Jeremy Pernell: A Versatile Addition to Nebraska’s Defensive Front

Husker coaches had Texas A&M transfer Elijah Jeudy playing every spot on the D-line this spring

Photo by Nebraska Communications

Sixth in a series on Nebraska football’s transfer additions heading into fall camp.

There's still a lot we don't know about Nebraska defensive coordinator Tony White's 3-3-5 defense, in particular, how he'll tweak it to adapt to the Big Ten. Speed and versatility will be some of the hallmarks moving forward, but what the front 6/7 looks like in a predominantly running league has some fans curious.

The Huskers lost Colton Feist, Devin Drew and Stephon Wynn from last year's D-line rotation. When Matt Rhule was hired as head coach late last year, he was faced with a position group that had been largely neglected on the recruiting trail, with the previous staff signing only 11 players in five classes.

In his first recruiting class, Rhule set out to overhauled the room much like he did with the offensive line. He held on to the commitment of Riley Van Poppel and was able to get Cameron Lenhardt back in the class after he decommitted following the dismissal of Scott Frost and Erik Chinander.

Rhule also added Princewill Umanmielen, Vincent Carroll-Jackson, Sua Lefotu, Jason Maciejczak and Mason Goldman from the high school ranks, and Kai Wallin from American River Community College.

Juniors Ty Robinson and Nash Hutmacher are expected to be cornerstones on the D-line this season. But with no other returning production coming back, Nebraska made it a priority to bring in help from the transfer portal.

Elijah Jeudy / Nebraska Athletics

A standout for Northeast High School in Philadelphia, Elijah Jeudy was a consensus four-star recruit in the 2021 class, ranking as the No. 177 (ESPN), No. 215 (247Sports) and No. 244 (Rivals) player in the class.

Jeudy had nearly 30 offers, including Alabama, Baylor, Florida, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Ole Miss, Penn State, Pitt, South Carolina, Virginia Tech, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

In April 2020, he narrowed that extensive list down to a top five of Texas A&M, Georgia, LSU, Oregon and Tennessee. Jeudy initially committed to Georgia in the middle of that month, only to decommit from the Bulldogs five months later in September.

He signed with Texas A&M during the early signing period in December 2020 but asked the school to hold off on releasing it. He made his decision public during the All-American Bowl broadcast on NBC in January 2021.

Jeudy enrolled early for the Aggies and arrived on campus as a 245-pound edge rusher and spent the next several months adding weight through the strength and conditioning program. He appeared in just one game as a true freshman in 2021 and redshirted.

That offseason, Texas A&M defensive coordinator Mike Elko left to take the head coaching job at Duke. Jimbo Fisher hired DJ Durkin, and Jeudy was expecting a bigger role as a defensive end in his system.

Well, Texas A&M ended up signing the No. 1 recruiting class in the country in 2022 and brought in one of the best D-line classes in modern history. Its eight members included FIVE 5-star players and three 4-star kids. Jeudy played only in two games last year as many of those players leapfrogged him in the pecking order.

Jeudy announced his intention to hit the portal roughly 90 minutes after the Aggies' upset win over LSU to close the season on Nov. 26. Jeudy tweeted out that he was officially in the portal a little before 9 a.m. on the first day the portal officially opened, Dec. 5, and roughly 90 minutes later announced that his first offer was from Nebraska.

Texas A&M D-line coach Elijah Robinson - a former Matt Rhule staffer at Temple and Baylor - put in a strong word for his pupil, which is what initially put Jeudy on Nebraska's radar. The staff's connections in the Philadelphia area also helped the Huskers make a strong early impression.

A lot of credit needs to go to recruiting assistant Omar Hales, the Philadelphia native who extended the offer and laid the groundwork. Jeudy already knew Hales and running backs coach EJ Barthel, while another Husker staffer, Mike Wallace, who spent seven seasons as an assistant head coach in Philadelphia, also got involved early in his recruitment.

But it was Hales who took point and was able to get Jeudy on campus for a visit over the Dec. 9-11 weekend - a visit that Jeudy announced less than three hours after tweeting his offer from the Huskers.

It was actually the first official visit he had ever taken, since the pandemic caused an 18-month recruiting shutdown that prevented Jeudy and others in the 2021 class from ever getting to visit schools.

Nebraska took all the official visitors to a basketball game at Pinnacle Bank Arena, and the atmosphere and fan support left a lasting impression on Jeudy. Ultimately, though, it was his relationship with defensive line coach Terrance Knighton that won him over. He liked the approach Knighton took and the transparency he had when telling Jeudy what he needed to work on to become a better player.

He spent the majority of his visit with Knighton and Tony White and liked their plans for him. The staff likes him primarily as a three-technique but told him they planned to play him along the entire front and have him lined up from the zero out to the five.

Jeudy took additional visits to Boston College and Wisconsin and had initially planned on committing on Christmas Eve. He changed the date to coincide with national signing day, Dec. 21. He named a final four of Nebraska, Boston College, Colorado and Temple, while also considering Oregon and Syracuse.

True to their word, Husker defensive coaches had the 6-foot-3, 300-pound Jeudy playing every spot on the D-line this spring. Despite missing some time with a minor injury, Jeudy showcased his potential with five tackles and a forced fumble playing with the No. 1 defense in the Huskers’ spring game.

Jeudy's versatility should come in handy in Tony White's system. He'll head into fall camp a strong contender for one of the starting spots along the line, or at least a heavy rotational guy. A redshirt sophomore with three years of eligibility remaining, Jeudy could be a fixture up front for years to come.