lincoln.

What happens with Husker baseball this weekend? Long Beach State comes into town for a three-game series Friday to Sunday. Friday looks like a no-go right now. Could they get one game in on Saturday? A double-header Sunday? Head coach Will Bolt told me Sunday they will have a better idea of the plan for this weekend today. I'm sure a lot depends on Long Beach State's travel plans.

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.