LINCOLN, Neb. — The transfer portal opened nationally on Monday. At Nebraska, the relative quiet represented a continued shift in mindset to seek stability and growth toward the long-term build.

It’s a risk, undoubtedly, to move against the grain in the transient world of college football and bank that enough talent to win will stick around for the ride. But the Huskers, with four head coaches in the past decade and too much roster upheaval in the past six years to produce even one winning season, are left with this as the best option.

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And it’s the way coach Matt Rhule wants to run his program.

“I just don’t know why we wouldn’t keep doing what we’re doing in terms of recruiting young players and developing them,” Rhule said last week after the Huskers closed his first season at the helm with four consecutive losses to finish 5-7.

One Nebraska player, tight end Jake Appleget, entered the portal Monday as chaos reigned elsewhere. Many schools saw in the range of six to 10 players head for the portal on Day 1.

6’4 240 ATH
3 Years of Eligibility

— Jake Appleget (@ApplegetJake) December 4, 2023

The Huskers have been there and done that.

Rhule began to hold individual meetings with his team late last week. He’s not pushing anyone out the door but said he’ll let players know where they stand.

Don’t expect portal season at Nebraska to look similar to last year, when the Huskers added 12 bodies to the roster from other Power 5 schools.

The numbers won’t allow it. Three to five additions appear reasonable. Including the committed recruits for 2024 and all players with remaining eligibility whose decisions remain unannounced, the scholarship count stands at 99. It must drop to 85 by August.

So there will be changes in the 30-day portal window that opened Monday.

Here’s what you can expect:

• The focus is on a quarterback. It’s the area of most significant need after the Huskers scored 18 points per game in 2023, their lowest figure in 55 years, and committed an FBS-leading 31 turnovers. The portal already is full of talented quarterbacks — the likes of Kyle McCord, who’s leaving Ohio State, Dillon Gabriel of Oklahoma, Cameron Ward of Washington State, Will Howard of Kansas State and Duke’s Riley Leonard.

I don’t see Jeff Sims coming back to Nebraska. He didn’t play in the final two games of the regular season, despite an injury that kept eight-game starter Heinrich Haarberg on the sideline and a groin problem that bothered Chubba Purdy for most of the season.

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The Huskers, adding January enrollee Daniel Kaelin out of Bellevue (Neb.) West, will need a QB from the portal.

Purdy, the starter last month against Wisconsin and Iowa, is set to graduate this month. Could he look at the portal after two seasons in Lincoln? If so, Nebraska would likely have to pursue another newcomer at the position.

• Rhule won’t sell out his guys. Barring a QB exodus, he’s not giving the job to an outsider. Such an approach led to trouble this year.

“Value your own roster as much as other people would if those guys went in the portal,” he said last week.

It’s easy to obsess about the turnovers and other negatives with Nebraska’s quarterbacks on track to return, Rhule said. He sees a lot of positives. He said he believes that Purdy possesses a high ceiling. If Purdy had played in important moments before the final three games, Rhule said, the fourth-year QB might have advanced to a higher level.

“Heinrich wasn’t even in QB meetings (in 2022),” Rhule said. “He wasn’t allowed to go to the meetings. I’m really proud of him. I just think with further development, those guys are going to be good players.

“I’m not stupid. It doesn’t mean I’m not looking for everything. I’m just trying to be very diligent about the process and making sure that we always think long-term unless someone (in the portal) is a huge impact player.”

• The Huskers may not stack up well in the eyes of the top available QBs against their competition. Sure, Nebraska can always play the cards that allow it to compete in recruiting. It’s got impressive facilities, especially with the full unveiling in 2024 of a training table, weight room and other amenities to go with the locker room that opened this fall. Nebraska’s resources are plentiful. Its tradition remains rich.

But transfer QBs are looking for more. NIL opportunities are essential. Rhule said a top QB from the portal can expect to earn $1 million to $2 million in NIL payments.

How much can the 1890 Initiative, Nebraska’s NIL collective, pay for a top QB? More importantly, can it pay as much or more in donor-driven funds as other top programs that are competing in this environment for championships?

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The Huskers’ lack of recent success, their inconsistency at QB and a nonexistent pipeline to the NFL at the position make the task difficult to lure a ready-made signal caller.

• On the high end, Nebraska could battle for Howard, a 6-foot-5 Pennsylvanian who threw for 2,643 yards and 24 touchdowns as a fourth-year junior this season at K-State. The Huskers are eyeing him, but so are Wisconsin, USC and others.

Perhaps more realistic is a young QB like Sam Leavitt, who’s set to leave Michigan State after one season. Leavitt, 6-2 out of Oregon, completed 15 of 23 passes for 139 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions in playing in four games for the Spartans in 2022. A four-star prospect last year, he has four seasons of remaining eligibility.

All potential transfer and returning quarterbacks will want to know in their decision process about Rhule’s plans for the offense in 2024. This year, the Huskers attempted 261 passes, more among FBS teams than only Navy, Army and Air Force. (Incredibly, they ranked 124th out of 133 teams with 16 interceptions.)

• Nebraska could use an experienced wide receiver out of the portal. Aside from Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda returning from injury, and Marcus Washington, hurt in 2023 and in need of a waiver for a sixth season of eligibility, no pass catcher on the roster has played a key role for more than one season.

The Huskers need another running back, either in the 2024 recruiting class or out of the portal. They could use an offensive tackle who’s ready to play and possibly a linebacker.

• Finally, prepare for an unpleasant surprise or two. Nebraska lost talent in linebacker Ernest Hausmann (to Michigan) and running back Ajay Allen (to Miami) after their true freshman seasons a year ago. It happens.

Rhule’s primary concern with NIL is that schools use it to “buy people off another roster.”

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“You think about how you recruit somebody and you develop them for two years and then someone comes in and takes them,” Rhule said. “And that coach gets fired.”

Rhule said he supports creating new opportunities for players through NIL and the portal. The downside of the portal season now underway, he said, remains unavoidable.

(Top photo: Reese Strickland / USA Today)