Huskeronline On Recent Nebraska Football Commitments, In-state Recruiting & Trev Alberts Parallels

With Nebraska’s 2024 season around the corner, the HuskerOnline team voted on the Top 40 Husker players going into Matt Rhule‘s second season in Lincoln.

The voting criteria were to rank the players based on their importance to the team, overall talent, and future potential for the upcoming season. Our voters focused specifically on the 2024 season, not future seasons, a player’s long-term importance, or future talent.

The voting panel consisted of HuskerOnline publisher Sean Callahan, columnist Steven Sipple, senior writer Robin Washut, and staff writer Abby Barmore. Each voter submitted their own Top 40 list from which the votes were tallied.

We kick off our annual Top 40 Huskers for 2024 with players 36-40, which features a mix of returning veterans and promising underclassmen.

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40. Alex Bullock, WR, Jr.

In many ways, Alex Bullock was Nebraska’s most consistent wide receiver in 2023. While his role catapulted after a handful of key injuries in the room, the former walk-on made the most of his opportunity.

Bullock appeared in every game for the Huskers last season, including making eight starts. He ranked third on the team with 15 catches for 221 yards and a touchdown.

NU has significantly upgraded the depth and talent in its wideout room this offseason, which explains Bullock’s ranking in this year’s Top 40. But you know what you’re going to get from the former Omaha Creighton Prep standout on every play.

39. Jeremiah Charles, DB, RFr.

Jeremiah Charles’ stock has risen exponentially over this offseason. He stole the show during Nebraska’s Football Dunk Contest at a Husker basketball game in February, and his momentum hasn’t slowed down since.

On the football field, Charles found his footing in the defensive back group. He came to NU in 2022 as a wide receiver but switched to DB early on.

He’s now become one of the top options at cornerback. One year after his position change and getting to digest the defensive scheme, Charles could have a big 2024 season.

38. Riley Van Poppel, DL, So.

While some of Nebraska’s true freshmen defensive linemen eased into last season, Riley Van Poppel jumped right into the fire. The former four-star recruit out of Argyle, Texas, played in 11 games and finished with five tackles, a TFL, a half sack, and one quarterback hurry.

He’ll once again be a depth piece in 2024 after the returns of seniors Ty Robinson and Nash Hutmacher. But that hasn’t stopped Van Poppel from preparing to be the Huskers’ next anchor on the d-line.

He’s put on 10-15 pounds this offseason and is up to around 290. With NU limiting Robinson and Hutmacher all spring, Van Poppel also took full advantage of a significant practice workload. The sophomore should be a fixture in the d-line rotation and ready to take the baton in 2025.

37. Janiran Bonner, WR, So.

One of the bigger surprises of the spring was Janiran Bonner‘s quiet switch from a tight end/fullback to a wide receiver.

The move raised eyebrows after the sophomore showcased his skills during Nebraska’s spring game. Bonner had four catches for 58 yards, highlighted by an impressive touchdown grab in the scrimmage.

The 6-foot-2, 220-pounder came into the Huskers as a wide receiver and caught 50 balls for 816 yards as a high school senior. He’ll still be used as a Swiss Army knife in NU’s offense, as he took his first snap of the spring game at fullback.

36. Henry Lutovsky, OL, Jr.

Injuries decimated Nebraska’s offensive line last season, and Henry Lutovsky was a key reserve who helped keep the unit together.

The junior guard played in all 12 games and made two starts at right guard against Purdue and Iowa. The 6-foot-6, 325-pound native of Crawfordsville, Iowa, has made 26 appearances and four starts over his first three seasons as a Husker.

It remains to be seen where Lutovsky will end up in NU’s offensive line pecking order in 2024. However, his experience should give him every opportunity to remain a fixture in the rotation up front.

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GILTNER, Neb. (KSNB) – The Olympic trials aren’t the only place you will see central Nebraska represented. Makeena Huhman will be representing Nebraska in the National American Miss pageant after being crowned Miss Nebraska Junior Pre-Teen at its pageant in Omaha. The 9-year-old says preparing for a pageant is a process; you have to pick outfits, do your hair, and maybe some nail polish and sometimes the process can be boring or frustrating, but it’s pretty easy work for Huhman.

Huhman said they wore long dresses for the formal portion and her dress was a corset back. In casual wear a jump suit or tank top and shorts are allowed, but a tank top and shorts look can go either way with the judges. Huhman said the goal is to find a happy medium because you don’t want to look perfect or sloppy.

Huhman has been attending pageants since she was six-weeks-old because of her older sister, Taylor is also in pageants. Participating in pageants helps Makenna make new friends, but even she was surprised by her victory.

“At first I was like shocked and my coach and my mom they were both crying, it was really funny,” said Huhman. “I was about to cry honestly, and I thought the girl that won two years ago was gonna win but as soon as they called her name as first runner-up or second she thought it’s gonna be Makenna.”

Huhman said overall, they’re judged on their personality and smile. Her mother, Stephanie Barthel also took a different approach with her pageantry.

“Both Taylor and Makenna have always scored pretty well in everything, but this year the thing that we did different was we hired a pageant coach,” said Barthel. “We met with her on Zoom calls once a week, and she gave us a lot of little insights that I wouldn’t have thought of and those definitely helped Makenna win the crown this year.”

Barthel said Makenna’s pageant coach worked on several things with her including her formal wear walk, casual wear modeling and interviewing skills. Huhman also has a passion for volunteering.

“That would be because my uncle and aunt are volunteer firefighters in Trumball and they don’t get paid for what they do,” said Huhman. “So they do fundraisers, and I absolutely love helping them with that because it’s making new friends and it’s also having fun.”

Huhman said the best part is seeing the firefighters show their personality. Barthel said it’s nice to see someone from central Nebraska represent the state.

“I think that it is really awesome to have a state pageant queen from the small town of Giltner, even just the Tri-Cities area,” said Barthel. “Many of the queens seem to come from like Lincoln and Omaha area; that’s where they get the most contestants from. And just having one from a small town that’s going to show those small town values is going to be really amazing.”

They’re still excited about winning the state title.

“It has been like exciting and fun so far, and I bet it’s going to be even better in Orlando because my mom said we’d be there for like eight days, and I’m like eight days in a really hot place, yay!” said Makenna.

They’re still looking for sponsors to help fund the trip, travel and stay will cost them approximately $4,000. Huhman has racked up a number of trophies during the state competition, but over the Thanksgiving weekend she hopes to add the National trophy to her collection.

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LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) – Several petitions were submitted to the Nebraska Secretary of State’s office on Wednesday.

Signatures for nearly all petitions active in the state were due at 3 p.m.; the latest “school choice” referendum petition is due at 5 p.m. July 17.

Now in the hands of the state, officials will work to verify that all submitted signatures are valid. Those that aren’t will be tossed, with the remaining total dictating whether enough signatures were collected to earn the initiative a place on Nebraska ballots in November.

Organizers confirmed with 6 News that not enough signatures were collected to put forward a proposed amendment on excise taxes or a grocery exemption from consumption tax.

A petition looking to add a succinct statement about cannabis to the state constitution also failed; “All persons have the right to use all plants in the genus Cannabis,” won’t be appearing in that document.

Two medical marijuana petitions — with 114,367 signatures collected for the one to allow purchasing by patients and 114,596 on the one seeking to allow businesses to sell such products — were turned in on Wednesday. The138,000 signatures on the petition to require paid sick leave for employees of all businesses in the state was submitted on June 27.

There were also two conflicting abortion petitions turned in: Anti-abortion petitioners told 6 News they collected 205,344 signatures, while pro-choice petitioners said they had submitted 207,608 signatures. Should both be verified to appear on the ballot, the one receiving the most “yes” votes in the election will become law.

“Today is a historic day. Our initiative has submitted more signatures than any ballot measure in Nebraska’s history. It’s clear that Nebraskans believe that patients, families, and doctors should be in charge of making their most personal healthcare decisions when pregnant about abortion, not politicians. Hundreds of people volunteered, and the enthusiasm was palpable. I know Nebraskans are ready to vote to protect their rights in November.”

A related petition to grant personhood to a fetus did not receive enough signatures to appear on the ballot. There was also a petition circulated that would allow for a ban on surgical and pharmaceutical abortions with an exception for those instances when the pregnancy poses a risk to the life of the mother, but not enough signatures were collected for it to move forward.

REQUIREMENTS

In order to appear on state ballots, initiative petitions must have signatures from at least 7% of registered Nebraska voters — according to the total pulled by the state on Friday — at the time of the filing deadline. Petitions seeking to add an amendment to the state constitution must collect signatures from at least 10% of registered voters; referendum petitions aiming to repeal a law require 5%.

All petitions must contain signatures from voters in at least 5% of registered Nebraska voters in 38 of the state’s 93 counties.

VERIFICATION

County election offices will have 40 days to verify signatures collected from their counties, checking that those who signed are a registered voter, and that they provided their correct address, date of birth, and signature. They will also invalidate any duplicate signatures.

“It will take several weeks to verify signatures,” Wednesda’s release from the Secretary of State’s office says.

Nebraska’s November ballot must be certified by Sept. 13.

Read the petitions

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News Director Cassie Crowe, Assistant News Director Katherine Bjoraas, Digital Director Gina Dvorak, and Reporter Johan Marin contributed to this report.

Correction: A previous version of this story contained an inaccurate submission date for one of the petitions. 6 News regrets the error.

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