Nebraska football fans expecting a spring game in 2025 should probably start to make other plans.

Nebraska AD Troy Dannen made his monthly appearance on the Husker Athletic Director's Show on Wednesday night and among other keynote topics – led by the news of John Cook's retirement and subsequent hiring of Dani Busboom Kelly as Cook's replacement – Dannen announced a date for the Huskers' spring game.

April 26 will be the final day of Nebraska football's spring practice slate. However, Dannen says, fans should not be anticipating any sort of traditional spring "game."

“I am not gonna call it a spring game, and I do not call it a spring game because I do not expect it to be a game,” Dannen said. “I don’t know what it’s gonna be just yet, and, really, that’s gonna be Matt’s call. But I will say that true ‘games,’ as we’ve known them, in the spring are falling by the wayside for a lot of reasons. But there’ll be something. I’m internally thinking more of a fall sports preview and maybe engaging volleyball and soccer in some way, shape or form – and really celebrate the fall sports and kind of whet the appetite for what lies ahead. The football staff is gonna figure out exactly what they want to do over the next few weeks. But it’s going to be the 26th of April, and at least we can circle the date there and then figure out what that looks like here down the line.”

Certainly, by the time that date arrives – or in the weeks and days leading up to it – Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule will have thoughts and ideas of what he wants the spring "game" to look like exactly. But that will be determined at a later date.

“I don’t know if he’s gonna want to wait until he gets into practice a little bit to see exactly what he wants out of it – whether it’s a 7-on-7 thing or whether he brings some alums back or whether they play flag football. I don’t know," Dannen said.

The Husker AD then referenced the 2024 spring game – which took place on April 27, a little more than a month after he was hired on March 20 – in which two promising young players, redshirt freshman receiver Demitrius Bell and FCS transfer cornerback Blye Hill, both suffered major knee injuries to their patellar tendons. Bell, whose injury was described by Rhule at time as being "significant," ultimately missed the entire 2024 season. Hill's was described as a "semi-significant" injury by Rhule, and he did return to the field mid-season after rehab.

"But a de-emphasis on the game part, the contact part (is a consideration)," Dannen said. "One of my first experiences here last year, we had two ACLs during that game. It’s a different era from a compensation standpoint in the NIL and the investment there. The transfer portal opens up right after those spring game dates. So, I expect something that’s not gonna be televised but something that will be a celebration of our athletes and we’ll get to see some skills and see what they’ve got and then go from there.”

Dannen's only other football-related note during his Wednesday night interview was a turf update, following the replacement of the old turf at Memorial Stadium and installation of new turf which began shortly after the team departed for its New York City bowl game in December.

“It looks good. I tweeted a picture of it, and people lost their collective minds because of this, that or the other thing," Dannen said. "But that turf’s in there. I’ve talked to the players. They deem it fast, they deem it soft. So far, so good with the players. Inside, it’s tough sometimes for that turf to settle, and there are many fewer pebbles so it’s much thicker grass, if you will. The plan going forward once again – and I’ve said this, but there’s still confusion so I will set the record straight – we’re gonna put new turf in the stadium after the spring. That turf will not be permanent. We’re not putting grass in there yet because when the stadium work is done, it’ll have to be done from the inside out. So that will tear the field up. So at the point in time that we start to work inside the stadium, we will take this turf up, find another place in our complex and reposition it so we will have another outdoor turf field. We haven’t figured out where that’s gonna be.

"Then, grass will follow at some point in time. But we will have the new turf in there, and it’s consistent turf from the two buildings. It’ll look a lot different but, yes, we have red end zones and there’s red on the outside of the end zones. And, no, I’m not worried about it. It’ll have a good aesthetic look, it’ll have a good feel, and when you’re recruiting the athletes right now that Coach Rhule is getting, fast is a good thing to have in your turf.”

Dannen added: “You only get one chance because when we put grass in, we’ll put a heated subsurface in to keep those roots alive, assuming we’re gonna be playing into December at some point in time. So there’s gonna be millions of dollars of expense in putting a good facility in there, and you don’t wanna tear it up.”