Dante Dowdell needed just one take to produce the photo already approaching legendary status on social media. And it wasn’t even his idea.
The Oregon transfer running back committed to Nebraska on Saturday but it was the Friday image that strongly hinted he would become a Husker. In it, Dowdell wears an NU uniform and is leaping over a sitting Dylan Raiola — the team’s recent five-star quarterback signee — at midfield inside a lit-up Memorial Stadium.
“Dylan was like, ‘It’ll probably go viral,’” Dowdell said Sunday evening. “We did it on the first try.”
The rusher and QB spent much of the Friday-Saturday official visit together, Dowdell said. Raiola’s was the second hand he shook as he emerged from his drop-off vehicle outside North Stadium — coach Matt Rhule’s was the first, with the head man greeting Dowdell a few steps from the car.
When the former four-star prospect and top-10 running back from the 2023 cycle wasn’t conversing with Raiola about what Nebraska could be in the next three seasons — Dowdell has that much eligibility left after appearing in six games as an Oregon freshman — he was soaking up program vibes. He attending the “wild” wrestling meet Saturday and watched defensive lineman Nash Hutmacher earn a pin as coaches and teammates roared inside the Devaney Center.
The Huskers were completely off his radar when the native of Picayune, Mississippi, entered the portal Dec. 14. But position coach E.J. Barthel got his attention while describing the opportunity within a position group of four returning scholarship players.
The pro-style offense is similar to what he ran in high school, when he combined for 586 carries for 4,720 yards (8 yards per tote) and 59 touchdowns across his final two campaigns spanning 28 games.
Dowdell knew he wanted to be a Husker after an in-person conversation with Barthel early in the visit.
“I saw how much he wanted to coach me and he was telling me how the room was,” Dowdell said. “I just want to come in and compete and be an every-down back.”
Dowdell already knew fellow Magnolia State native and NU cornerback Malcolm Hartzog from past high school encounters. Along with Raiola, he also met receiver Malachi Coleman and others ready to be his teammates when returns to Lincoln for good next Saturday.
Nebraska was far from the only interested school, he said. He traveled to Mississippi State in December and had options to tour Texas A&M or Missouri on Sunday before the visiting window closed. Other places — “almost all the schools you could think of,” he said — at least reached out to inquire on him including Ohio State, Tennessee and Oklahoma State.
But unlike high school, the 6-foot-2, 218-pounder knew what he was looking for after experiencing a college season. Fit and opportunity. When he learned in detail Nebraska’s tradition-rich history of producing dynamic running backs, it felt like only a matter of time to him before he was officially on board.
Now Dowdell is ‘N’ as his new team’s third portal addition after defensive back Blye Hill (FCS-school Saint Francis) and receiver Isaiah Neyor (Texas). He feels a personal urgency, he said, especially after not redshirting in his debut campaign. He’ll join Husker veterans Gabe Ervin and Rahmir Johnson — both coming off major injuries last fall — and other scholarship backs Emmett Johnson and Kwinten Ives for what should be one of the more intriguing position battles of the spring.
A 1,000-yard season is an early aim for the playmaker known back home as “Deuce” for his No. 2 jersey that so often ran through or around defenders, especially in the season’s biggest moments. He’ll get another chance to make a name for himself at Nebraska, which didn’t otherwise sign a running back in the 2024 class.
“Nobody from my school ever went nowhere,” Dowdell said. “I gotta make sure I gotta do it first because all these kids look up to me. I think we’ll have a good team to eventually make it to the Big Ten championship.”