Nebraska Football: Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda’s father has harsh words for Mickey Joseph

On Tuesday afternoon, the Nebraska football team announced that wide receiver Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda was entering the transfer portal. While the news was not exactly shocking, it was a bit disappointing considering all the good vibes that have been around the program the last couple of weeks.

However, while the departure of IGC is a bit of a downer, the harsh words that the receiver’s father had for Mickey Joseph not long after the announcement were made should raise some eyebrows all over Nebraska football nation. The comments stood out especially considering that it has seemed, at least from the outside looking in, like Mickey has done and said all the right things since stepping in for the fired Scott Frost.

Garcia-Castaneda’s father, who goes by Desert yeti on Twitter, came out with both guns blazing after a Husker fan guessed as to why the receiver is leaving the Huskers. That fan claimed that IGC, who transferred to Nebraska this year from New Mexico State, was leaving because he couldn’t beat out Trey Palmer for the number one receiver.

“Never a competition between him and Palmer. They have a great relationship,” the dad fired back. “Mickey is a POS for saying what he did. He did not want to be WR one just wanted what he had earned which was a few more targets!”

Another fan asked whether the Twitter user was guessing or knew for a fact, and that’s when Desert yeti let it be known that he was Mario Castaneda.

The elder Castaneda then continued ripping into the Nebraska football coach, saying he knew what conversations his son had with Joseph.

In public and at his weekly press conference on Tuesday, Joseph seemed supportive of Garcia-Castenada.

"“Isaiah has that right… he wasn’t happy, he wanted to be the number one guy and we couldn’t do that for him. Isaiah’s a good kid, he’s done everything we’ve asked him to do. But that’s the reason they have the portal.”"

Joseph went on to say that he can’t get mad at a player who wants to transfer because coaches leave all the time. However, it’s the stuff about Isaiah wanting to be the top target on the Nebraska football team that appears to have set Mario off. His comments also hint that more was said behind closed doors than Joseph is willing to share.

For one game, it did look like the New Mexico State transfer was going to be one of quarterback Casey Thompson’s top targets. Against Northwestern, he hauled in four catches for 120 yards and a touchdown.

However, he’s had just one catch for zero yards since. It had been thought some nagging injuries were keeping him off the field, it now appears that might not have been the only factor.

It should be pointed out that Mario Castaneda isn’t the first parent to have a problem with a head coach after his kid decided to transfer. It’s hard to know just how much stock to put in these kinds of comments. However, as noted above, the comments are especially eyebrow-raising because it’s the first time it hasn’t looked like everyone associated with Nebraska football is singing kumbaya around Mickey Joseph.