The Weekly Rundown: Nebraska is staying very active on the camp front, and other legacy commit and more in-state recruiting momentum
Nebraska has been very active on the camp front this week with new offers and recruiting activity. We’ve also seen a nice surge of in-state recruiting momentum.
We hit on that and more as we start your Monday with The Weekly Rundown Column.
Sure bets
You have to feel good about these things right now:
Camp offers under Matt Rhule: One thing we learned about Matt Rhule this week is he is as present at camps as we’ve seen from a Husker coach in years.
Rhule is on the field the entire time. He’ll even get involved in the timing stations to clock 40-yard dashes of prospects he wants to see up close in personal. Camps are cleary important to him.
He’s also demonstrated that by making multiple offers this week to prospects based on their camp performances. This takes a lot of confidence in your evaluation process, as often times these are prospects that don’t have any FBS or Power Five offers. If you are going shoot first on a recruit, you have to believe in what your doing.
We haven’t seen this many new offers from a weekend of camps at Nebraska in years.
In-State recruiting momentum: Last week, we learned Papillion La Vista tight end Eric Ingwerson appears to be solid in his commitment to Pittsburgh, and things are going in a different direction with the recruiting of 2024 Bellevue West wide receiver Dae’vonn Hall.
However, things have turned quickly in the right direction on the in-state recruiting front. On Friday, NU landed a commit from 2025 Omaha North defensive lineman Tyson Terry. 2024 Bellevue West quarterback commit Daniel Kaelin continues to be the most valuable recruiter in the class. His teammate, wide receiver Isaiah McMorris showed up for a surprise camp workout on Saturday. We also saw Nebraska make another in-state tight end offer to Creighton Prep’s Michael Burt, who will now take his official visit to Lincoln this weekend.
Then you add the development over the weekend with Omaha Westside’s Caleb Benning. He has had little interaction with the new Husker staff regarding on-campus visits. That changed with an extended visit with defensive backs coach Evan Cooper on Friday. Now Benning is looking to possibly solidify an official visit on the big June 23 weekend.
Legacy commits: With the addition of punter Kamdyn Koch on Sunday, four of the Huskers’ eight commitments are legacies to an extent. Joining Koch is athlete Keelan Smith (dad Neil Smith), defensive back Mario Buford (brother Marues) and tight end Ian Flynt (father Darren Flynt – track).
Benning also remains a possibility to add as a legacy commit.
Will Bolt’s coaching staff moves: Nebraska baseball coach Will Bolt is not messing around this off-season. The NCAA is adding the third full-time assistant coach for baseball starting in 2024.
Bolt parted ways with his pitching coach Jeff Christy last week. He’ll replace Christy with former Texas A&M CWS head coach and Husker pitching coach Rob Childress. He also will bring in Wichita State assistant Mike Sirianni, who is regarded as one of the best recruiters in the game.
Bolt knows his program is close, but that doesn’t cut it at a place like Nebraska. These moves should help him take things to the next level.
The other thing I’ll be curious about is future facility and stadium renovations for baseball, as nothing significant has been done for the program since the opening of Haymarket Park over 20 years ago. Nebraska has the money to get things done for baseball, but do they have the power?
Their current lease with the ballpark is also tied in with the Lincoln Saltdogs. That has made it very difficult to get things done with Haymarket Park. The ballpark, for example, didn’t let NU sell beer at baseball games this year since the Saltdogs group controls the ballpark concessions. Getting it added to Pinnacle Bank Arena was no issue at all.
Over 20 years ago, a non-Big Ten Nebraska Athletic Department needed a financial relationship with the Saltdogs and the city of Lincoln to build Haymarket Park. My question is, does Nebraska need that relationship now if it will get in the way of doing things to improve the program?
Nebraska baseball no longer has the best set-up in the Big Ten. That should get your attention right there. Might Nebraska consider building an on-campus ballpark someday with complete control of renovations, concessions, luxury seats and other premium fan amenities?
Surprises
These were my surprises of the week:
Caleb Benning’s visit to Lincoln Friday: The visit on Friday from Benning was a nice surprise, as he only had been on campus once recently to meet the new Husker staff back in March.
Benning has gone about his recruiting process much differently than the other Power Five prospects in the state. He did not take spring visits like most others. Instead, he focused on playing AAU basketball.
Until Friday, it was hard to know where Benning and the Huskers stood with each other. Having him on campus for a visit with Cooper was a big step in the right direction. Now we’ll see if he returns later this month for an official visit. He currently has not taken any official visits. He has said in recent interviews he does not plan to decide until possibly after his senior season.
Isaiah McMorris working out at camp: Having McMorris work out at camp on Saturday was a surprise. Generally, a player with as many Power Five offers like McMorris does not need to camp.
He wanted to work out and compete for the new staff. He’ll be back later this month for an official visit. I like where the Huskers sit in this one.
Multiple first offers for 2024 prospects: We saw Nebraska make multiple first offers to 2024 prospects this week, which is not the norm in June. Generally, you aren’t turning over many new stones in 2024 this time of year.
The Huskers offered Cedar Falls (Iowa) OL Jake Peters, Hurst (Texas) L.D. Bell linebacker Tristan Johnson, Pearland (Texas) Shadow Creek DB Braylen Prude and Katy (Texas) Jordan wide receiver VanKeith Brown all in the class of 2024. The question now is how many of these guys would be “takes” today, and how many are maybe more “Plan B” guys for the class of 2024? Spots are filling quickly, and that won’t stop any time soon.
The jury is still out
Questions still surround these things:
Defensive back recruiting numbers: Nebraska has two defensive backs committed in Roger Gradney and Mario Buford. After this week, six more will have taken official visits to Lincoln. If Benning takes his official on the June 23 weekend, that would be seven. Gradney might take more visits to other schools.
How will Rhule and his staff manage the defensive back recruiting numbers? Who takes precedent? What players will have deadlines on their spots, and what players can take things into the fall?
The one interesting thing Rhule said to me this week is that any recruit that waits until after the season is taking a big risk because then you are competing against transfer portal players for those same spots. Right now, the focus on spots is the high school players you are bringing in over June. By November, the focus turns to the portal when teams only have a few spots left.
Is Nebraska in the discussion for OL Marques Easley?: Nebraska hosted four-star offensive lineman Marques Easley this week for a two-day unofficial visit. Easley spent the better part of Wednesday and Thursday with the Husker staff before heading to his official visit to Oklahoma on Friday. He visited Georgia last weekend and will close out June with weekend officials to Tennessee (June 16) and Alabama (June 23).
Did the Huskers do enough to crack the final three with Easley? It seems like a long shot, but the visit this week went very well.
This has my attention
Moving forward, this has my attention:
Texas recruiting numbers: Four of Nebraska’s eight commits for the class of 2024 are from the state of Texas. Another 11 players from the state of Texas have or will take official visits to Lincoln this cycle.
If you break the numbers down, 15 of the Huskers’ 56 allotted official visits will go to prospects from the state of Texas. It’s safe to say we could see as many as eight or more players from the state of Texas in the NU’s class of 2024.
2025 QB Stone Saunders: Harrison (Penn.) Bishop McDevitt 2025 quarterback Stone Saunders made his third unofficial visit to Nebraska since January. Saunders was at Nebraska’s camp throwing on Saturday and spent time with Kaelin.
It’s safe to say he’s squarely moved to the top of the list for Nebraska’s 2025 quarterback spot.
2025 QB Alex Manske: Another 2025 quarterback was on campus this week and left Lincoln with an offer. Algona (Iowa) signal caller Alex Manske has a Nebraska offer to go along with Pittsburgh and Wisconsin. This offer should get your attention, especially how Manske is viewed by the NU staff vs. Saunders.
2024 Edge Derrick Brown Jr.: Avon (Conn.) Old Farms edge Derrick Brown Jr. was a pleasant surprise at Nebraska’s camp on Saturday. The reclassified Prep School product is from Charlotte but will play at Avon Old Farms Prep School in 2023.
Nebraska quickly offered after his workout on Saturday. The question now is will he take an official visit later this month?
A big camp week: Nebraska will host its team camp through Tuesday this week, have a fullback and post-graduate camp on Tuesday, and close things up with Friday Night Lights on June 16.
It’s been a jam-packed June; after Friday, the focus will be on the final two official visit weekends of the month.
Sean Callahan can be reached at sean@huskeronline.com and can be heard daily at 6:45 am and 5:05 pm on Big Red Radio 1110 KFAB in Omaha during the football season. He can also be seen on KETV Channel 7 in Omaha during the fall and each week appears on Nebraska Public Media’s Big Red Wrap-Up Tuesdays at 7 pm.
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