Nebraska lost Quinton Newsome, Omar Brown, and Phalen Sanford to graduation from a defensive backfield that exceeded expectations in 2023. Throw in Tamon Lynum transferring to Pitt and Javier Morton to Temple, while Corey Collier also entered this month (though he was no longer with the team) and you may think that we are in a bit of a predicament.
You would be wrong. Nebraska currently has 24 scholarship defensive backs on their roster for the 2024 season. So if you read nothing else from here on out, we are fine at DB considering that we return 3 starters out of the 5. I apologize in advance, because the practices i’ve been to there are so many dudes running around I can’t even keep them straight.
Known Commodities
We will start with the guys we know what we are getting and will be a Blackshirt. Isaac Gifford announced he was coming back for his fifth year, and that gives us our Rover to make sure that position is taken care of. While Deshon Singleton is being held out of most the spring after starting 5 games last year then being injured, I feel you can pencil him in as a starter as long as he is back healthy. That leads us to Tommi Hill, someone I have had a love/hate fandom with. He is one of those guys that will have a couple great games then try to do something amazing and forget his responsibility and let a big play happen on him. He’s good enough where if they can just curtail that little issue, he can be an all-conference player.
The Other Two Starting Spots
That leaves one corner to figure out and one safety. We will start with safety, as Marques Buford is back from his injury to 100% that they were making sure he was ok from. If he is truly 100% I expect him to be your other safety opposite of Singleton. With that said, Hartzog has been working at Rover behind Gifford, but he is more than capable of playing safety if Singleton or Buford isn’t ready. Koby Bretz while he probably isn’t ready to start just yet unless there’s some injuries is in the same boat as Hartzog, where he practices at Rover and Safety to give us some options.
The other corner spot is interesting. Hartzog played there a bit but they have shifted him to mainly the middle of the field. Blye Hill was an offer I was critical of, and that seemed to hold true the first week or two of spring. But once he figured out expectations and the defense, he seems poised to be the other corner opposite Tommi Hill right now.
Two guys that got some run early as true freshmen but had some injuries were Ethan Nation and Dwight Bootle II. Nation if you remember started getting some punt returns as a true freshman, he is someone I think the staff has a lot of excitement for. Bootle got injured but was pressing for time last year. The real question is if he is 100% healthy, and that’s what makes things really tough to predict.
Big Spring For Guys That Have Been Here For 1 Year
Nebraska brought in 6 players for their 2023 recruiting class that are still here, we mentioned Bootle. But the other 5 are D’Andre Barnes, Jeremiah Charles, Syncere Safeeullah, Rahmir Stewart, and Brice Turner. Stewart is someone that made some travel squads last year, so i’m curious how he looks on Saturday. Turner and Charles are burners that we need to figure out how they fit into the football program. Safeeullah is someone that is longer and rangey but definitely had an uphill battle to play. Lastly, Barnes was actually listed as Giffords backup last year a couple times, so how does he make a jump with Gifford back and Cooper stating he was focusing on Rover for Hartzog?
The 2024 Class
Nebraska brought in 10 defensive back recruits in the 2024 class and my head was already spinning trying to figure things out. You’ll notice in my depth chart prediction down below, that one of the spots just says “so many options”. While Cooper, White, and Rhule error on the side of having older guys play early, there’s no doubt in my mind one if not two of these guys will make a push to play a bit. I really am excited to see how some of these guys progress and quite frankly trying to give insight on them would be tough right now, so i’m just showing their recruiting rankings:
Plus Kahmir Prescott and Evan Taylor
2024 Looking Forward
The biggest thing is going to be finding the right 5. The defensive backfield reminds me a bit of offensive line right now that you hear when they say “we gotta find our best 5 combination.” There are a lot of guys that have came in and played multiple spots and finding where Bretz, Hartzog, or others can play best for us will go a long ways.
I am so looking forward to this spring game to watch so I can just figure out who looks like they want to be out there and who is just waiting to be done. With 24 scholarship/NIL players I expect at least a couple portal entries from the DB room which is just a bit too crowded right now.
2024 Depth Chart Prediction
CB1 – Tommi Hill
CB2 – Ethan Nation
Nickel – Isaac Gifford
Nickel – Malcom Hartzog OR Koby Bretz OR D’Andre Barnes
S1 – Deshon Singleton
S2 – So Many Options
S1 – Marques Buford OR Malcom Hartzog
S2 – Koby Bretz
CB1 – Blye Hill
CB2 – Dwight Bootle II
Tomorrow we will get into what we are wanting to see during the spring game and our transfer predictions.
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Hartzog is odd to me. I thought he had the corner spot locked down. Tommi Hill, Gifford and Singleton could be All-conference player if they stay healthy. We have options after them just not too that level yet. I am confused on you thoughts on Blye Hill. You have always said it is better to get a transfer player that has played, then a five star transfer that hasn’t. Blye fits that mold even tho it was in a very low college level.
I don’t even know if Blye HIll started at St Francis. He didn’t make any all-conference teams or anything like that, which is why i’m unsure of Blye Hill. Guys like Toure, Brown, even Kolarevic you knew were starters and were garnering All-American honors in FCS.