Nebraska Football: Ex-Husker rips staff after Colton Feist departure

Former Nebraska football star Jason Peter was irate after Colton Feist announced he was leaving NU, even going so far as ripping the coaches’ recruiting efforts in a recent rant.

First, let me say that it’s perfectly understandable and acceptable to be a bit nervous about not one but two veteran defensive players leaving the program in back-to-back days last week. Garrett Nelson and Colton Feist both exiting the Nebraska football program would make anyone nervous. Just maybe not for the reasons Jason Peter picked.

In his usual “jump to conclusions in order to gain some social media clout” approach, Jason Peter tweeted out his unsolicited advice to Matt Rhule and the Nebraska football coaching staff on Thursday night after seeing that Feist was leaving NU.

"“Ouch! This could hurt more then(SIC) any of the others. If I’m the HC, I’m doing anything and everything to get Feisty to stay! Not only can the man play but he is NEBRASKA!!”"

That tweet was tame enough. It’s also a sentiment I could agree with. If there was a way to get Feist to want to stay, then Terrance Knighton and Rhule, and the rest should be doing whatever they can to get him to stay.

It was when another Twitter user asked Peter why he thought Feist was moving on that the former Nebraska football star took things in a rather silly direction. The user asked whether Feist was moving on to go pro, or for more NIL money at another program.

The answer to that question – by the way – is that Feist is, for all intents and purposes retiring from football. He’s going to go work as an insurance agent. While I don’t know what prompted that decision, it seems as if he’s just ready to be done playing football. If that’s the case, then the coaching staff probably couldn’t or shouldn’t pressure him to return. If someone decides they’re flat done playing, it’s probably best to just respect their decision.

But Peter had more to say. In the process he ripped the coaching staff’s approach in going after high school talent and transfer players.

"“More just like ‘make a real effort to try and get him to stay’. If the new staff thinks a couple HS kids, or even portal kids who didn’t do s— at their old schools, r gonna come in and hold their own in the B1G…they gonna be majorly disappointed!”"

It’s here where I feel I need to point out some problems with Peter’s take. First, there’s the fact that Rhule’s approach doesn’t appear all that different from what former head coach Scott Frost and his staff did. Peter was so on board with that approach he actually volunteered his time coaching those sorts of players. Whether that coaching had any real positive effect is an open question of coures.

It’s also just a ridiculously silly view on college sports. First of all, recruiting high school kids is literally EVERYONE’S approach. So I’m not sure why in the world Peter is doing the the thing where he pretends the coaching staff shouldn’t be recruiting high school kids.

But the idea that transfers who “didn’t do anything” at their old school aren’t worth getting was literally proven false this past season. Trey Palmer came to the Nebraska football program with 41 career catches over three season. I’m confident Peter would claim averaging a little over 10 catches a season wasn’t “doing anything.” All Trey Palmer did this year was catch 71 passes and set a school record for receiving yards.

Anthony Grant, who rushed for 915 yards for the Nebraska football team in 2022 is also a transfer player, by the way.

To be clear, Jason Peter is entitled to his opinion. It would just be nice if his opinion wasn’t colored quite so obviously by his bias.