April 23, 2025 • 8 mins
Sean Callahan: Huskers Looking to Close Out Spring Practice on a High Note
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Woo.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
It's just it's a good time to be in Nebraska.
With spring you got a little bit of the excitement
also of what the football team is going to be
up to. And I know it's a bit different than
it used to be with spring practice, but that doesn't
mean the coverage has changed. And our Husker insider Sean
Callahan for Husker Buzz joining us on the phone line today, Sean,
how you feeling today.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Good afternoon. Yeah. As we get closer to Saturday, there,
it's starting to look more like a spring game. As
we get every day we learn more about what this
thing is going to be. But we're going to see
some football, at least sixty plays of scrimmage work from
primarily second and thirteen players. None of the key starters
will play, and probably the key number twos, but you'll
(00:46):
see a good You know, there's probably one hundred and
twenty players on the spring roster, and I would adventure
I guess you're going to see well over half of
that one twenty play on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
It's quite interesting to see exactly how this has been
being handled. I know that we've talked about this and
maybe it's a good idea for us to kind of
remind our listeners listening in drive time around Omaha and
Lincoln about why things have changed as far as the
spring game is concerned, and why it's so important for
(01:17):
at least Nebraska not to have those certain guys get
on the field with cameras everywhere and a lot of
coverage around them. Can you kind of explain what the
thinking is as to why this has changed so drastically
from the spring game we knew even just a few
years ago.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, I mean everybody does a different you know, Iowa,
for example, has really never done a true spring game.
They've always just kind of done a fifteenth practice or
an open practice, but not like a big crowd, you know,
stage game like Nebraska and so, and they've done that
for years under Kirk Farence. Or they've gone to like
high schools and done an open practice for fans in
Des Moines, you know, something like that. But with the
(01:57):
transfer portal open right now, I think coaches everywhere ultimately
cautious about what they show up their team of their players.
And I ranted the spring game Saturday a day after
the portal closes, so that doesn't really matter. I do
think also the nil element. When you are investing, in
(02:18):
some cases over a million dollars into certain players, you
don't really want to get them hurt in something like that.
A year ago, Nebraska had two players get hurt in
the spring game that suffered season ending injuries, cornerback Bly
Hill and wide receiver Demetrius Bell. And I think those
things kind of cross the mind of a coach too.
(02:38):
But yeah, I also just think rules he understands the
need to do something, and I'm glad that we're going
to see some football. It's just not going to be
your starters going out there now. The starters might still
be involved in some of the skill competitions and those things,
just not the live scrimmage works.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yeah. So I find this fascinating too because this has
come on the same heels of, you know, understanding what
the new NCUBA rule book looks like and how things
are changing on that front too, and in that relationship
right with the NIL with the transfer portal, I mean
you're seeing the I mean actual disputes about what players
think they're worth and they say I'm not staying at
(03:18):
the school if I'm not getting this amount of money.
I mean, it's difficult for traditional fans of college football
to try to come to terms with it. But how
does the new NCUBA rules kind of morph into this?
And I know that this has everything to do also
with how the roster is going to be built moving.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Forward as we've grown with NIL and the transfer portal
with just continue to change every year. And you know,
in NIL first started, I think everyone was dumb enough
to believe that it was going to be just legit
endorsements and you know, cool marketing opportunities for athletes. But
they quickly turned into organized shell companies that figured out
(03:57):
ways to raise money and pay athletes. It happened pretty quickly,
and it's gotten bigger and bigger and bigger, to the
point now where there is a rep share that house
settlement case is going to settle on here and they're
going to get twenty and a half million dollars to
pay athletes with annually, and that number will go up
every year. So the hope is that when we get
(04:18):
to that, there's at least a salary cap, and of
that twenty and a half, you know, football is going
to get probably between let's just say fourteen and sixteen
million dollars of it and the rest would go to
your other sports on campus if you're a school that
has football, but the X factor is still moving forward
will be the collectives because the collectives will still be
(04:39):
able to operate. And I do think this is where
if you have an organized structure in place, you're going
to have an advantage. If you're you know, already tied
to major companies and your collective, they're going to be
able to kind of maneuver those donations to the collectives
as legitimate nil deals now for the key athletes that
those companies want to get behind, which they're going to
(05:01):
be a part of the recruiting package that you have
to use, and that will be a big separator from
the haves and have nots if you're able to not
only have that full twenty and a half million, but
figure out ways to continue to fundraise with your collective
and create other big opportunities financially for your recruits and
transfer portal additions.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
It's wild as Sean Callahan joining us, and it just
makes it just so crazy, right and I know the
windows closing, right, like the transfer portal? When does that
close for the spring Friday?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
So Friday night at midnight? So when that spring game
starts Saturday, or read the Husker Games events. They're calling it.
The portal is closed. Now there's a thought that it
will have to reopen for anybody that is not a
part of the one to zero five moving forward, But
we still don't know that. I mean, that house settlement
case continues to kind of drag along where we may
(05:55):
not have an answer on anything until you another week.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
So I guess that was That's my biggest question, is
you know, like, is the recruiting aspect of even just
trying to keep your team intact, like you mentioned the
one oh five and how all of this is going
to operate moving forward and the makeup of what a
roster looks like versus what it looked like just a
few years ago. How important is just the consistent recruiting
(06:20):
of your own players to keep them here or do
you feel like the new age way of coaching college
football is to encourage players to hit the portal if
you just have nowhere to play them.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Well, ideally, the name of the game is to get
the most bang for your buck. You want to get
your own players and develop them and then plug in
pieces that you might be missing from a portal you
don't want to go full portal every year because that's
just not sustainable. What is sustainable, though, is to maybe
get you know, fifteen really good high school recruits and
(06:52):
then plug in your portal numbers. I mean, you're just
not going to be able to take as many players
annually as you once did before. When you to one
oh five, there there is no wiggle room anymore where
you know, you could sign pretty freely in the past,
because you have to worry about a roster number. And
you know, like right now, if you counted the players
on the chart for Nebraska, there's about one hundred players
(07:14):
that I would categorize as scholarship players, and they are
able to get over the eighty five because of the nil.
So what does that do. It leaves you in a
spot where there's about thirty players that are walk on
that you know, you have to figure out what the
next move is, and you know, probably twenty of those
players are going to have to find a new school.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Unfortunately, it's just crazy what this new age world is.
But it is still exciting to watch the team on
the field. And I know that we're talking a lot
of the ins and the outs of roster building instead
of what we hope to see necessarily on the field
in August in September. But this is all part of
the game now, Seohn Callahan with us every step of
(07:54):
the way. I'm going to miss you for a couple
of weeks here Sean, heading on vacation, but I really
appreciate all the great work that you've done. Hopefully we
get a chance to kind of rerack the stack after
all this kind of settles down here, and we always
appreciate your insights, So thanks so much for being a
part of the show today.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I enjoy the vacation and let's let's let's catch up
when you get back.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yeah heck, yeah, that's what we're gonna do. And we
really appreciate all that Sean does for us to help
us understand the ever changing landscape of college football and
collegiate sports as it really relates to the Huskers.
Woo.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
It's just it's a good time to be in Nebraska.
With spring you got a little bit of the excitement
also of what the football team is going to be
up to. And I know it's a bit different than
it used to be with spring practice, but that doesn't
mean the coverage has changed. And our Husker insider Sean
Callahan for Husker Buzz joining us on the phone line today, Sean,
how you feeling today.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Good afternoon. Yeah. As we get closer to Saturday, there,
it's starting to look more like a spring game. As
we get every day we learn more about what this
thing is going to be. But we're going to see
some football, at least sixty plays of scrimmage work from
primarily second and thirteen players. None of the key starters
will play, and probably the key number twos, but you'll
(00:46):
see a good You know, there's probably one hundred and
twenty players on the spring roster, and I would adventure
I guess you're going to see well over half of
that one twenty play on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
It's quite interesting to see exactly how this has been
being handled. I know that we've talked about this and
maybe it's a good idea for us to kind of
remind our listeners listening in drive time around Omaha and
Lincoln about why things have changed as far as the
spring game is concerned, and why it's so important for
(01:17):
at least Nebraska not to have those certain guys get
on the field with cameras everywhere and a lot of
coverage around them. Can you kind of explain what the
thinking is as to why this has changed so drastically
from the spring game we knew even just a few
years ago.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, I mean everybody does a different you know, Iowa,
for example, has really never done a true spring game.
They've always just kind of done a fifteenth practice or
an open practice, but not like a big crowd, you know,
stage game like Nebraska and so, and they've done that
for years under Kirk Farence. Or they've gone to like
high schools and done an open practice for fans in
Des Moines, you know, something like that. But with the
(01:57):
transfer portal open right now, I think coaches everywhere ultimately
cautious about what they show up their team of their players.
And I ranted the spring game Saturday a day after
the portal closes, so that doesn't really matter. I do
think also the nil element. When you are investing, in
(02:18):
some cases over a million dollars into certain players, you
don't really want to get them hurt in something like that.
A year ago, Nebraska had two players get hurt in
the spring game that suffered season ending injuries, cornerback Bly
Hill and wide receiver Demetrius Bell. And I think those
things kind of cross the mind of a coach too.
(02:38):
But yeah, I also just think rules he understands the
need to do something, and I'm glad that we're going
to see some football. It's just not going to be
your starters going out there now. The starters might still
be involved in some of the skill competitions and those things,
just not the live scrimmage works.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yeah. So I find this fascinating too because this has
come on the same heels of, you know, understanding what
the new NCUBA rule book looks like and how things
are changing on that front too, and in that relationship
right with the NIL with the transfer portal, I mean
you're seeing the I mean actual disputes about what players
think they're worth and they say I'm not staying at
(03:18):
the school if I'm not getting this amount of money.
I mean, it's difficult for traditional fans of college football
to try to come to terms with it. But how
does the new NCUBA rules kind of morph into this?
And I know that this has everything to do also
with how the roster is going to be built moving.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Forward as we've grown with NIL and the transfer portal
with just continue to change every year. And you know,
in NIL first started, I think everyone was dumb enough
to believe that it was going to be just legit
endorsements and you know, cool marketing opportunities for athletes. But
they quickly turned into organized shell companies that figured out
(03:57):
ways to raise money and pay athletes. It happened pretty quickly,
and it's gotten bigger and bigger and bigger, to the
point now where there is a rep share that house
settlement case is going to settle on here and they're
going to get twenty and a half million dollars to
pay athletes with annually, and that number will go up
every year. So the hope is that when we get
(04:18):
to that, there's at least a salary cap, and of
that twenty and a half, you know, football is going
to get probably between let's just say fourteen and sixteen
million dollars of it and the rest would go to
your other sports on campus if you're a school that
has football, but the X factor is still moving forward
will be the collectives because the collectives will still be
(04:39):
able to operate. And I do think this is where
if you have an organized structure in place, you're going
to have an advantage. If you're you know, already tied
to major companies and your collective, they're going to be
able to kind of maneuver those donations to the collectives
as legitimate nil deals now for the key athletes that
those companies want to get behind, which they're going to
(05:01):
be a part of the recruiting package that you have
to use, and that will be a big separator from
the haves and have nots if you're able to not
only have that full twenty and a half million, but
figure out ways to continue to fundraise with your collective
and create other big opportunities financially for your recruits and
transfer portal additions.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
It's wild as Sean Callahan joining us, and it just
makes it just so crazy, right and I know the
windows closing, right, like the transfer portal? When does that
close for the spring Friday?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
So Friday night at midnight? So when that spring game
starts Saturday, or read the Husker Games events. They're calling it.
The portal is closed. Now there's a thought that it
will have to reopen for anybody that is not a
part of the one to zero five moving forward, But
we still don't know that. I mean, that house settlement
case continues to kind of drag along where we may
(05:55):
not have an answer on anything until you another week.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
So I guess that was That's my biggest question, is
you know, like, is the recruiting aspect of even just
trying to keep your team intact, like you mentioned the
one oh five and how all of this is going
to operate moving forward and the makeup of what a
roster looks like versus what it looked like just a
few years ago. How important is just the consistent recruiting
(06:20):
of your own players to keep them here or do
you feel like the new age way of coaching college
football is to encourage players to hit the portal if
you just have nowhere to play them.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Well, ideally, the name of the game is to get
the most bang for your buck. You want to get
your own players and develop them and then plug in
pieces that you might be missing from a portal you
don't want to go full portal every year because that's
just not sustainable. What is sustainable, though, is to maybe
get you know, fifteen really good high school recruits and
(06:52):
then plug in your portal numbers. I mean, you're just
not going to be able to take as many players
annually as you once did before. When you to one
oh five, there there is no wiggle room anymore where
you know, you could sign pretty freely in the past,
because you have to worry about a roster number. And
you know, like right now, if you counted the players
on the chart for Nebraska, there's about one hundred players
(07:14):
that I would categorize as scholarship players, and they are
able to get over the eighty five because of the nil.
So what does that do. It leaves you in a
spot where there's about thirty players that are walk on
that you know, you have to figure out what the
next move is, and you know, probably twenty of those
players are going to have to find a new school.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Unfortunately, it's just crazy what this new age world is.
But it is still exciting to watch the team on
the field. And I know that we're talking a lot
of the ins and the outs of roster building instead
of what we hope to see necessarily on the field
in August in September. But this is all part of
the game now, Seohn Callahan with us every step of
(07:54):
the way. I'm going to miss you for a couple
of weeks here Sean, heading on vacation, but I really
appreciate all the great work that you've done. Hopefully we
get a chance to kind of rerack the stack after
all this kind of settles down here, and we always
appreciate your insights, So thanks so much for being a
part of the show today.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I enjoy the vacation and let's let's let's catch up
when you get back.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yeah heck, yeah, that's what we're gonna do. And we
really appreciate all that Sean does for us to help
us understand the ever changing landscape of college football and
collegiate sports as it really relates to the Huskers.
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