Three & Out: Westside/Bellevue West showdown, Duncanville trio to visit Nebraska, and recruiting hodge-podge
Three & Out is Nebraska On3’s feature in which recruiting analyst Bryan Munson gives his weekly takes on topical issues concerning Nebraska football and recruiting.
In this week’s Three & Out, Nebraska could be in a position to land a duo of Thunderbird wide receivers, more offers last week after summer camps, and some recruiting trends that are catching my eye. Here is your Three & Out:
Bellevue West/Omaha Westside showdown on Friday
I have had this weekend circled for a few reasons. One of them is obviously that Nebraska travels to Colorado to play against the Buffaloes. Another is opening weekend for the NFL. And yet another is the Bellevue West/Omaha Westside contest on Friday night.
This game was a bit more attractive before the season started. Omaha Westside has been lights out and firing on all cylinders, while Bellevue West is still trying to put a great offensive game together.
Still, there are some big storylines to consider about this weekend’s match:
Kaelin sees a great Westside defense
The Westside defense has only allowed seven points in eight quarters. They held Prep to 144 yards of total offense and made them punt the ball five times. Daniel Kaelin is also rotating a bit with sophomore quarterback Will Anderson taking a series or so away. Does that continue?
What is the status of Isaiah McMorris?
Nebraska wide receiver commitment Isaiah McMorris has missed the last two weeks. While I am sure the team would have liked to have him for Omaha North, McMorris might have missed the Burke contest as more of a precaution to get him healthy for this weekend. Dae’Vonn Hall hopes McMorris will be back. But we will see.
Does Omaha Westside’s offense keep rolling?
They complete nearly 75% of their passes with a 16 yards per reception average. Not to mention that they rush for 246 yards per game, averaging 7.1 yards per carry, and have scored nine rushing touchdowns this year already!
Bellevue West needs to find the switch and flip it. It does help that they are at home this weekend, and getting McMorris back, if he returns, could be some juice for an offense that just hasn’t taken flight yet.
Duncanville trio to visit Nebraska in September
When I went to the Duncanville game on Saturday night, I was following up on Nebraska’s recent offer to Kevin Ford and the news that he shared that he would visit Nebraska in September. I didn’t realize that Ford wouldn’t be traveling to Nebraska alone.
2026 Edge Kevin Ford
Follow-up questions are important, and since Ford just received the offer from Nebraska, it didn’t occur to me that more significant forces might be at play. Forces that Nebraska’s assistant coach Garret McGuire has been working hard to pull together since he got to Nebraska.
If you recall, McGuire was a name that was regularly mentioned for being at Duncanville checking out their players. McGuire was one of a handful of coaches who were in attendance at D’Ville for their spring game.
And while Ford just picked up the offer from Nebraska, a couple of other recruits from Duncanville have had their offer from Nebraska and are thinking about the Huskers. Ford is the defensive target, while Zachery Turner and Ace Theus are the offensive threats.
Turner is having a big sophomore year, having already pulled in 13 receptions for 153 yards and five scores. Ace has only one rush for a touchdown and one reception this season. Duncanville has put the ball in 18 players’ hands due to a catch, so they distribute it a lot, and sometimes the targets can come in bunches.
The trio will be coming to the Nebraska game against Michigan at the end of the month. That weekend is setting up to be a big one for the Huskers, considering the start time hasn’t been announced yet. It will not matter for the Duncanville trio because they have a bye that weekend.
Ford, Turner, and Theus have all said good things about coach McGuire and how Nebraska is recruiting them. The Huskers are not intimidated to get in there and recruit some very talented recruits at one of the best high schools for football in the Dallas area.
Nebraska Recruiting Hodge-Podge
Recruiting news continues to roll in, and as soon as I hear about visits, I am adding them to the database for all of you. There will be good news and some other things for folks to stay on top of. For example:
I caught up with Nebraska commitment Carlon Jones. With so many commits hurt, off to slow starts, or just a game into the season, it was easy to land on Jones as a player who should have a good season. His stats are solid. He’s disruptive from his interior defensive line position. However, he visited Houston this past weekend, and there might be a reason to keep an eye on him, taking other visits down the line. He plans to be in Lincoln for the game against Northern Illinois, and he says that he is completely solid to Nebraska and wants to watch a game. I can’t fault him there, but teams aren’t backing off, and he could be a player that continues to grow in popularity. As a side note, there was a Texas Tech visit in the database for Jones on 9/24. He confirmed with me he is not taking that trip to Lubbock.
We might be a week or so away from hearing Grant Brix’s decision. It’s been a week since I heard from him last, but based on his current view timeline, I estimate that a decision could be this week or next. Obviously, he’s not willing to rush it and doesn’t feel like he needs to. As I said last week, he didn’t have the strongest first game and thought he needed to improve. That had his attention more than recruiting did. There are plenty of distractions for people his age, and sometimes hard decisions that don’t apply to current circumstances are hard to prioritize to make time to think or talk about.
I texted Jacob Smith a week ago and didn’t hear back from him. The Michigan commitment and his brother, Jerod Smith, have changed high schools, and while they aren’t back on the market, it seems less and less likely that they end up signing with Michigan. Some suspect NIL will play a role here; from what I gather, that has some truth. While several folks are feeling a flip coming on for the Smiths, I dared to ask him if he thought another visit to Nebraska was in the cards. He said that it could be, and it really came down to scheduling with all the other things he has right now.
Some new offers to mention this week:
What do these three players have in common? You guessed it. They are all being looked at to play in the secondary (Bredell was told either offense or defense). The 2025 board was very light when I created my 2025 list a couple of weeks back, and since then, Nebraska has offered at least five players that could play in the secondary. Not a surprise.
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