LINCOLN, Neb. — In the days after Nebraska hired Matt Rhule as its coach, the first objective of his staff involved the reconstruction of a recruiting class. Notably, it needed to start at the line of scrimmage, a point of emphasis within the Rhule blueprint that often had gone undervalued during the Huskers’ Big Ten residency.
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The new coaches inherited a core group of three committed, in-state recruits on the offensive line who they supplemented with another addition out of high school and one from the transfer portal.
Defensively, Nebraska was behind. Of the eight newcomers on the defensive line set to open preseason practice late this summer, only one was on board with the Huskers when Rhule took over. The work to shape the future of the defensive front in one month after Rhule’s Nov. 28 introduction may stand as the most pivotal accomplishment in the first days of this regime.
More than 66,000 fans watched last month at Memorial Stadium as Princewill Umanmielen and Cameron Lenhardt, early enrolling freshmen, contributed four tackles apiece while playing with the No. 1 defense in the Red-White game. Umanmielen’s sack of Heinrich Haarberg for a 16-yard loss was a highlight of the scrimmage.
One or both of the rookie defenders could start to open the 2023 season.
In the building on that day were others from the impressive new haul of defensive linemen. Elijah Jeudy, a Texas A&M transfer, played with the starters and recorded five tackles to go with a forced fumble. Junior college transfer Kai Wallin registered four tackles, including a sack and two stops behind the line of scrimmage in addition to a fumble recovery.
And out of uniform, Riley Van Poppel and Vincent Carroll-Jackson, en route to finishing high school this month, nodded in approval at the initial signs of transformation under first-year defensive line coach Terrance Knighton and new coordinator Tony White.
“It was eye-opening,” Van Poppel said.
Said Carroll-Jackson: “It made me feel real good, because Coach Rhule, he sticks to his word. If he says you can play, no matter your year in school, you can play.”
Vincent Carroll-Jackson didn’t play football until his senior year of high school in Pennsylvania. (Courtesy of Vincent Carroll-Jackson)Van Poppel and Carroll-Jackson make for an interesting duo and an intriguing fit in White’s 3-3-5 scheme. They’re among the next of Nebraska’s newcomers to arrive, with their arrival in Lincoln set for late next week as the transition period for the freshmen in Rhule’s first signing class continues.
The son of Todd Van Poppel, a first-round Major League Baseball Draft pick of the Braves in 1990, Riley Van Poppel committed in June to the Huskers out of Argyle, Texas. He held firm through the firing of Scott Frost as the coach in early September — even as Lenhardt, a fellow four-star prospect and early pledge to the Huskers — put himself back on the market.
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Van Poppel clicked with Rhule’s staff in the weeks before the Dec. 21 early signing date. As a young athlete in baseball and football, Van Poppel never looked at his age as a factor that defined readiness to complete.
“They see it the same way,” Van Poppel said of the Nebraska coaches. “If you can play, they’re going to put you on the field.”
He worked primarily as a nose guard and defensive tackle as a junior in high school, then shifted into a versatile role last fall as a senior. Van Poppel, 6-foot-5 and 275 pounds, rushed quarterbacks from the edge on one down and slid to the middle for another.
Argyle High School used a 3-3-5 alignment. But he’s prepared for change at Nebraska.
“It’s nothing like what I played,” Van Poppel said. “This (Nebraska) defense can play the run and stop the run, but it can also drop back and cover. And it can rush the passer.
“If you’re out there playing, you’re going to fly around to the ball.”
He envisions his role again as multi-faceted.
“I’ll do whatever I can to get on the field,” Van Poppel said. “I’m willing to learn every position I have to learn to do this.”
At the spring game and at their joint visit to Nebraska in mid-December, Van Poppel and Carroll-Jackson stayed closely connected.
“He’s going to be a fun one to watch for you all,” Van Poppel said of his future teammate, “and a fun one to play with from my perspective.”
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At 6-5 and 270 pounds out of Harrisburg, Pa., Carroll-Jackson looks the part of a four-star prospect — the rating assigned to Van Poppel, Umanmielen, 6-4 and 230 pounds out of Manor, Texas, and the 6-3, 245-pound Lenhardt, from IMG Academy in Florida.
Carroll-Jackson largely went unnoticed in recruiting as a senior last fall. He didn’t play football, in fact, until his coach at Central Dauphin East High School, Lance Deane, convinced Carroll-Jackson to try the sport after he worked with Deane in a weightlifting class last spring.
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“I had no athletic interests,” Carroll-Jackson said.
In fact, Carroll-Jackson did not know until months after he’d met Deane that his coach trained Micah Parsons, the All-Pro Dallas Cowboys linebacker who came out of Harrisburg and starred at Penn State.
Carroll-Jackson’s passion instead involved food. He started cooking at age 7, he said, and still dreams of opening a worldwide chain of restaurants. On his visits to Nebraska, Carroll-Jackson toured dining establishments, and Nebraska pledged to help him land an internship with one or more restaurants during his college football career.
“Like everything in his life, he’s not going to back down from it,” Van Poppel said. “He’s going to go attack it.”
Carroll-Jackson plans to approach his football career with equal dedication. Deane has said he envisions an NFL future for his former player.
“The sky’s the limit,” Carroll-Jackson said. “I’m still so raw, but I feel like I’m easily able to adapt to a situation.”
He originally committed to Syracuse, coincidentally White’s post as a defensive coordinator before he came to Nebraska, in early December. It was who Rhule got Caroll-Jackson to flip on signing day.
Like Van Poppel, Carroll-Jackson appreciates the aggressive approach of White’s system and the family feel around the Nebraska program.
“I consider it home,” he said.
On his visits, Carroll-Jackson said he fell for the Nebraska fans. “They were treating me like they had known me for years. That kind of love, you can’t buy.”
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Carroll-Jackson finishes his final round of final exams in high school this week. A graduation ceremony is planned for June. He will take root in Nebraska before the end of May; he’s not sure if he wants to return home so soon.
“I graduated,” he said. “I’m not too stressed about walking that stage.”
Carroll-Jackson’s favorite meal to prepare? Steak with mashed potatoes and asparagus. Van Poppel said he’ll be happy to serve as a taste-tester for his classmate’s established and experimental dishes.
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Caroll-Jackson figures to find plenty of others on the defensive line at Nebraska who are willing to try his food. The group of newcomers, in addition to Umanmielen, Lenhardt, Jeudy, Wallin, Van Poppel and Carroll-Jackson includes three-star interior linemen Sua Lefotu of Bellflower, Calif., and Jason Maciejczak of Pierre, S.D.
Early enrollees MJ Sherman and Maverick Noonan are capable, too, of playing at the line of scrimmage, although they worked mostly in the spring season at outside linebacker.
The recruiting work in December by the Nebraska coaches assembled the skill to build this new-look defensive line. The spring provided a glimpse of it.
This summer will unite the new defenders in Lincoln. If they fill starting spots or simply fit into the rotation, there’s little doubt that the future is now for Nebraska up front on defense.
“What I see is that this defense is going to be physical,” Van Poppel said. “It’s going to be tough, and it’s not going to back down from anyone. You’re going to go on the field, and you’re going to play with a fire in your eyes.”
(Top photo of Riley Van Poppel: Courtesy of Riley Van Poppel)
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