Husker Corner
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Nebraska football reels in new walkon center from Maryland

By Oliver VanDervoort

ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 01: Head coach Scott Frost of the UCF Knights looks on in the second half against the Auburn Tigers during the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on January 1, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 01: Head coach Scott Frost of the UCF Knights looks on in the second half against the Auburn Tigers during the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on January 1, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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The Nebraska football team got yet another addition to its 2018 class in the form of a walk-on center out of Maryland by way of a Military Academy.

Just when you thought Scott Frost and the Nebraska football coaching staff was done recruiting the 2018 class, they added one more. Mitchell Balenger, an offensive lineman who is a Maryland native announced on Thursday he would be joining the Cornhuskers.

Balenger is going to walk on to the program and will officially count towards the 2018 class. That means that, like many of the late additions to the program this summer, he could get to campus and start competing for a job right away.

The Huskers’ coaching staff has certainly been playing some interesting musical chairs with the roster since they arrived. There has been the normal amount of attrition that comes with a coaching staff change, but Frost and company have been working overtime to plug any holes that have popped up.

https://twitter.com/MitchBalenger/status/1014686377882079232

It’s been refreshing to watch the group roll their sleeves up and make sure they aren’t operating anywhere near shorthanded as they enter their first season together.

Balenger is certainly an intriguing addition. He apparently didn’t get the offers he wanted out of high school, so he headed over to Fork Union Military Academy. The school bills itself as having a “post-graduate football program” that can get kids prepared to play major college football.

It appears that Balenger got the attention he wanted since he’s going to be treking halfway across the country from his hometown to play football, without the promise of a scholarship. Looking at his film and his size (6’3″, 307 pounds) he might be garnering a scholarship at some point during his Huskers career.

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Even if he doesn’t ever rise to the level of Letterman, he costs the Nebraska football program very little. If he does manage to become either a starter or a stable backup, Mitchell Balenger will have been quite the return on investment.

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