Matt Rhule made it clear what he wanted from the transfer portal this spring: “Just find me the grown men,” the Nebraska head coach said. “The gritty alphas who want to go fight.”
Dexter Foster fits that mold, and Nebraska is banking on it.
The Oregon State transfer lands at No. 22 on our Most Indispensable Huskers countdown, brought in as part of the push to get bigger at linebacker. At 6-3 and 235 pounds, Foster gives the Huskers the kind of size they wanted in the room, joining Owen Chambliss and Vincent Shavers in a group that should look a lot different than it did a year ago.
Foster also brings real production with him. He played in 19 games with 11 starts for the Beavers and finished with 95 tackles, including five for loss. Last season, before a season-ending injury cut things short, he had 52 tackles in seven games, highlighted by a 10-tackle outing against eventual College Football Playoff team Texas Tech.
There’s also a reputation attached to him. Chris Hummer of CBS Sports/247Sports included Foster among 100 under-the-radar transfer portal additions from the last cycle, and a Big 12 general manager told Hummer, “I thought he was really good,”
That evaluation lines up with what Oregon State saw on tape. Davis Doan of the Beavers’ site wrote, “Foster is one of the most reliable players on the unit, consistently plugging up rushing lanes and playing with a physical edge. As the main piece in run defense, his leadership and ability to read plays make him one of the cornerstones of this Beaver defense.”
Nebraska believes that same profile can translate in Lincoln.
Aurich said in February that Chambliss and Foster are more than just big bodies because they can move. “You look at them paired with Shavers, there's a really dynamic group there,” he said.
That group will have to earn everything. The top linebacker spots won’t be handed out, with young players like Dawson Merritt also pushing for a role.
Chambliss said the competition is already sharp. “We're deep ...
I just think we have a really smart group that's really ready to work,” he said. “It's probably the most talented group I've been a part of.”
For Nebraska, the challenge is simple enough to say and hard enough to solve: prove it on the field, hold up through the Big Ten grind, and cut down on the explosive plays that hurt the defense last season.
Aurich laid out the standard last December: “You can't have any misfits. You can't beat yourself,” he said.
“And when you watch our tape at San Diego State, I think you see that a lot where, hey, we're not going to give up an explosive run because of a miscue or an assignment error. We've got to play 11-sound football.
"And when I watch their tape from last year, I think they're on the same page 57 reps of the game, but there's one or two a game that may leak out in explosive yardage. And so we got to make sure we don't allow that to happen.”
In Other News...
Nebraska Is Suddenly Facing A Defining Moment In Its 2027 Class
Nebraskas 2027 recruiting class has moved from promising to potentially program-shaping, with 21 commitments already in place and nine blue-chip prospects giving the Huskers a foundation that looks far stronger than the usual early-cycle haul. The class sits 17th in the 247Sports composite rankings, and that kind of start is why the conversation around this group has shifted from simply keeping pace to pushing for something bigger.
The next stretch will tell the story, because Nebraska is trying to protect what it has while staying in the mix for more high-end additions against programs that are still circling. If the Huskers can keep the class intact and continue adding to it, they would put themselves in position to land a finish that would say plenty about where the program thinks it can go on the recruiting trail. [Read more 🡒]
Jamal Rule Might Be Nebraskas Answer To A Growing Backfield Concern
Jamal Rules spring game was the kind of debut that gets noticed fast, especially for a true freshman trying to carve out a role in Nebraskas offense. He turned a long run into a 75-yard touchdown and finished with 119 yards on 10 carries, giving the Huskers a glimpse of a back who already looks comfortable handling real work between the tackles and in space.
Matt Rhule has already acknowledged that Rules spring performance stood out and that he is preparing to play this season, which matters because Nebraska is trying to sort out its backfield plans as the roster settles. If Rule is ready to contribute right away, he could become more than just a promising young runner, and the next question is how quickly that promise turns into carries when the games start to count. [Read more 🡒]