Record-Setting Masker Accepts Huskers Preferred Walk-On Offer
Basically like a glove. Matt Masker will fit into that new Nebraska offense like a hand in a glove.
Kearney Catholic’s record-setting quarterback Matt Masker was among the 40 walk-on prospects invited to last week’s event at Memorial Stadium and over the weekend he accepted a Huskers preferred walk-on offer. He’d showed up with a bushel basket full of Class C-1 passing records, several of them very familiar to new Huskers head coach Scott Frost, and the reputation as a great passing quarterback. With little or no mention of Masker being a running quarterback, either by necessity or design.
Seeing that way - Masker as a pass-only QB - would be a major mistake.
“In our offense Coach (Rashawn) Harvey didn’t let me run very much because he wanted to keep me on the field. I understood that but I am a pretty good athlete and I feel comfortable running the ball,” says Masker. “I watched a lot of (Coach Frost’s) Central Florida games this season and that offense is real similar to ours.
“I believe I will be a good fit in that offense.”
That’s words of joy to Nebraska high school football fans who want our best players to wind up playing for Big Red. Masker had a lot of other options but he left last week’s walk-on event with a great vibe regarding the new coaching staff and what it wants from the state’s high school players.
“I had a great talk with Coach Frost. We joked some about me breaking his records and then he told me I would have a great future with his program and offered me a preferred walk-on opportunity,” says Masker. “It was an awesome experience to be part of that night and to have the chance for a one-on-one with Coach Frost.”
A two-time all-stater, the 6-foot-2, 215-pound Masker finished 2017 with 2,506 yards passing and 25 touchdowns in only 10 games; for the record he also ran for 341 yards and six touchdowns in limited attempts. Last season he broke Frost’s own Class C-1 career records for passing yards and touchdown passes. And all the numbers are only part of the story, if you ask Masker.
“Coach Frost was like me, a C-1 quarterback with a dream to play at Nebraska. He gets where I've been in my high school career and believes in me fitting in at Nebraska. It's a dream come true."