The Nebraska football team didn't have a great season this year in Matt Rhule's first year as head coach, but the Cornhuskers are building a lot of momentum towards next season. Nebraska won just five games in 2023 and failed to make a bowl game, but this program continues to look like they are right on the edge of a major breakthrough. Perhaps that breakthrough could come in 2024, and Rhule and the Cornhuskers are building momentum towards that with recruiting and the transfer portal.

First, Nebraska football recently picked up a historic commitment from the top quarterback in the 2024 recruiting class, Dylan Raiola. Raiola originally committed to play his college football at Georgia, but he decided to flip over to the Cornhuskers.

Now, Nebraska is picking up some momentum in the transfer portal as well. One of their top targets is Oregon football transfer running back Dante Dowdell. So far, it sounds like running backs coach EJ Barthel and the Cornhuskers are making a good impression on Dowdell and his family.

“He said he believed Dante could make an early impact at Nebraska,” Dante Dowdell's father, Lawrence Hopkins, said, according to an article from the Omaha World-Herald. “That was a huge factor to at least draw a visit.”

A big reason for Dowdell's transfer decision is that he wasn't able to redshirt his freshman season at Oregon. Dowdell ran the ball 17 times for 90 yards and one touchdown. He appeared in six games, so he can't redshirt. Now, time is ticking, and the RB room at Oregon is loaded. That is why Dowdell decided to transfer, and now he could end up at Nebraska.

“That was a waste,” Hopkins said in regards to his son's season at Oregon. “Running backs are so expendable these days, so there’s no time to waste. The best thing for him was to seek a better opportunity to where a program actually needs him and doesn’t have such a great problem as Oregon does.”

Not only will Dowdell have an impact at Nebraska, but Rhule thinks that, if you're a running back, this is a good place to be. The style of play in the Big Ten is to run the ball down your opponent's throat, and running backs are going to be used a lot in this conference.

“Running backs should want to come here and play,” Rhule recently said. “We kind of revamped the way we play, and we ran the ball well this year, so we'll go and try to find a tailback that will really help us in next year's class. But if one comes along before then, let's do it.”

It's not a sure thing that Dowdell ends up with the Nebraska football team, but so far, it sounds like the Cornhuskers are doing a good job recruiting him. It'll be interesting to see where he ends up.