'It was surreal': Lincoln Southeast specialist Nate McCashland commits to TCU football

Lincoln Southeast specialist Nate McCashland announced Thursday he was committed to national championship game participant TCU.

It’s the continuation of a family tradition for McCashland, whose uncle, Mike McCashland, was an all-Big 8 fullback for Nebraska and whose father, Patrick, had “a cup of coffee” with the Huskers in his younger days.

“It’s awesome. Friends and family, just all that support and hard work paying off, it feels great,” Nate McCashland said Thursday. “The love for football at a young age struck me, and going as far as I can, that DI level, was always appealing to me.”

The 5-foot-10, 170-pound senior joins the Horned Frogs after an all-city season at Southeast that saw him go 4-for-8 on field goals and 40-for-43 on extra points while putting 29 of his 47 kickoffs (62%) into the end zone.

As a punter, McCashland averaged 36.6 yards per kick on 29 attempts with a long of 55.

McCashland, who was an honorable mention Class A all-state pick, also plays soccer for the Knights and is set to play in next month’s Shrine Bowl.

He’ll be a kicker at TCU after being recruited by Horned Frogs special teams coordinator Mark Tommerdahl. McCashland got an invite to a summer camp at TCU in 2022, and parlayed a strong performance there into interest from the Horned Frogs that led to an offer, and eventually, a commitment.

“It was just surreal,” McCashland said of committing. “They are a great program, but something that’s really important was just the coaches. They’re super down-to-earth guys, and they were really genuine with me, so that was very important.”

TCU has established itself as one of the top programs in the country over the last 20 seasons, culminating in a 13-2 season in 2022 during which the Horned Frogs started 12-0 before eventually falling to Georgia in the College Football Playoff championship game.

Now McCashland will try to add his name to TCU’s strong history.

“The next steps are just to prove myself as much as possible,” McCashland said. “I’ve had a lot of friends and family that have supported me through this; coaches that have put their necks on the line. And my dad taking me to football training and practices all his life — I feel like I can kind of pay him back through this and prove myself at the college level.”