HuskermanMike
New member
That is some good info on possible transfers. However, you are right that the coaches couldn't get anyone here with Buschini still at Nebraska. I know Rhule isn't big on moving on from guys that want to be here. I know Brian is on an award watch list for punters- not sure what the criteria is for it.2022 Buschini was fine, and hopefully he can be that again. If the guarantee existed I would absolutely take a more consistent 40 yard average (ideally with hangtime) rather than gamble on Buschini finding his 2022 form instead of 2023. Consistency matters, and he had 4 games for 35 or less yards per punt last year, all with at least 4 punts. I can tolerate some inconsistency with a good average, but he didn't have either.
Of course there is no guarantee, and a true freshman is probably even more likely to be inconsistent. But 2023 Buschini was very, very bad and the open practice did not give a lot of confidence that 2023 was a fluke. There were guys in the portal - this guy averaged 47 a punt at Weber State, another one averaged 46.9 at Arkansas, 45 at Notre Dame. Now maybe they wouldn't have been interested anyway, and Buschini came in after averaging 46 at Montana so you can't be sure. But they definitely weren't going to transfer here with a returning starter embedded, so there's at least an argument that Buschini could have been encouraged to move on. It would have been risky, but so it sticking with him tbh.
I think the coaches were confident he could get back to his 2022 self. Let's hope he punts less than 50 times this year, which means our offense is generating points. Remember, Rhule is big on developing guys and making you better- we will see if it pays off with Buschini.