Raise your hand if you totally expected running back Dante Dowdell to leave the Nebraska football program for the Kentucky Wildcats. Unless your name is Matt Rhule, you can put your hand down, because it’s not likely many people saw a player who had a very good season for the Huskers and seemed to have a solid role set for 2025, going to a perennial SEC also-ran.
At the time it felt like very few people even knew that Dowdell planned on entering the portal. After Emmett Johnson announced he was staying, it felt as though the Huskers were set to have a very good backfiedl-by-committee next season. However, it appears that Dowdell wants to be a featured back. That has to be why he went to Kentucky right?
Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule briefly addressed Dowdell’s departure on Friday and he said that he wasn’t surprised the running back left, because he basically had his landing spot lined up before he entered the portal. But how and why was that landing spot a Kentucky team that finished 4-8 this season and whose vaunted rushing offense didn’t see anyone rush for even 600 yards.
BREAKING: Nebraska transfer RB Dante Dowdell has Committed to Kentucky, he tells @on3sports
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) December 20, 2024
The 6’2 225 RB totaled 143 Carries for 614 yards and 12 TDs this season
Started his career at Oregon
2 years of eligibility remaining https://t.co/RlUbB6EMhS pic.twitter.com/mKeU6k5Q2H
Dante Dowdell leaving Nebraska football for Kentucky is odd
Dowdell has to do what’s best for him. This isn’t about being mad that he’s leaving. Or second guessing his decision. It’s just honestly confounding. If Dana Holgorsen can be believed, the Huskers will be just fine with Kwinten Ives and company filling in for the former Oregon Duck in the bowl game and beyond.
But it would have been nice to see Dowdell - who ran for 614 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2024 - stick around and see what he could do in Holgorsen’s offense. The new OC has made it clear that he’s going to be looking to make the rushing offense a big part of the NU attack next fall.
Did Kentucky really outbid the Nebraska football program? Was it jus a promise of a first shot at a starting spot? Dowdell is a Picayune, Mississippi native so maybe it’s just about getting closer to his home town. But this move is a head-scratcher.