Three & Out: contact period changes, Dylan Raiola is playing a huge role with recruiting, and it’s going to take some patience with first group of official visitors

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 is making adjustments during the contact period with recruits, Dylan Raiola is leading things on and off the field for recruiting, and the seeds that were sown this weekend with the official visitors will take some time to grow. Here is your Three & Out:

Contact period rule changes impacting visits with recruits

It’s going to be very interesting to see how the Nebraska staff handles the recent rule changes involving the contact period. There are limitations on the number of times that a staff can come visit a recruit, the types of event that a staff can see the recruit at, and the overall number of days that the staff can be on the road seeing the recruits.

The way it used to work, the coaches were able to enter the school and were not permitted to talk to the recruit beyond saying hello. It was the “casual bump”. But several coaches weren’t playing by the rules and were talking face-to-face with the recruits. And why not? Why wouldn’t the NCAA just allow this to happen? And with the timelines moving more and more to the left, it makes sense to formally change this rule and permit conversation and evalution.

The staff is limited to 140 days to recruit in the spring. It’s quick math, there are ten full-time assistant coaches so each coach gets 14 days to recruit during the contact period. Another quick math exercise, Jackson Carpenter had several members from the Nebraska staff come to see him at Lincoln Southwest the other day, six of them in fact. Nebraska now has 134 days remaining and they have used their one visit to see Carpenter.

Appreciate you guys stopping by! Excited for the future! #GBR @GarretMcGuire @coachedfoley @Coach_Satt @DonovanRaiola @CoachEJbarthel @_CoachGThomas @LSWHawkFB @HuskerFootball pic.twitter.com/zLPHlIFsLl

— Jackson Carpenter (@Jcarpenter06_) April 29, 2024

Nebraska used six of their days for the visit to see Carpenter. These visits are a little bit of a bigger deal. Parents will come to the school to spend time with their son, the recruit, and meet with the Nebraska staff. The visits will have a bit more of an “event feel” to them. They will be more memorable for the recruit and the parents.

In a way, these visits will start the take the place of the in-home visits in the fall. It seems a little drastic to say, but consider that the early signing day has been moved up. Starting this year, the December signing date will be moved up three weeks from mid-December to the Wednesday before FBS conference championship games.

Another way schools used their visits in previous years would be to attend athletic events like track meets. Based on how the new rule works this year, a coach can still go to an event like a track meet, but that would be the one visit for any potential, recruitable athlete that is competing in the track meet. And again, that is the one visit that can be made with any of the recruits at that meet.

I would expect the rest of the commitments to get similar treatment as Carpenter did over the coming days and weeks. All of the commits are relatively close enough to Lincoln to do that. There will be some time still that a coach, like Ed Foley trekking around the state for example, is going school to school or town to town on their one day and seeing as many recruits in that one day as possible.

Dylan Raiola’s dual-purpose role this weekend

Nebraska never got to enjoy a long commitment period following Dylan Raiola‘s flip from Georgia to Nebraska in December. Raiola was in Athens, Ga., every weekend last fall, helping Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs put together their 2024 recruiting class. By the time Nebraska tried to capitalize on the flip, it was too far along for all of the recruits to reconsider.

Raiola is making up for lost time. He is the north star for recruits to orient themselves towards Nebraska.

And Raiola is working his magic on two fronts. The first is his performance on Saturday, which has drawn massive amounts of praise. The media is convinced that Matt Rhule has his man at quarterback. The recruits also quickly noted how Raiola performed. They noticed his poise, control of the offense, and effortless slinging around of the football.

On top of his performance on the field, Raiola is leading the charge for Nebraska off of it. When Dawson Merritt took his unofficial visit two weeks ago, his mother and Raiola’s mother connected at practice. Immediately following the scrimmage, Raiola told Merritt and the Nebraska staff he would host him for his official visit.

Moreover, while Raiola is leading the charge as a big-time host, he’s also making sure to be inclusive and pull in other recruits throughout the weekend. Emmanuel Choice mentioned being around Raiola first while on his official visit despite Raiola being host for Merritt. Raiola is having a wide impact on things in Lincoln right now. It’s exciting to think about where he can lead Nebraska.

These seeds will require some time to grow

It was a great weekend in Lincoln – as good as it can be without any new commitments – for all visitors, official or unofficial. It’s fair to say that Nebraska and Matt Rhule have the process of hosting recruits during this part of the season down to a science.

The best parts of Nebraska were on full display this weekend. I was given a wide range of answers from the visitors about which part of the visit they enjoyed the most. The answers ranged from the coaching staff to the people in general to the facilities to showing improvements from year one to two.

Additionally, recruits were quick to point out how a few freshmen who had been in Lincoln just a few short months were having an impact in the spring game—players like Dylan Raiola, Vincent Shavers, and Jacory Barney. The Nebraska staff is preaching to their visitors that if you can help the team, whether you are a fifth—or sixth-year senior or just showed up, you will get an opportunity.

Still, despite all the positives, it hasn’t led to any commitments. That could change soon with a player like TJ Lateef, as the recruiting process is very different for quarterbacks compared to other positions, but this weekend was more about sowing the seeds.

The eight official visitors are high-profile recruits; most have multiple official visits scheduled for the next two months. Nebraska needed to start improving its position with several of them and give them something like the Nebraska visit to consider through the rest of their trips.

It’s a risk because we have all seen it play out more often than not that the later official visit dates are more successful in getting recruits to commit. However, when talking to recruits, no one constantly communicates with them more than the Nebraska staff. Set a high bar going into May and June and continue recruiting all official visitors like Nebraska was before.

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