There is no more exciting time in the transfer portal for a college football fan than when your team secures its quarterback. Similar to the NFL Draft, getting a new quarterback injects optimism and provides a fresh start for the offense. Nebraska experienced that joy for about 24 hours, then Will Stein and Kentucky yanked the football away from Charlie Brown.
On Sunday night, Kenny Minchey committed to Nebraska. The Huskers had less than 24 hours to celebrate the news. That’s because he had a change of heart, ultimately deciding Kentucky was the best place to play college football, not Lincoln.
The Nebraska fanbase immediately went into meltdown mode, and Will Compton led the charge. The former Nebraska linebacker was an NFL journeyman who rose to stardom through the podcast ranks, teaming up with former Tennessee Titan Taylor Lewan on Bussin’ with the Boys. The show blew up at Barstool, ultimately leading to a deal with FanDuel. They’re featured on promos for alcoholic beverages at KSBar and make regular appearances on ESPN’s Get Up.
Compton has become the unofficial voice of Nebraska football. He cuts promo videos that play in the stadium. He also appears to be plugged in behind the scenes. Once the Minchey news hit, he hit the panic button and threw a fit.
“Kenny Minchey just f****d Nebraska,” Compton Tweeted to his 500,000 followers. “He committed. Was supposed to visit tomorrow. Agent had paperwork & said he was signing. Kentucky hit him with a blank check. Lack of honor & spine led him to switch before signing the contract. Agent complied.”
It wasn’t just a Tweet. During their weekly college football show with Josh Pate, the loss of Minchey to Kentucky was compared to the sinking of the Titanic. (WARNING: Lots of NSFW language lies ahead.)
It’s a joy to see the animated reaction from the Nebraska fanbase. It let’s Kentucky fans know that this Minchey guy might be pretty awesome. However, Compton’s version of the story is just one side of it, and it may not be entirely true.
Max Olson is an ESPN Insider and one of the more plugged-in transfer portal guys outside of the On3 network. He does not believe Minchey was simply following the blank check to Kentucky.
“I was told from his camp that Nebraska offered more money than Kentucky,” Olson told a Nebraska radio show. “Of course, I haven’t laid eyes on contracts, but I truly think Kenny Minchey’s take on this was an opportunity at Kentucky and the track record of those two guys (Stein and Sloan). It is a little bit closer to home and some of those kinds of things, but ultimately it was a very tough call for him, and one where this stuff just goes really fast.”
In Will Stein’s introductory press conference, he said that money isn’t everything in recruiting, even in the transfer portal. That may be true in the case of Kenny Minchey. Whatever ultimately led him to Kentucky, the quarterback gave Big Blue Nation a reason to rejoice and left Nebraska in shambles.