Nebraska's Scott Frost (center) talks to his players during a media timeout in 2018 against Northwestern at Ryan Field in Evanston, Ill.
One of Nebraska’s prized additions from the 2020 football recruiting class is poised to make his Husker debut Saturday against Northwestern.
Junior college transfer Omar Manning is “ready to play,” Nebraska coach Scott Frost told reporters Thursday morning as his team wrapped up the heavy lifting of its game preparations.
Manning missed practice time both for injury reasons and personal reasons in the lead-up to the season and did not make the trip to Ohio State, but Frost gave the strongest indication yet that his debut could be at hand.
Manning, 6-foot-4, 225-pound Texas native, is a different type of receiver from a physical standpoint. He may well have played had the Huskers hosted Wisconsin last weekend.
"The key is getting him healthy and confident,” receivers coach and offensive coordinator Matt Lubick said Oct. 27. “He is getting healthy. Confidence is knowing your assignment, repping it over and over, and that takes practice, and he's doing a good job of it."
Frost also said that freshman receivers Alante Brown and Marcus Fleming continue to make progress as well.
“Those guys are close,” Frost said. “I think the younger receivers are doing a good job coming along and I think Coach Lubick is doing a good job bringing them along. For a bunch of different reasons, I think they all got set back a little bit, whether it was the virus or an injury or an absence, but they’re getting close. Will Nixon is the one that was hurt in the spring and we’d love to have him, but he’s out for the year. I think the rest of the guys are getting better every day and the old receivers are doing a good job of being good teammates and helping them and teaching them.
“I think we’ll have a role for some of those guys this week or soon after.”
Reimer ready: That wasn’t the only good news on the personnel front for Nebraska on Thursday.
Frost said sophomore inside linebacker Luke Reimer is also set to make his season debut.
Scott Frost chats with reporters Thursday before Nebraska football travels to take on Northwestern on Saturday.
Reimer, the former Lincoln North Star standout and walk-on, had "a little bit of an ankle" injury that caused him to miss the Huskers' season opener, but he's back to work and should fit into a rotation with seniors Collin Miller and Will Honas against Northwestern.
“Luke Reimer is a guy I’ve been impressed with since he stepped onto campus,” Frost said. “That’s one spot where we don’t have a ton of depth, so we have to make sure we stay healthy. It’ll be nice to be able to rotate those guys and we have several good players that can go in.”
The only other expected contributor who didn’t play against OSU was defensive lineman Jordon Riley, who had a minor injury but was close enough to playing that he made the trip with the team. So, the Huskers could be closer to a healthy team defensively against the Wildcats.
Stoll avoids serious injury: Senior tight end Jack Stoll took a nasty hit to the left knee against Ohio State on Oct. 24, but Frost indicated Thursday that the senior from Colorado avoided a serious injury.
Asked if he was hopeful Stoll would return this season, Frost said "absolutely."
Whether that means he’ll be back against Northwestern or if he’ll miss a couple of weeks remains to be seen, but that certainly counts as good news for Stoll and the Huskers.
Travel roster considerations: Nebraska plays its second straight road game of the season, which means it will again be limited to bringing 74 players along to Evanston. Two weeks ago, the Huskers used 61 out of 73 in uniform — Riley was not suited up — and only had a few here and there that didn’t see the field at some point. Part of that was due to the lopsided nature of the game in the second half, but the Huskers will have Manning and Reimer on the trip this time, too.
“It’s tough every week,” Frost said. “There’s a lot of guys we’d love to take that we can’t, whether it’s for experience or depth. We have those meetings twice a week, Tuesday and Thursday, and we’ll do the best we can.”
— Parker Gabriel
10 Huskers most likely to have fans buzzing
Wan'Dale Robinson
As a freshman, Robinson flashed his electrifying playmaking ability and topped 1,000 all-purpose yards. As a sophomore, he’s hoping he’s behind nagging hamstring issues and projects to have a huge role in the Husker offense.
Robinson has been used in a variety of ways on the football field and he’s also quickly become a staple off of it, too. He spoke at NU’s announcement of its $155 million football facility project last fall, he’s featured in a recruiting video recently produced by the school, and he’s regularly brought up by recruits considering Nebraska. He’s already a face of the program.
Luke McCaffrey
McCaffrey might not be in line to start at quarterback, but many are excited to see just how head coach Scott Frost and company decide to use him. Package player? Spot duty? One thing that’s clear: McCaffrey is an explosive player and NU needs as many of those as possible.
McCaffrey, remember, didn’t play quarterback full time until his senior year of high school, which only adds to the intrigue considering now he has additional months to add strength and also to further immerse himself into quarterback play.
Ty Robinson
The big man from Arizona opened eyes with the way he held up against Wisconsin last fall and now hopes to be a full-time player. At 6-foot-6 and about 325 pounds, Robinson might be the most promising young defensive lineman the Huskers have had in years.
Ideally, Robinson would be a defensive end who can rush the passer and also be stout at the point of attack. The Huskers think he has the versatility, though, to play up and down the line as needed.
Omar Manning
NU lacked perimeter playmakers in 2019 and had no physically imposing receivers. Manning is being counted on to solve both problems at 6-4 and 225 pounds. Husker fans have watched his dominating junior college film and wonder what might be in store in Lincoln. Manning will be interesting to watch because it may not take much for him to put himself back on NFL radar screens. Any type of late fall or winter season might be as important for Manning as for any player on the NU roster.
Cam Taylor-Britt
The secondary’s Swiss Army knife played multiple positions as a sophomore and dealt with injuries, leading to some uneven play. He also made a lot of big plays, though, including a pick-six against Iowa. He’ll be among the defense’s leaders and could be a big, physical corner for Travis Fisher this fall. Taylor-Britt has plenty of competition, including the newest addition to the secondary in juco transfer Nadab Joseph. One of the things the staff likes about Taylor-Britt, though, is he never seems to shy away from a challenge.
Cameron Jurgens
Jurgens took his lumps as a redshirt freshman when he was thrown into the fire as Nebraska’s starting center and struggled with the first step of the position: snapping the ball. The Beatrice native, though, settled in as the season went along and ended up showing signs of why the coaching staff is so high on his prospects by the time the season ended. Another year will do him good across the board. He’s bigger and stronger, he’s been healthy for an extended period of time now and he’s got a better understanding of the offense and his extensive responsibilities in the middle of the offensive line. Greg Austin calls it “command presence.” Jurgens has that now, along with a lot of snaps under his belt.
Travis Vokolek
Like many of these entries, there are multiple players who could qualify here. At tight end, Vokolek will draw eyes because he’s the newcomer in the room. The Rutgers transfer sat out the 2019 season because of NCAA transfer rules but drew rave reviews from pretty much everybody that saw him work on the scout team. At 6-6 and 250 pounds, the Missouri native fits the bill in Sean Beckton’s physically imposing position group. The Huskers have had periods of quality play from Jack Stoll, Austin Allen and Kurt Rafdal over the past two years, but nobody has truly emerged as a dangerous weapon in the pass game. Maybe Vokolek will, or perhaps it will be somebody else in the room.
Deontai Williams
Nebraska thought Williams was in for a big season in 2019 before he suffered a season-ending injury less than one quarter into the first game of the season. Williams, though, is healthy now, and head coach Scott Frost and secondary coach Travis Fisher have consistently expressed excitement about what his future holds. Williams was a part-time player in 2018 and made some big plays despite being in the midst of learning NU’s defense. He’s had a long road from being an SEC recruit out of high school, through the junior college ranks and now into his third season already with the Huskers. Can he prove himself to be ready for the next level?
Caleb Tannor
Tannor is part of Frost’s first recruiting class at Nebraska and already is going into his third year in the program. He’s played a lot over his first two seasons but still hasn’t shown the ability to be an every-down Big Ten outside linebacker. Fans and coaches have seen the flashes from Tannor, though. He’s got a new position coach this year in Mike Dawson, who oversaw the NU defensive line in 2018 before spending 2019 with the New York Giants. Will it click for Tannor? At 6-2 and 220 pounds, he’s not perhaps going to be a true run-stuffer, but if he can hold up at the point of attack and get to the quarterback, he would be a major upgrade at the position for the Huskers.
Adrian Martinez
You didn’t think we were going to make it through the whole list without the starting quarterback, did you?
Martinez didn’t play as well as he would have liked in 2019; his completion percentage backtracked to less than 60% and he turned the ball over too often. Martinez, though, is still in prime position to be the Huskers’ starting quarterback for a third straight season.
The Fresno, California, native has shown the ability to make explosive plays through the air and with his legs, especially when he’s healthy. He needs to be more accurate and more decisive in the passing game, but if he takes those steps as a junior — and has more talent around him along with a veteran offensive line — the chance for a big jump forward is there.
Contact the writer at pgabriel@journalstar.com or 402-473-7439. On Twitter @HuskerExtraPG.
Parker Gabriel
Husker football reporter
Parker joined the Journal Star as the University of Nebraska football beat writer in August 2017. He previously covered Montana State athletics for the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 2012.
