Spring Preview: Linebacker

This position group is very interesting to me. It’s a case of an embarrassment of riches at the JACK spot, and trying our best to find depth at the ILB spot. Last year, Nebraska had Reimer, Henrich, Bullock and Javin Wright were your staples in the middle. Henrich had to retire medically from the game which gave way to Wright getting more snaps. We somehow convinced Bullock to come back with Reimer leaving, which is huge. But the backups are going to need to come along in a hurry. We will start the preview with the more proven area, the JACK spot. Nebraska seemed to insert whomever they wanted into that role and they thrived.

The “Knowns”
Nebraska seemed to mix and match well here… the Minnesota game saw Chief Borders, Jimari Butler, and MJ Sherman as your JACK LBs on the depth chart. But Borders and Butler shifted to DE throughout the season and Sherman never really took hold. Eventually, you saw Gbayor and Umanmiellen starting to assert themselves at the JACK spot. Umanmiellen is the guy i’d watch to start here, but he’s been out this spring with an injury. That has given a chance to a guy like Borders who came back from the DE spot to help out at this position, and they are more than confident with him there.

Kai Wallin is another player that moved from DE to JACK like Borders did, and I think he can thrive there just as much as Borders is.

Gbayor and Sherman they are trying at ILB a little bit to get some depth, so it will be interesting to see what comes of that. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sherman part ways with us honestly. But back to Gbayor, he started the last few games at JACK for us and really did well, so i’m hoping we find some depth at ILB elsewhere and we can let him and Umanmiellen rotate at starting JACK.

Maverick Noonan was actually making some noise early in his career with the Huskers, getting the best of many of his freshmen teammates, but a knee injury has set him back. If he can recover from that, I expect him to make some noise in the next year or two. But will be be able to in 2024? Remains to be seen.

Nebraska brought in Willis McGahee IV in their recruiting class and have him slotted for that spot. While I think he’s talented, might be a year or two away yet depending on how some of our more seasoned guys do.

The Issue
So now we move to ILB. Bullock and Wright I think are great starters for us. Bullock has actually been practicing on some punt team stuff and i’d prefer for them to just keep him strictly to ILB on defense duties to limit his snaps for when we need them. We have plenty of guys we can throw on punt and punt return. Wright probably still needs some volume to get going, but I expect a big jump from him this year.

But White likes to play 4 ILBs, so they brought Gbayor and Sherman inside from the JACK spot. I expect Gbayor to make some noise and be our third guy here.

Nebraska also brought in Syracuse transfer that DC White was familiar with in Stefon Thompson to play the ILB spot. He’s familiar with the 3-3-5 and should be able to at least add some quality depth. There were some weight issues early on, so hopefully that is remedied on his end.

Another guy i’m really intrigued with is Gage Stenger. He is a ballhawk who is always around where the play is. They moved him out of the DB/Nickel spot to ILB and I think he is a guy that could end up being a bit like Bullock, he just needs to add some good weight yet.

Nebraska brought in Dylan Rogers last year and Vincent Shavers this year for the ILB spot. I have heard really good things about Shavers so far. With that said, Rhule is kind of a master of playing the media game to encourage his players and keep momentum going.

2024 Prediction
The JACK spot will be fine, no need to worry there at all. With that said, ILB is where we need to figure things out. We are fine with starters but someone needs to assert themselves in that 4th/5th spot. Our DL will be great in front of them, so it’s going to be about who learns the defense and can be in the right spot at the right time who gets the playing time.

We will have 3 solid ILBs in Bullock, Wright, and Gbayor, let’s just find those other few.

Depth Chart Prediction
Jack1 – Umanmiellen
Jack2 – Borders
Jack3 – Wallin OR Williams OR Noonan

ILB1 – Bullock
ILB2 – Thompson

ILB1 – Wright OR Gbayor
ILB2 – Shavers OR Stenger

Make sure to check out our other position previews! Tomorrow we will have what we are looking for in the spring game and our predictions for transfers!