Nebraska football the subject of outrageous Ole Miss NIL rumor

Did Nebraska football fight off Ole Miss when it tried to tamper with one of its running backs? The rumor is out there, at least.
Nebraska football running back Gabe Ervin Jr. runs the ball
Nebraska football running back Gabe Ervin Jr. runs the ball / Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports
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Remember when Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule made claims about tampering this spring? It turns out that if a rumor started about Ole Miss is true, we know one of the players other teams were trying to tamper with.

The problem is that the person who is passing rumors around the internet that the Rebels did some tampering with one of the Huskers doesn’t come off as all that believable. On the other hand, sometimes it’s the simplest and weirdest people who inadvertently spill the beans. Especially when they think their opinions aren’t getting outside the walls of their little community.

At the very least, the latest rumor regarding Nebraska football offers some comic relief. And if the rumors he started about Gabe Ervin are true, then it’s nice to see that Rhule and company was able to to keep the talented running back, in house.

Nebraska football the subject of a rather outrageous NIL rumor

The social media account Message Board Geniuses found the post by one Nebraska fan who passed on a rumor they heard. It turns out that it took some serious cash to keep Ervin in Lincoln should this rather poorly written rumor be true.

“Just heard a good story about Ole Miss offering Irving [SIC] 6 figures to bail,” the fan wrote on Huskers Illustrated. “We matched and he staid [SIC], just an interesting story I heard.”

The assumption is that when the grammatically challenged poster said Irving, he meant Gabe Ervin and not Irving Fryar. 

The knee jerk reaction to this kind of post is to dismiss it out of hand and laugh at the person who can’t spell “stayed” right. But then you take into account that Ervin has shown flashes of real talent when he’s not hurt. 

Before his injury last season, he averaged 5.2 yards per carry. There’s also reason to believe he might have been looking around after the Cornhuskers brought in transfer running back Dante Dowdell.

NU’s head coach did indeed talk about tampering going on during the offseason with big NIL amounts. He mentioned tight end Thomas Fidone specifically but it’s safe to say there were others.

Did Nebraska football get into a bidding war with Lane Kiffin this offseason? We’ll probably never know for sure and the instincts are to dismiss this kind of post out of hand. But what if?