The Weekly Rundown: Putting a close on 2021 and the Husker sports year

The 2021 sports calendar officially comes to a close this week. We hit on that and more as we start your Monday off with the Weekly Rundown column.

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

COVID continues to disrupt the sports world: When COVID-19 took over our world in March of 2020, I don't think any of us could have imagined in our wildest dreams we'd still be seeing game cancelations in late December of 2021.

So far we've seen Virginia, Boston College, Miami, Hawaii and Texas A&M all back out of bowl games for COVID issues. We didn't see one COVID cancellation during the regular season because it would have gone down as a forfeit.

College football is different than any other major sports league. There are no uniform COVID protocols and testing procedures. We saw the NFL and NBA as of late deal with a recent spike of Omicron cases, but they have figured out a way to make things work. The unique structure of college football makes it difficult, with the near month-long break over December where coaches recruit, players take finals, and everyone typically goes home to celebrate the holidays.

In college football, where teams like Virginia and Miami have undergone head coaching changes, or in Texas A&M's case where you are playing in a bowl game beneath your standards, all of a sudden COVID finds a way to shut things down.

The people I feel bad for are the cities of Jacksonville and El Paso. The Gator Bowl has been played since 1946 and the Sun Bowl is the second-oldest bowl game that dates back to 1935 - it is one of the original five bowl games. The Gator Bowl has figured out a way to save their game with Rutgers. Will the Sun Bowl be as fortunate?

These are long-standing games with over 80+ years of tradition. I know the younger college football generation does not care about the bowls, but the history of the game was built on the backs of games like this. To put it in perspective, in 1946 there were just 10 bowl games, and the Sun Bowl and Gator Bowl were two of them.

Transfer portal QB drama: Once USC quarterback Kedon Slovis chose to transfer to Pittsburgh, it really left a lot of questions on what direction Nebraska would go in finding a transfer portal quarterback.

NU technically has until Jan. 18 to get a quarterback on campus, but you can sense the anxiousness in Husker fans as nobody has a clear read on what direction this is heading.

Frost now has room to make a RB's coach hire: Before the departure of defensive line coach Tony Tuioti, I don't think anyone had a clear read on how Scott Frost was going to fill his running backs coach job and hire a full-time special teams coordinator.

I think now we know. Mike Dawson can easily slide back down to the defensive line and still coach the boundary outside linebacker position. Erik Chinander can continue to coach the field outside linebackers, and Bill Busch can take over special teams and assist on defense. This paves the way for Frost to go out and get a running backs coach.

These were my surprises of the week:

Tony Tuioti's quick exit to Oregon: Other than Tuioti's time at his home state of Hawaii (2008-2013), he never spent more than two seasons at any coaching job other than Nebraska.

Was it a surprise still to see Tuioti move on to Oregon? Yes, only in the sense that so few on the defensive coaching staff have moved on at NU since 2018. At the same time, I totally get the move. The type of players Tuioti recruits, he's going to have more success landing them at Oregon than Nebraska. I'm also sure Tuioti probably got around a $100,000 pay bump to take the Oregon job.

Now I'm curious what will happen with his son Teitum Tuioti at Lincoln Southeast, who currently has Husker offers and has played all three of his years of high school football in Nebraska. Will he get an Oregon offer? Will he even consider the Big Red without his family in town anymore?

Marcus Castro-Walker: We hardly knew him, other than the guy who stood behind Scott Frost with his sunglasses on as NU's "get-back" coach. After one year in Lincoln, he'll take a similar job at Florida.

Questions still surround these things:

Roster management: Roster management is going to be tight. The NCAA will let teams sign up to 32 players going forward, with seven being portal replacements. You still have to be at 85 scholarships, though, by August. There are no super senior exceptions.

The temptation of the transfer portal is going to be tough for all schools, including Nebraska. If you see a player in the portal that is better than what you have then you have to take them. At the same time, you might have to cut loose a player on your current 85 to make room for a new player.

The roster management for NU is far from over. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in the coming months.

The plan for center in 2022: Spring football starts in two months. What we don't know is who will take the opening snaps at center. I'm not sure Donovan Raiola even knows that at this point.

Moving forward, this has my attention:

Big Ten teams in bowl games: It's hard to get too excited about a lot of these Big Ten Bowl games. The one that really intrigues me is obviously Michigan vs. Georgia, but my under-the-radar one is Purdue and Tennessee.

The Vols and the Boilermakers appear to be two highly-motivated programs that finished 2021 on a high note. I know Purdue is without their two best players, but they still have a chance to be one of the favorites in the Big Ten West for 2022.

I really like the Wolverines in their Orange Bowl match-up as well vs. Georgia. Jim Harbaugh's team is built to play against SEC teams.

It's a shame Pitt and Michigan State won't have their two best players in the Peach Bowl. I also fully expect Ohio State to handle Utah. I think you could see the Big Ten come out of bowl season with a very good record.

Ryan Held to North Alabama: Of Frost's four fired assistant coaches, only running backs coach Ryan Held has landed somewhere at this point. Held took the offensive coordinator and associate head coach job at North Alabama. It will be interesting to see if any of Frost's other assistants land jobs for the 2022 season.

Mark Whipple's contract details: We learned Raiola's and Mickey Joseph's contract details this past week. However, we still don't have the numbers for offensive coordinator Mark Whipple, who is expected to make between $850,000 to $900,000 per year. It will be interesting when those details are released.

Joseph, by the way, is only on a two-year deal. There were some reports initially that he may land a three-year contract from NU.

RB Jay Ducker: We speculated last week Northern Illinois's Jay Ducker was heading to the portal. Thus far the Bellevue West product has picked up an offer from Memphis. Schools like Nebraska and Iowa have had contact. Will the Huskers or Hawkeyes make an offer to Ducker?

Rutgers and Nebraska: I also found it fitting a year ago at this time Nebraska beat Rutgers and NU's players opted not to play in a bowl game in a very split vote. That same Greg Schiano-led team was out of practice for nearly a month this year, but they opted to play in the Gator Bowl vs. Wake Forest after Texas A&M withdrew for COVID reasons.

Now the Huskers and Kansas are the only two Power Five programs that have not played in a bowl game over the last five seasons. I'm sure that would have been a nice talking point for Frost to have a year ago to tell his football team. This bowl drought streak needs to end. That is one of the worst stats I've ever heard shared about Nebraska football in recent memory (and there have been some bad ones) and it all could have been avoided if NU took their bowl bid a year ago.

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.