Nebraska football: Glenn Thomas has big plans for Jalyn Gramstad

As we get closer and closer to the regular season, there’s been an awful lot of focus on Nebraska football’s freshman starting quarterback. There’s been so much focus on Dylan Raiola, it’s easy to forget guys like Daniel Kaelin, Heinrich Haarberg and Jalyn Gramstad exist.

But on Wednesday night, co-offensive coordinator and QBs coach Glenn Thomas made an appearance on Huskers Radio Network and talk about all of his quarterbacks. Including Bode Soukup.

While he was careful to talk about every single Nebraska football quarterback in glowing terms, it was Thomas’ comments about Gramstad that struck me as most interesting. It feels like while Gramstad could still get some playing time he will help the Huskers in several different ways outside of the game.

Nebraska football has big plans for Jalyn Gramstad

Specifically, Thomas shared how Gramstad is helping prepare the scout team in a way that they might not otherwise be able to prepare.

“He has the arm talent to do it, but he also has the athleticism to do it. He can run around, do the zone-read stuff, the off-schedule and out-of-pocket stuff. He can give you a lot of stuff, not only for the scout team, but also for us – if and when we need him."

However, it’s worth noting that Thomas doesn’t see Gramstad’s role as just being someone who is a nice practice player. 

“He's been a great addition. I mean, I don't think there's anybody in our room, or in that building, that wouldn't think that, if he's in there, he could help us move the ball in a productive fashion. He's had a team-first mentality, he'll do anything he can.”

There have been at least a few people who wonder if Gramstad might eventually take over the backup role if Haarberg moves away from quarterback for good. At the very least it seems likely he’ll be the third stringer for most of the season as the Huskers look to redshirt Daniel Kaelin.

How his role changes and evolves over the course of the Nebraska football season, and whether it really changes and evolves at all will be interesting to watch.