The Nebraska football team’s defense has been among the best in the country since Tony White took over the unit. That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t like to make it even better as the years go by.

To that end, it appears the Huskers are among the teams showing the most interest in one of the top transfer safeties on the market. Former Baylor and now former Louisville DB Devin Neal got a bit of a jump on portal season by joining earlier this season.

Neal recently told On3 that the Nebraska football team is one of the teams that first contacted him. It’s possible that NU head coach Matt Rhule and Neal’s ties to Baylor could be an x-factor in the effort to bring the defenseman to Lincoln.

Neal and Rhule weren’t in Waco at the same time, but when Neal recently talked about “relationships” as the biggest key to landing his trade, Rhule might have been involved.

Although Neal’s career at Baylor began in 2020 and Rhule left after the 2019 season, it’s likely the coach recruited the defense to the Bears. It’s possible a relationship has developed that could continue as things heat up in that recruitment.

Earlier this month, Louisville announced that Neal had left the program. Two days after the announcement, the former Baylor transfer officially entered the transfer portal. He says he had no intention of leaving the program, but wanted to redshirt. It seems the cardinals saw things in a different way.

Now he’s essentially a free agent and has been in contact with Illinois, Nebraska and Duke in recent weeks. It could work in the head coach of the Nebraska football team’s favor that Baylor was the only school to recruit Devin Neal out of high school. We’ll see how this plays out for the graduate transfer, who has 150 tackles and six interceptions over five seasons.