JD Spielman leaves Nebraska: Time for Minnesota football to swoop in?

Minnesota football has a second chance at landing JD Spielman.

JD Spielman and Nebraska football are parting ways so the time is now for Minnesota football to take advantage of their second chance and reel him in.

In early March, JD Spielman took leave of absence from the Nebraska football program to return home and deal with a personal health matter. Now, as first reported by Sean Callahan of Husker Online, the senior wide receiver has entered the NCAA transfer portal.

The move is being called a “mutual parting of ways”, so Spielman’s career at Nebraska is over. He has not graduated and also has an incomplete academic term for this spring semester, so he will need to be granted a waiver to play immediately in 2020. He redshirted in 2016.

Spielman is third all-time in Cornhuskers’ history in receptions (170) and receiving yards (2,546). He’s also second all-time in 100-yard receiving games (eight) and eighth in receiving touchdowns with 15. He is the only Nebraska receiver to post back-to-back-to-back 800-yard seasons.

Home for Spielman is Minnesota. He’s the adopted son of Vikings’ general manager Rick Spielman and was a highly-touted recruit out of Eden Prairie High School in the 2016 class. The hometown Golden Gophers missed out on him then and Spielman has 20 receptions for 277 yards in three games against them (6.6 catches and 92.3 yards per game).

Spielman is one of the top slot receivers in college football and has the stats to back it up, besting former Gopher Tyler Johnson with first down receptions from the position.

The Gophers lost Johnson to NFL, and they’ll lose Rashod Bateman to the NFL Draft next spring. Fellow junior wideout Chris Autman-Bell seems likely to return for his senior season in 2021, but regardless of when Spielman would be eligible to play there will be a substantial void to fill in the passing game for Minnesota football.

Spielman’s recruitment came under previous Gophers coach Jerry Kill. But the work P.J. Fleck and his staff have done in recruiting means no player is unattainable. As Andy Greder of the St. Paul Pioneer Press cited, there’s a recent Eden Prairie/Gophers connection via Antoine Winfield Jr. and Carter Coughlin.

With the opportunity to offer, plus the home angle, the Gophers and Fleck should have some advantage here. Spielman to Minnesota feels like a slam dunk, and even with competition to stave off, it would be an upset if Fleck doesn’t cash it in.

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