The Las Vegas Bowl offers a spotlight for Nebraska players looking to further cement themselves with the current coaching staff or showcase their abilities for future ones, potentially in the transfer portal.

That makes the New Year’s Eve bowl game an important one for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the Huskers having a chance to end the season on a strong note after back-to-back ugly losses to Penn State and Iowa to close the regular season.

A lot of focus will be on Nebraska’s offense, as the Huskers have plenty of questions about how TJ Lateef plays with more lead time, how they replace All-American running back Emmett Johnson and what offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen can cook up after an up-and-down season. But some of the most interesting players for the bowl game are on the defensive side, including freshman linebacker Dawson Merritt.

2025 stats

• Eight tackles
• One tackle for loss

What to know

It isn’t a new feeling for Nebraska fans to be excited about seeing a true freshman linebacker get more opportunities in a bowl game. Just a year ago, Vincent Shavers was in the same spot Merritt is now and turned in a strong performance during the Pinstripe Bowl. Merritt has had plenty of time to get healthy and to learn more of what Rob Dvoracek wants. Could that put him in a position to play more in Las Vegas?

What’s at stake

Merritt could go a long way in helping fans and coaches feel better about a linebacker room that wasn’t Nebraska’s biggest problem, but was far from the level of play the Huskers received in Matt Rhule’s first two seasons.

Merritt has shown himself to be an intriguing player who has flashed when he’s been in games, but clearly also needs more time and more reps to fully become the player he was recruited to be after the Huskers flipped him from Alabama last fall.

Merritt’s bowl game and expected ascension make for an interesting picture at linebacker. The Huskers have to see what the portal holds, both in terms of linebackers leaving and the need to add veterans for depth, as players like Merritt, Christian Jones and others continue to grow and develop.

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Something that might have been overlooked in the aftermath of Nebraska’s devastating, 40-16 loss to Iowa in the season finale was that starting quarterback TJ Lateef suffered a hamstring injury.

As if the Huskers hadn’t endured enough problems, now their starting quarterback was hurt. His availability for the bowl game was unknown.

The Huskers (7-5) now are in Las Vegas preparing for their bowl game against Utah (10-2) on New Year’s Eve. And Nebraska coach Matt Rhule reported some rare good news on Saturday afternoon when he declared Lateef ready to go against the Utes.

“I think TJ is going to play great,” Rhule said about his true freshman at a press availability for the Las Vegas Bowl. “It’s been good for Jalyn [Gramstad] and Marcos [Davila] to get a bunch of reps early. TJ took a bunch of reps that didn’t require him moving.

“There’s something really cool about when you’re the starter and you’re not getting reps because of an injury, which you don’t love, but just the paying attention to the things you have to notice.

“It really accelerates your development and your learning. I think he’s learned from that. I think he looks good out there at practice so I’m excited for him to play.”

Getting Lateef ready

With the quarterback being the most important player on the field, the Huskers don’t want to be hamstrung — so to speak — heading into a meeting with No. 15 Utah.

Rhule said the Huskers have been careful in getting Lateef up to full speed.

“Yesterday, he had a couple of rep caps on him [at practice],” Rhule said. “Hey, we’re not going to take more than 300 [reps]. Then today he just took every rep.

“We’ve been cautious with him because obviously we have a game, we want to get him to the game.

“He looks fast, he looks like he can run the football. The entire offense is up with him. We’ll run him, we’ll move him around and we’ll play.”

Lateef started three games after sophomore Dylan Raiola suffered a broken fibula against USC on Nov. 1.

When healthy, Lateef can be a dual-threat quarterback. He has the ability, speed and inclination to tuck the ball away and run. He completed 59-of-95 passes (62.1 percent) for 722 yards, with four touchdowns and zero interceptions. He also gained 98 yards on 27 carries with four touchdowns. He scored the Huskers’ only touchdown in a 37-10 loss at Penn State on an 11-yard run in the third quarter.

Lateef’s leadership skills

Rhule was asked about Lateef’s leadership skills, as he has stepped into Raiola’s big shoes. 

“Just being himself, just being one of the guys,” Rhule said. “At the end of the day you’re always looking for a quarterback who has ‘it’.

“Steve Addazio [head coach at Temple when Rhule was an assistant coach there in 2011 and 2012] used to say to me, ‘You can’t even describe what “it” is but you know it when you see it.’

“I want TJ to go out there and play with joy, practice and prepare to be coachable. I think even in the Penn State game — the game didn’t go our way — out there with that crowd, that noise, that duress. You know, every snap, every motion, silent cadence, he’s getting guys lined up.

“He doesn’t have to be guy being the spokesperson, giving a bunch of speeches. He just has to do his job at a high level and prepare and coach the guys in terms of, hey, be here and do this.

“He’s doing it at a really high level right now. I learned over the years I can’t control what I can’t control. We gave Jayln and Marcos a bunch of reps. [The doctors] told me they felt like he [Lateef] would ready by the bowl game.

“We did two game weeks. Get him to the first week, give him limited reps here. Get him to this week here, get him full reps. The plans worked.

“TJ told me very early on, ‘I’ll be full go.’ But if Jalyn goes into the game, I expect Jalyn to play great. Everybody on this team loves Jalyn. If he goes out there, they’ll be ready to go. But TJ told me he’d be ready and he looks great.”

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