Garret McGuire discusses Nebraska's wide receiver room and talented freshmen class
Nebraska wide receivers coach Garret McGuire will soon be coaching his first college football season as a Power Five assistant coach. He’s confident in his group and has high expectations for the veterans and youngsters in his room.
The Huskers’ wide receivers have matched his energy, which is “pretty crazy to say,” as the coach is one of the most energetic on the team.
“We got some dudes with just a natural toughness and edge to them,” McGuire said on Sports Nightly. “But they are working really, really hard. That is one thing you can say about our room is we are working our tails off.”
Even though they’ve known each other for less than six months, McGuire has developed a family within his room. He said they have an acronym that the wide receivers room values highly: PTF or Protect the Family.
McGuire has high expectations for the veterans in his group but also for the talented young freshmen who joined this summer.
Texas transfer Marcus Washington will be a key piece in the WR room. McGuire said Washington, who had Nebraska’s second most receptions in 2022, is the toughest in the group.
“He’s going to block in the run game,” McGuire said. “He’s gonna be very, very explosive in the pass game. He’s long, he can catch the ball in front of his eyes.
“He’s very accepting of coaching. He’s locked on to me and just kind of hangs on every word that I say, which is really, really awesome to see an older guy do that. He’s a smart player. He’s played a lot of football. He knows all three spots, and he’ll be able to play all three spots for us.”
Another experienced receiver is Billy Kemp IV, who played five seasons at Virginia before coming to Nebraska. Kemp is slotted to be the Huskers’ top receiver.
“What he’s brought to this room is just an edge, right? He plays with a natural edge,” the 24-year-old coach said. “You talk about a guy, he’s probably 5-8 on a good day, he’s just got a chip on his shoulder.”
McGuire said that Kemp is a key piece in his room. The way Kemp listens to and takes instruction from his coach sets an important example for younger players.
“In my opinion, it’s really, really fun to play receiver in our offense, and some of the stuff we’re going to do really, really fits him because of how smart he is and how decisive he is, just some of his change of direction and how he catches the football,” he said.
Two of Nebraska’s players had a unique road to McGuire. Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda transferred into Nebraska before the 2022 season but after four games, he decided to keep his redshirt and enter the transfer portal. Bellevue West product Zavier Betts left the Husker program before the 2022 season but has returned under head coach Matt Rhule.
Both earned a second chance and will be big contributors for the Huskers’ offense.
“They’re so hungry,” McGuire said. “It’s not that they aren’t grateful, but they are, they’re very excited to be Huskers again. They’re very excited to be coached by coach Rhule, coach (Marcus) Satterfield and myself.”
He said Betts took 21 credit hours this spring to be eligible to play this fall. Garcia-Castaneda put on seven pounds of muscle since he’s been back with the football team.
Garcia-Castaneda is another player that knows all three positions and will play in all three this year.
“He’s very, very dependable, a good route runner, great hands,” his coach said. “He’s kind of matched my enthusiasm in the run game about how we want to play.”
As for Betts, his explosiveness is unique.
“He looks different than all those other dudes,” McGuire said. “When it just comes to, you see him burst off the football, you see some of the catches he makes and just how long he is. And then he’s another guy that’s from Omaha and that means something to us. You talk about Coach Rhule, we want to play with kids that grew up watching Husker football.”
The rundown on the young receivers and others
McGuire gave thorough answers on each of his receivers, including his impressions of the freshmen, walk-ons and a transfer he played high school football with.
5-foot-10, 205-pound senior Josh Fleeks: “We installed a play the other day, and he’s on the tape,” McGuire said. “I think it’s really cool. It’s cool for some of those guys to see, “Hey, there’s Josh making plays when he was at Baylor because he’s a guy. You look at his tape, and he’s an explosive football player, he’s dynamic, when he gets the ball in his hands, just dynamic.
“(He) has almost like a running back type style when he gets the ball in his hands. And then he’s another dude, he’s about 204 pounds right now. He’s a big receiver that I think we’re gonna be able to use him in a lot of ways, possibly in the return game, you know, just kind of move him around a little bit, just find ways to get him the ball.”
6-foot-4, 185-pound freshman Malachi Coleman: “Malachi can be as good as he wants to be. He’s a good football player and he’s got a natural motivation. He’s very self motivated. He comes from a great mom and dad, they’re awesome. They’ve always been there for me, and they’re there for this team.
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“But he’s kind of the leader of that freshmen crew right now, just from what I’m seeing and what I’m hearing. He’s got a voice in the room. It’s pretty cool to hear him answer questions. Because it puts pressure on some of those other freshmen because he’s answering this question at a really, really high level. The other guys don’t know that.
“But also Malachi is ahead so it kind of speeds up their learning process a little bit. But he’s doing a really good job. I’ve been actually impressed with just watching him live. He obviously been around me and been to some meetings, but I never got to watch him live. I’m really, really excited. He’s a good football player.”
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6-foot-1, 185-pound freshman Demitrius Bell: “He’s a guy from Tennessee that’s tough, a lot like coach (Satterfield). He plays really, really fast. That’s what I like about him. We’re running some routes on air and you’ll see him, there’s some stuff in our offense that kind of asks you to be a little bit decisive and he plays fast.
“He’s a very confident football player, you can kind of see that he’ll jump up to the front of the line, even though he’s just a freshman doesn’t know no better. He’s decisive and he knows he’s a good player.”
6-foot-2, 160-pound freshman Jeremiah Charles: “I love coaching Jeremiah because he’s probably 25 minutes away from where I grew up. I grew up scrimmaging coach Wager and I’m excited about him. You just see the athlete he is. He went to state in the triple jump probably should have went to state in basketball. But still he’s a very, very good athlete and he just comes from coach Wager’s program. You know what you’re getting when you’re getting a Martin kid. Just a tough, gritty player that’s put the work in and he ain’t gonna shy away from working as well.”
5-foot-11, 160-pound freshman Jaylen Lloyd: “Jaylen is so springy and explosive. He puts his foot in the ground, he gets faster, he can accelerate. He’s got really good ball skills too. Just the little that I’ve gotten to watch him over these past couple of weeks, he’s got good ball skills. I can’t say it enough, he’s from Omaha and it means somthing. His mom went here and was a track athlete here so it means something for him to wear the Scarlet.”
6-foot-1, 175-pound freshman Brice Turner: “I’m really excited about Brice. Being from Bay City, South Texas, it’s kind of a testament to who we are staff wise. That’s a preety far way to go to get a kid. It’s about an hour and a half, two hours outside of Houston. That’s a testament to coach Rhule and coach Terrence Knighton that they went and got that kid.
“He is awesome. He comes from a great family. They all drove up all 17 of them to drop him off. He’s a little far away from home but he’s having fun and it’s good that we got some guys that are from Texas so they can start to, “Oh, I’m not just around some Omaha kids or kids from all over.” They have a little bit of a chemistry. You see more familiar faces and you think when you get around this building.
“But he’s another guy that he’s working hard. What I love him is he’s a prepared guy, he really is. He’s going to be about 45 early to every lift just so you can get his body right, get some nutrition and start that at a young age. That’s a big deal.”
6-foot-0, 175-pound freshman D’Andre Barnes: “(DB coach Evan Cooper and I) are probably going to (battle) with a few kids over the next few years because that’s just the way we recruit. D’Andre, he fits the mold of how we recruit, he’s really fast. He’s really big. He could change directions.
“He’s a guy that got here about two weeks ago so he’s about a week behind just because of school in Colorado. He’s doing good. You plug him in and he starts going. That’s really impressive, a guy that you can just plug in and play you want that kid on your roster.”
Walk-on receivers: “I’m really fired up you got to ask about that because they mean a bunch to me. When you talk about Ty Hahn and Alex Bullock, you better strap up when you go play those two and Cooper Hausmann. You better strap up and you better play through the whistle because they will find a way to punk you on tape.
“They have just an edge that most walk-ons have, you know that you’ve kind of been doubted your whole life. Every time thye get a chance to put something on tape, they are. Alex and Ty, they are true route runners, they’re good football players. They’re again local kids that, we want to win with, want to play with.
“Then you talk about Roman Mangini, another guy who has probably had the biggest June of them all. The reason I say that is because if you watch him coach camps, he is going to be a heck of a football coach one day. He’s coaching those kids up.
“Taveon Thompson is another kid that’s doing really, really well. Barron Miles Jr., whose dad played here, he’s going good. He’s playing faster. You watch him yesterday and they’re just running routes and you can see him when we’re running routes on air, you can see him, “Oh it’s starting to click and get going, just of how fast he can play because you know of always knew he’s a fast player but “Oh, now he’s processing even faster.”
