Welcome, everybody, to the Carriker Chronicles, the people's show, where I'm bringing you the pulse of Husker Nation. Today I am going to give you my top 10 takeaways from the Nebraska spring game. First off, was a Jack Hoffman-esque experience during the coin toss, where US Army Staff Sergeant Matthew Hawke was reunited with his family after not seeing them for almost an entire year. It was an awesome, touching moment -- something I thought was very cool so I wanted to start off with that.

Number two, several Nebraska recruits have committed to the Huskers over the weekend, during the spring game, and in the days leading up to the spring game. It's been a plethora of lightbulb moments, let's just call it what it is, because it is a brilliant moment for these young men to commit to playing football for the University of Nebraska. I want to highlight one young man in particular, Brendan Radley-Hiles. His brother passed away, and he put out a tribute video to his brother with him committing to play for the University of Nebraska at the end. It's about 90 seconds long; if you haven't checked it out, do so. It is very cool. He is the 36th ranked recruit in the country, according to Rivals 100. He is the highest-ranked recruit we have had commit to Nebraska since 2008.

The third thing I want to talk about -- no, not the Pretty Boy quarterbacks, we are going to talk about the running backs. I want to talk about Wyatt Mazour. I love this kid. Wyatt Mazour, Luke Gifford, Tyler Hoppes, these Nebraska guys are the epitome of what coming to play for the Husker football team is about. They turned down offers from other schools to make Nebraska great again, what it can be again. We need to bring Nebraska back to its prestige again and these guys epitomize that. They turned down offers from other schools, came to Nebraska, worked their way up and have earned everything they have got. I love that and I love that about them. Love Wyatt. Devine Ozigbo, it was good to see him play well. He had 7 rushes for 49 yards, and one could argue that we have five running backs that could play at most schools. I'm just hoping that one or two of those guys step forward and grab the bull by the horns and lead the rushing attack going into next fall.

Next up, okay I'll talk about the quarterbacks of course. Tanner Lee has lived up to the hype so far throughout spring practice and in the spring game as well. His touchdown pass to JD Spielman was not only probably the best pass I have seen this entire spring, it's what I am looking for from him. We know he has that phenomenal arm strength. The question is his touch and accuracy. This pass had to be thrown into a pretty tight window and it showed a lot of touch and accuracy. It was good to see. Lee may have wrapped up the starting quarterback position on Saturday. Still a lot of practices to go and nothing has been said formally. But he was 13 of 19 for 190 yards and three touchdowns with a 68% completion rate. Patrick O'Brien was 11 of 17 for 130 yards and a touchdown as well. And Tristan Gebbia, the young man opened up a lot of eyes on Saturday. He was 28 of 45 for 268 yards against the first-team defense. Now, I'm already hearing people talk about Patrick O'Brien transferring because Lee will start this year and Gebbia will start after he leaves. Let's pump the brakes a little bit. Let's not get rid of Patrick O'Brien just yet. This young man enrolled early last year, worked hard, and think of it this way: He is second string. At the moment he is not even second string, we are all just assuming Lee will start. Right now, Patrick is a backup quarterback as a redshirt freshman. That's pretty good. So let's pump the brakes on that unnecessary comment for now.

Number five, the pass catchers. JD Spielman has looked good all spring and had a good day on Saturday. Keyan Williams had a game-high six catches for 69 yards. I am feeling more and more comfortable with our wide receiver depth. Whether somebody goes down, or we want to go into three or four wide receiver sets, we have some young players developing. The tight ends also looked good. We lost three fifth-year senior tight ends last year to graduation, so how were we going to do at that position this year? Tyler Hoppes stood out to me with four catches for 66 yards.

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Now, let's finish the top 5 takeaway moments I have from the Nebraska spring game. Number 6, The Trenches. I'll say it again, offense fills seats, defense wins games, The Trenches win championships. The running game looked better on Saturday. That was encouraging for me to see that the offensive line has looked a little better. The center position has struggled with shotgun snaps throughout spring practice. After some film review, it looks to me like Cole Conrad currently has the upper hand going into fall camp. As far as the defensive line, it was tough to get a read because they were not running the 4-3 defense. They were running a 4-2-5 defense. It was different stances and techniques, so it was hard to get a read on the defensive line on Saturday. We will have plenty of time to get a read on them, fall camp.

For the difference as a whole, I have been looking for guys to emerge as pass-rushers. I have been impressed with Mick Stoltenberg. He looked good in the spring practices. A big war daddy in the middle, he has worked hard and looked good at that nose guard position. Along with that, is the pass rushers off the edge. Not just this defense, but any defense needs to be able to put pressure on the quarterback without having to blitz all the time. We also need to work on our open-field tackling a little bit. I mentioned that in my gut reaction video after the game on Saturday. My wonderful son sat right next to me and joined me on that show, so if you have not seen it, check it out.

For my number eight takeaway, I enjoyed watching Ameer Abdullah call the game and enjoyed listening to him. But I heard something that floored me a little bit. How did this guy get away with never playing in a spring game at Nebraska for four years? Seriously, how did he do that? I didn't get to do that. Who does he know? Really, though, I enjoyed watching him and he did a great job. He looked a little nervous at times but in my humble opinion, whenever his playing days are done, he might have found his second career already.

Number 9, this is the best spring game I think I have ever seen. When you and have four new quarterbacks, a new defense coming into a game, you never know what to expect. There weren't many penalties or people out of position. I think for where we are right now, it was one of the better spring games I have ever seen. There were some guys banged up, but no season-ending injuries. That is always a concern for a coach going into these types of games. I am totally cool with everyone across the country underestimating us. Saying that we're not going to go to a bowl game, not going to be .500. I'm totally cool with flying under the radar. I like what I see at quarterback, I like what I see at receiver with guys emerging. Plenty of guys that can run the ball. The O-line will be better, the defense has looked good all spring. Keep underestimating us. I'm cool with the Huskers flying under the radar.

Last but not least, the fans themselves. Did you know that Saturday was the second-largest attendance for a spring football game with 78,312 people attending the game? The largest was in 2008 with 80,149. Over the past 12 spring games, there has been over 800,000 people in attendance. Let me break that down for you people. It's a practice. We call it a game, but those are practices. We're talking about practice. That is awesome and what makes Husker Nation second to none.

Finally, there are a couple of people I would like to introduce you to. Now, I had to fib a little to get them to come on the show. I told them we were taking pictures. This is my dad, Dave Carriker, and my mom, Nancy Carriker. You can see where I get my really really really ridiculously good looks from. Who did you think Zoolander was talking about in that movie? These are two of the major reasons I ended up going to Nebraska. Growing up in the Northwest, who knows where I would have ended up had it not been for their passion. My dad is one of the biggest Husker fans I have ever met. He didn't even know he was rubbing off on me. If you enjoyed my career at Nebraska, thank him. If you don't like my show now, thank him and my mom.

Now, I am going to do what every kid has always wanted to do and ask the tough questions. Why wasn't my allowance more growing up? Ha -- no, seriously. As a Nebraska football fan, what is your all-time favorite moment and Husker football history? (National championships). All of them, any one of them stand out? (All of them). Pretty good answer. Now, we are going to do what we always did at my house growing up and what we always do on the Carriker Chronicles. We say Go Big Red, and always remember ... to THROW THE BONES!