The latest Husker commitment from the portal happens to already be 1-0 in Memorial Stadium.
Linebacker Marques Watson-Trent also has made a lot of tackles in his college career at Georgia Southern. That included 120 last season while being named the Sun Belt defensive player of the year. He announced his commitment to Nebraska on social media on Saturday.
With those tackles he had 7 1/2 for loss, 1 1/2 sacks and four forced fumbles for the Eagles. He was part of the program when Georgia Southern beat Nebraska 45-42 in Lincoln in 2022. While NU’s offense moved the ball that day, Watson-Trent had 10 tackles, including seven solo.
During his career at Georgia Southern the 5-11, 225-pounder had 364 tackles, including six sacks, six forced fumbles and two interceptions.
Georgia Southern credits Watson-Trent with having played 823 defensive snaps this past season with a stout PFF grade of 79.6 and a sterling run defensive grade of 88.0. He has played 2,502 snaps in his college career stretching back to the 2020 season. He also played 64 snaps on special teams.
Watson-Trent tore his ACL in 2021 after playing in just one game, and was granted a medical hardship. He came back to post 114 tackles the next year, with 122 the year after that, and 120 the year after that.
Nebraska has company from Florida State among others in pursuits of Watson-Trent, who had visited Tallahassee on New Year’s before coming to Lincoln on Friday.
With one year of eligibility he’s a key veteran addition to go along with Vincent Shavers Jr., who is coming off an impressive Pinstripe Bowl. NU linebackers coach Rob Dvoracek also mentioned at the bowl site during an interview the hope to have one more year of eligibility to Javin Wright.
But Nebraska has to replace productive John Bullock, who finished his eligibility, as well as Mikai Gbayor and Stefon Thompson as backers who left in the portal.
This addition goes a long way to that, and also connects well with the pick up earlier in this portal cycle of the versatile defender Dasan McCullough, who comes from Oklahoma and could be a backer or at a variety of spots.