Matt Rhule may have edge in landing Louisville transfer for Nebraska football

The Nebraska football team’s defense has been among the best in the country since Tony White took over the unit. That’s not to say that he wouldn’t like to make it even better as the years move forward.

To that end, it appears that the Huskers are among the teams showing the most interest in one of the top transfer safeties on the market. Former Baylor and now former Louisville DB Devin Neal got a bit of a jump on the portal season by entering earlier this season.

Neal recently told On3 that the Nebraska football team is one of the squads that made contact with him first. It’s possible that NU head coach Matt Rhule and Neal’s ties to Baylor could be an x-factor in trying to get the defender to come to Lincoln.

Nebraska football could have x-factor in luring Devin Neal to down

Neal and Rhule weren’t in Waco at the same time, but when Neal recently talked about “relationships” being the biggest key to winning over his transfer, it might have included Rhule all the same.

While Neal’s career at Baylor started in 2020 and Rhule left after the 2019 season, it’s likely the coach recruited the defensive back to the Bears. It’s possible enough of a relationship was struck up that it could carry over as thing heat up in that recruitment.

Earlier this month, Louisville announced Neal had left the program. Two days after the announcement, the former Baylor transfer officially entered the transfer portal. He says he didn’t intend to leave the program, but was wanting to redshirt. It appears the Cardinals saw things a different way.

Now he is essentially a free agent and has been in contact with Illinois, Nebraska and Duke in recent weeks. It might further work to the Nebraska football team’s head coach’s favor that Baylor was the only school that recruited Devin Neal out of high school. We’ll see how this shapes up down the road for the grad transfer who has tallied 150 tackles and 6 interceptions over parts of five seasons.