Trio of former Nebraska football players still looking for new homes

While the Nebraska football team gets ready for the start of spring practice on Monday, there are still three former Huskers that still haven't found themselves a new home. That's especially surprising considering that the players all left long enough that it certainly seems as though they could have found a new home by now.

Nebraska football and the departures that made the team better?

The Huskers are far from the only team gearing up for spring practice. The fact that Greg Bell, Justin McGriff, and Guy Thomas is more than a little odd. Perhaps the oddest of the trio is Bell, who came out of Butler Community College looking like he might be able to burst onto the college football scene.

It was about this time last year that Bell had tongues wagging in Lincoln. The Huskers saw what he could do in the JUCO ranks and thought he was going to be quite the weapon for Nebraska. After the spring game and in the first few games of the regular season, he looked like he was about to live up to the hype.

Bell ran for 104 yards on 13 carries in his Huskers' regular-season debut against Colorado. Then he ran for 64 yards on 14 carries in the team's second game. while he was getting good, but not great numbers on the ground, Scott Frost and company were becoming more and more convinced that Devine Ozigbo was the man. Against Michigan and Purdue, Bell ran for five yards on eight carries.

The cautionary tales?

Once it was obvious he was no longer the starter, he departed. Because it was inside the four-game mark, it was expected that he would be choosing a new team relatively quickly. Nearly half a year later, Greg Bell is still a free agent. At this point one has to wonder if he's decided to hang up his cleats.

Perhaps the saddest part of the story is that while he's still relatively active on Twitter, though nowhere near where he was, he still hasn't changed his profile pic from one when he was wearing the Nebraska football uniform.

Justin McGriff's story is similar but different. He played out the entire season, though he didn't actually play, so he'll keep his redshirt and left in December.

While he hasn't been out there nearly as long, it doesn't appear he's going to be playing at a division one school this spring either.

Guy Thomas, an outside linebacker that was once a highly touted defensive recruit, left in the middle of the two departures. Just a few weeks before the wide receiver decided to leave, the former defensive prodigy called it quits to his Nebraska football career. It doesn't appear the trio have much in common besides the fact that they all left Lincoln. It is possible Greg Bell, Justin McGriff and Guy Thomas could serve as cautionary tales for future wannabe stars who think they will immediately become impact players at a better school.