
Noah Vedral began his college career playing for Scott Frost at Central Florida, then he followed him back to his home state of Nebraska.
LINCOLN — Whenever Nebraska football is allowed to return to practice, the program will have one less scholarship quarterback on the roster.
Junior and Wahoo Neumann alum Noah Vedral has entered his name in the transfer portal and will play his final two seasons at a different school, the quarterback told The World-Herald on Tuesday. The 6-foot-1, 200-pounder, who threw for 418 yards and rushed for 106 last season, declined an interview until Wednesday. Nebraska also confirmed the departure.
Vedral, the son and nephew of former Huskers, will graduate in May and seek a new spot where, presumably, he has a clear path to start. At NU — the school to which he transferred after one season at Central Florida — Vedral spent two seasons as Adrian Martinez’s backup. While Vedral led the winning drive in a 13-10 win over Northwestern and started two games last season while Martinez was hurt — earning praise from coaches for his command of the offense — he was sent back to the bench as soon as Martinez returned.
Further, in a 54-7 win over Maryland, redshirt freshman Luke McCaffrey was the No. 2 quarterback. In the season finale — a 27-24 loss to Iowa — Martinez took the bulk of the snaps while Vedral and McCaffrey each had a package.
“We have three really good quarterbacks,” Frost said at the time. “I love all three of those kids.”
NU now has three scholarship quarterbacks on its roster: Martinez, McCaffrey and true freshman Logan Smothers of Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Martinez, who has started 21 games in his career, will be the clear No. 1 whenever the team can return to workouts.
Spring football was perhaps canceled — and at the very least postponed — by the coronavirus pandemic, so Vedral didn’t get a chance to challenge Martinez in practice. He started two games last year — against Minnesota and Indiana — while Martinez was recovering from a knee injury. He was better against the Hoosiers, completing 14 of 16 passes for 201 yards and running for two touchdowns. Vedral got hurt in the game, though, which opened the door for McCaffrey, who threw for a touchdown and ran for 76 yards.
Martinez returned the following week in a 31-27 loss to Purdue. Outside of the packages for McCaffrey and Vedral in the Iowa game, Martinez was the clear starter.
Vedral knew Frost’s offense the best, having played at UCF for one season behind McKenzie Milton. He transferred to NU in the 2018 offseason as a walk-on — he received a scholarship that summer — and tried to become immediately eligible. A snag with the NCAA delayed that eligibility until the Northwestern game. Vedral got his first major action in a 45-9 win over Bethune-Cookman, when he ran for a score.
“Those are the type of kids that I played with. They’re the type of guys that make up the fabric of this program,” Frost said after that game. “We want more of them. We want more of them contributing. But any time one of those kids is out there, it’s a little extra special to me.”
Though spring practice had just started for the Huskers in 2020, it seemed that Vedral had an uphill climb to beat Martinez. In an effort to refine its fundamentals and better hone an identity, Nebraska trimmed its playbook for spring despite having the entire offense return. Mastery of the playbook was Vedral’s greatest strength.
Because Vedral graduates, he will be immediately eligible at his new school.
Photos: Every season-opening starting Husker quarterback since 2000
With Nebraska in the midst of another quarterback competition, take a look back at photos and statistics from all the passers that started the opening game of the season since 2000.
Eric Crouch, 2000
Stats: 1,101 yds. passing, 11 TDs, 7 INTs, 48.1 comp. pct.; 971 yds. rushing, 20 TDs
Eric Crouch, 2001
Stats: 1,510 yds. passing, 7 TDs, 10 INTs, 55.6 comp. pct.; 1,115 yds. rushing, 18 TDs
Jammal Lord, 2002
Stats: 1,362 yds. passing, 12 TDs, 12 INTs, 46.6 comp. pct.; 1,412 yds. rushing, 8 TDs
Jammal Lord, 2003
Stats: 1,305 yds. passing, 6 TDs, 8 INTs, 48.3 comp. pct.; 948 yds. rushing, 10 TDs
Joe Dailey, 2004
Stats: 2,025 yds. passing, 17 TDs, 19 INTs, 49.4 comp. pct.; 4 rushing TDs
Zac Taylor, 2005
Stats: 2,653 yds. passing, 19 TDs, 12 INTs, 55.1 comp. pct.; 1 rushing TD
Zac Taylor, 2006
Stats: 3,197 yds. passing, 26 TDs, 8 INTs, 59.6 comp. pct.; 1 rushing TD
Sam Keller, 2007
Stats: 2,422 yds. passing, 14 TDs, 10 INTs, 63.1 comp. pct.
Joe Ganz, 2008
Stats: 3,568 yds. passing, 25 TDs, 11 INTs, 67.9 comp. Pct.; 258 yds. rushing, 5 TDs
Zac Lee, 2009
Stats: 2,143 yds. passing, 14 TDs, 10 INTs, 58.6 comp. pct.; 171 yds. rushing, 1 TD
Taylor Martinez, 2010
Stats: 1,631 yds. passing, 10 TDs, 7 INTs, 59.2 comp. pct.; 965 yds. rushing, 12 TDs
Taylor Martinez, 2011
Stats: 2,089 yds. passing, 13 TDs, 8 INTs, 56.2 comp. pct.; 874 yds. rushing, 9 TDs
Taylor Martinez, 2012
Stats: 2,871 yds. passing, 23 TDs, 12 INTs, 62.0 comp. pct.; 1,019 yds. rushing, 10 TDs
Taylor Martinez, 2013
Stats: 667 yds. passing, 10 TDs, 2 INTs, 62.7 comp. pct.; 117 yds. rushing
Tommy Armstrong, 2014
Stats: 2,695 yds. passing, 22 TDs, 12 INTs, 53.3 comp. pct.; 705 yds. rushing, 6 TDs
Tommy Armstrong, 2015
Stats: 3,030 yds. passing, 22 TDs, 16 INTs, 55.2 comp. pct.; 400 yds. rushing, 7 TDs
Tommy Armstrong, 2016
Stats: 2,180 yds. passing, 14 TDs, 8 INTs, 51.4 comp. pct.; 512 yds. rushing, 8 TDs
Tanner Lee, 2017
Stats: 3,143 yds. passing, 23 TDs, 16 INTs, 57.5 comp. pct.; 2 rushing TDs
Adrian Martinez, 2018
Stats: 2,617 yards passing, 17 TDs, 8 INTs, 64.6 comp. pct.; 629 yards rushing, 8 TDs
Adrian Martinez, 2019
Stats: 1,956 yards passing, 10 TDs, 9 INTs, 59.4 comp. pct.; 626 yards rushing, 7 TDs
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