Husker Corner
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Former Nebraska football quarterback helps new team to victory

By Oliver Vandervoort

LINCOLN, NE - OCTOBER 29: Quarterback Logan Smothers #8 of the Nebraska Cornhuskers runs against the Illinois Fighting Illini during the second quarter at Memorial Stadium on October 29, 2022 in Lincoln, Nebraska. (Photo by Steven Branscombe/Getty Images)
LINCOLN, NE - OCTOBER 29: Quarterback Logan Smothers #8 of the Nebraska Cornhuskers runs against the Illinois Fighting Illini during the second quarter at Memorial Stadium on October 29, 2022 in Lincoln, Nebraska. (Photo by Steven Branscombe/Getty Images) /
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It’s a safe bet that Logan Smothers believes it was the right call to leave the Nebraska football program, considering the success he’s had so far.

It’s also a safe bet that Nebraska football coaches and fans wish that Smothers had stuck around. His experience, especially piloting a run-first attack would be pretty darn valuable. Especially if the hints that head coach Matt Rhule has made about last week’s starting quarterback turn out to mean something more.

Smothers is now at Jacksonville State and playing for former Michigan head coach Rich Rodriguez. On Saturday, the former Nebraska football star led the Gamecocks to a 21-0 win over Eastern Michigan.

The victory moved Smothers’ team to 3-1 on the season. It might not be a coincidence that this was the first game of the season that the ex-Husker was the only one played quarterback for JSU.

Rodriguez has been allowing Smothers and senior Zion Webb to share time. The two have both taken snaps in 3 of the team’s 4 games this year.

However, Jacksonville State is 2-0 in games in which Smothers gets all or a vast majority of the playing time and just 1-1 when snaps are split up more evenly. In Smothers’ first action of the season, against East Tennessee State, he took all but one snap and completed 13 of 17 passes for 127 yards and a touchdown while running for 40 yards and two touchdowns.

Ex-Nebraska football player goes off

Interestingly enough, Smothers performance on Saturday for Jacksonville State looked quite similar to Heinrich Haarberg’s game against Lousiana Tech. Neither quarterback had much success throwing the ball (Smother completed just 9-of-19 passes for 93 yards and a touchdown) but he did great on the ground.

Smothers had his first 100-yard rushing game, going for 118 yards on 16 carries with one touchdown.

While it would be nice to have another quarterback in the stable who has played for the Nebraska football team and is now playing well as a starting quarterback, it’s obviously never going to happen. At least we can root for Logan Smothers for forge himself a nice career with his new team.

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