Linebacker Zach Schlager has left the CSU football program and is transferring to Nebraska, where he hopes to join the Cornhuskers as a walk-on, his father said Tuesday.

Schlager, a 6-foot, 211-pound freshman from McCook, Nebraska, participated in a scrimmage Saturday at Colorado State University, a school spokesman confirmed. He put his name into the NCAA transfer portal Monday, Russ Schlager said.

“Zach Schlager has chosen to leave the team and pursue a chance to play elsewhere,” CSU coach Mike Bobo said through a school spokesman Tuesday. “We enjoyed having him as part of our program, and we wish him well in the future.”

Zach Schlager signed with CSU in 2018 and appeared in four games last season while taking advantage of a new NCAA rule that allowed athletes playing in four or fewer games to redshirt. He will likely have to sit out this fall under NCAA transfer rules and will have three years of eligibility remaining beginning in 2020.

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A Nebraska athletic department spokesman couldn’t say Tuesday whether Zach Schlager would be joining the school’s football program with other walk-ons Aug. 26, when fall-semester classes begin. Nebraska has the NCAA maximum of 110 players participating in fall-camp practices now, the spokesman said, but typically adds as many as 40 additional walk-ons when classes begin.

Nebraska had recruited Zach Schlager out of high school — he was named to the Omaha World-Herald's All-Nebraska team for players from all classifications at McCook High and was a Class B state champion hurdler — but the Cornhuskers did not have a scholarship available to offer him in coach Scott Frost’s initial signing class, Russ Schlager said.

Zach Schlager had scholarship offers from Cornell, Harvard, North Dakota State, South Dakota and South Dakota State, according to 247Sports. He was also being recruited by Kansas State, Nebraska and Missouri, he said, when he committed to CSU in April of 2017.

His older brother, Jake, was a two-year starter at safety for CSU in 2016-17 and finished his career with 175 tackles, including 112 solo stops, in 56 games over four seasons. Another older brother, Joe, played college football at South Dakota and is now working as an intern in the CSU football office.

Kelly Lyell covers CSU and other local sports and sports-related news for the Coloradoan. Follow him at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news and help support the work he and his fellow journalists do in our community by purchasing a subscription at coloradoan.com/subscribe.