Nebraska Football: Who Steps Up for Huskers with De'Mornay Pierson-El Injured?

The Mike Riley era at Nebraska will officially begin without one of the Huskers' biggest reasons for optimism this season—sophomore wide receiver and return man De'Mornay Pierson-El.

Nebraska announced Wednesday afternoon that Pierson-El will miss six to eight weeks after suffering a foot injury Tuesday. In addition, freshman receiver Lavan Alston is out for the season as well:

Pierson-El's injury is a critical blow for Nebraska's offense and special teams, as he had already emerged as a leader for both units in his freshman campaign. 

The speedy sophomore made the most of his 23 receptions last season for the Huskers and had the nation's second-best average on punt returns. He joined Utah's Kaelin Clay as the only players in the country to record three punt-return touchdowns.

Receiving	23 catches	321 yards	13.96 YPC	4 TD
Punt Return	34 returns	596 yards	17.53 YPR	3 TD

While his role as a receiver grew throughout 2014—his season-high eight catches against USC in the Holiday Bowl were a Nebraska postseason record—Riley planned to use him in the ground game on jet sweeps, a staple of his play-calling at Oregon State.

"The majority of times when I first met him, that’s when he would talk about the sweep left, sweep right," Pierson-El told Brian Rosenthal of the Lincoln Journal Star in March. "I can be pretty sure we’re going to see a heavy dose of that. I’m ready for it. I can get it. To get it going one way, full of momentum and just make somebody miss and go up the sideline, that’s what I want."

Now Riley has to look elsewhere for that type of playmaker out wide, at least for the first few weeks of Nebraska's tough 2015 schedule.

The receiver unit is thin right now because of injuries that go beyond the ones Pierson-El and Alston suffered. According to Steven M. Sipple of the Lincoln Journal Star, Brandon Reilly, Taariq Allen, Lane Hovey and Sam Burtch have been limited in practice.

With those veterans down, Riley and his staff will have to turn to a true freshman earlier than expected.

"The receiving deal, it's been very disruptive," Riley said, per Sipple. "I suppose the silver lining is people like Stanley Morgan have gotten a lot of turns and made the most of it."

Credit: 247Sports

Morgan, a 3-star receiver from New Orleans, has wasted no time in making an impression on his new teammates and coaches.

The true freshman brings a physical nature to the wide receiver position in Lincoln with a pair of solid hands. Michael Bruntz of 247Sports reported that Morgan caught three touchdown passes in last Saturday's scrimmage.

"Stanley is a mature, strong, and kind of an unfazed guy about where he is right now," Riley said, per Bruntz. "For a young guy, he’s also fit in learning-wise, which is what usually hampers most of them—they get the patterns all jumbled up. He appears beyond his years and he is a physical guy and a playmaker."

If Morgan can continue to show a good handle of Riley's offensive playbook, he looks like the ideal candidate to slide into Pierson-El's starting job at wide receiver.

Return specialist, however, is a different story. 

Nati Harnik/Associated Press

The race for playing time in special teams seems to be wide-open now, as Pierson-El was the top returning player on both kickoffs and punts heading into this season. Defensive back Kieron Williams is the only other player on the roster who recorded a punt return in 2014.

SB Nation's Nebraska blog Corn Nation named Terrell Newby, Jordan Westerkamp, Stanley Morgan and Jamal Turner as possible candidates to replace Pierson-El's punt-return duties.

But as Jon Nyatawa of the Omaha World-Herald wrote Wednesday, Nebraska didn't have a reliable backup plan for Pierson-El's absence.

"Westerkamp and Turner, two of the guys who never seemed to look all that comfortable catching punts in 2013, were the ones backing up Pierson-El at the spot so far in camp," Nyatawa wrote. "One would presume that other players will get a look there, as well. Nebraska averaged 3.04 yards per punt return [before Pierson-El's arrival] in 2013."

While the Huskers seem to have another dynamic young receiver ready to step in for Pierson-El, they will go back to square one in the return game.

And with less than three weeks left before the season opener against BYU, Nebraska needs to see something new from its special teams almost immediately.

Recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.

Justin Ferguson is a college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.