Nebraska football team captains have defensive tilt

The Nebraska football team has named its captains for the 2022 season exactly one week before the Cornhuskers take the field for the season’s first game.

Interestingly enough, the Huskers captains this year have a decidedly defensive lean. it’s also the first year in a while that one of the captains was not the Huskers’ starting quarterback.

Garrett Nelson, Nick Henrich, and Caleb Tannor were the defensive players chosen as captains for the upcoming season. The only player on the offensive side of the ball is also an interesting one.

Tight end and former Rutgers transfer Travis Vokolek rounds out the quartet.

As has been the case under head coach Scott Frost, there was a team vote on the four players. They were then unveiled to the rest of the team and then eventually announced on Twitter to the general public.

Frost spoke to 247Sports about how the Nebraska football captains were chosen.

"“We had a lot of guys get votes for it, a lot of guys get a lot of votes for it. And those guys that aren’t captains have to be a huge part of the leadership on our team too. But there were four guys who got the most votes and they picked four good ones.”"

Just who the captains would end up being was a bigger mystery than in past years thanks in part because there are so many newcomers on the squad. However, there was at least one player that seemed to be a shoo-in for quite a while.

Nelson has been called one of the better team leaders that Frost has seen since he’s been coaching. One of Nelson’s teammates has had high praise for him as well. Transfer Stephon Wynn said that Nelson has been one of the best leaders he’s ever been around. That includes his time with the Alabama Crimson Tide.