Sad News: Nebraska Cornhuskers key star announce plan to enter NCAA Transfer Portal
With another transfer portal window opening next week, the coach offered a number of thoughts on the 105-man roster limit, what he tells his team, and where the process tends to go wrong.
Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule talked for several minutes about the transfer portal at his spring practice media availability Saturday.
“Players sometimes make a mistake going into the portal looking for an improved situation,” Rhule said. “Unless you’re not going to play somewhere, or you’re not going to be in the 105, then absolutely you should find somewhere.”
Rhule said he wants players to make the “right decision based on the right information.”
“Don’t come to me later and say, ‘well, they told me this but they end up doing that’,” Rhule said. “If you’ve been here and we’ve always told you the truth as best we know, then if we tell you, ‘hey this is where we see you’, then you should probably listen as opposed to somebody out there. Everybody out there always has something better for you. Make sure you’re listening to the right information and then do it the right way.”
Rhule’s message went beyond addressing the Huskers and was for college football players everywhere.
“I think too many outside people – parents, coaches – we’re always trying to find a better situation. If you really are an NFL player, or you’re really a great player, you’ll make your situation good enough by just getting better,” Rhule said. “If you’re going to listen to some other college coach tell you, ‘hey you’ll be the starter,’ then don’t call me afterwards and say, ‘well, I wasn’t the starter’.”
As for his own team, Rhule said those discussions now are similar to what was done for the last portal window.
“We told everybody in December, because that’s what I thought was fair, ‘hey, if we did the 105 right now you would be in the 105, you would be out of the 105, you would be competing for the 105’,” Rhule said. “We try to do that to be fair. We tried to be transparent since day one.”
Rhule believes Nebraska has the best opportunities for players looking to develop and improve over their time in college.
“If you stay in this place, and you stay in this weight room, this training facility, this training table for four years, you’re probably going to get developed,” Rhule said. “Chasing a better situation because you have a chance to go quicker but you’re not getting the same training and all that, it doesn’t make as much sense to me.
“If you’re at a place like this, you should really only leave if you’re never going to get on the field and you want to play.”
Dante Dowdell’s tenure in Lincoln will be a short-lived one. The Huskers running back has entered the transfer portal just one year after joining the program last offseason.
This is the second time that Dowdell has entered the transfer portal. He previously did so last offseason after his freshman season with the Oregon Ducks.
With the Huskers in the regular season, Dowdell played in all 12 games, totaling 143 carries for 614 yards and 12 touchdowns. He also had seven receptions for 21 yards.
Dowdell’s best performance of the season came in early September, a 17-carry game with 74 rushing yards and two touchdowns. He also had a two-touchdown performance against the UCLA Bruins in November, as well as a three-touchdown game against the Wisconsin Badgers in the penultimate game of the season.
Nebraska will now look to the transfer portal to try and find support for Emmett Johnson as the Huskers prepare to enter the 2025 season. Fans had strong opinions on the news of Dante Dowdell’s transfer, find their reactions below.
