LINCOLN — One of the fun things about watching Jacory Barney is determining whether he’ll get credited for a run or a pass. Nebraska’s quickest receiver often hovers right around the line of the scrimmage when he gets the ball. When he does, he plays with what coach Matt Rhule calls “joy.
” The Rewind would say he plays like an live electric wire, dancing on the street. Approach him with caution — you never know which direction he’ll take. If Dylan Raiola was the recruiting coup of the Rhule era, Barney’s decision spurn hometown (and quite good) Miami (Fla.
) to head to Nebraska sits as a second No. 2 coup. And in the transfer portal era, what Barney — NU’s leader in all-purpose yards with 216 — puts on film will attract, well, interest.
It’s good Nebraska has a robust NIL operation. But Barney, on Saturday night, offered a testimonial that would sell a lot of prospective recruits on Huskerville. “Everything I envisioned it as,” Barney said of his experience after Nebraska’s 34-3 win over Northern Iowa.
“I’m getting playing time, which is what I like, being around good guys and being around coaches that believe in me and letting be an impact in the program early. That’s what I expected.” Sounds like old times around NU.
Felt like it, too, in the last nonconference game of the year. The Huskers scored right away, had a two-score lead before the end of the first quarter, and covered a betting line that had grown to 301⁄2 points by kickoff. .