LINCOLN – Fresh from a keynote speech that sounded more like a pulpit sermon, Matt Rhule laid out in detail how Nebraska football will tackle official visits in June.
His answer revealed a sea change in NU’s view of summer football camps.
Might be a big thing. Might not. After all, that extraordinary June night in 2017 - when 17-year-old Micah Parsons wowed a crowd of star-gazing Husker fans – amounted to almost nothing at all. But when Rhule said Nebraska would host its major official visit weekend in late June – after NU had completed its camps – he shifted camps from a showbiz event to something more mundane and likely more fruitful.
Rhule said he wants to run good camps and make solid evaluations. Nebraska has ditched the 7-on-7 tournament and potentially turned the Friday Night Lights evening into something more than a handful of go routes and pass rush drills. He wants to get his eyeballs on as many 9th, 10th and 11th graders-to-be as possible and, in doing so, be positioned to offer and pursue talent from an informed perspective.
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“When people see the attention to detail we have – the urgency we have – and the way we run our camps, I hope they say ‘well, they must do everything like that,’” Rhule said Wednesday.
Though Rhule didn’t – and couldn’t have – mentioned it, that kind of evaluation rigor will help the Huskers avoid being a step late to offering in-state players like Teddy Rezac and Eric Ingwerson.
The Omaha Westside linebacker silently committed to Notre Dame before NU made its offer, and Ingwerson publicly committed to Pittsburgh before Rhule’s new staff had much time to even breathe.
Both guys are upside players with good junior production and even better collegiate potential. Both ND and Pitt were shrewd in pushing for quick visits and quick commits before Nebraska could get a word in. Neither player had worked out for Rhule, who’s willing to make bold offers – like the one last year to Westside receiver Jaylen Lloyd – if he has the data and/or evaluation in his hands.
In-state offers tend to come with more responsibility. Nebraska can’t run off an in-state signee the way, say, Colorado, Michigan or Oregon could. Or the way Nebraska once did with countless players from Florida and California.
Young assistants like recruiting in those areas because that builds up a nice source network and prospect performance file. If you want to get a job in the ACC, you might want to know the city of Miami. Ditto for the Pac-whatever and Los Angeles. A deep, local knowledge of Omaha doesn’t move the recruiting needle for most schools.
But it must for the Huskers. Nebraska can absorb and move past recruiting losses like Rezac, Ingwerson and Bellevue West quarterback Daniel Kaelin, who saw a good chance at Missouri and took it instead of waiting to see whether NU lands Dylan Raiola. But at least four other Metro players – Westside’s Caleb Benning, Central’s Caleb Pyfrom, and Bellevue West receivers Isaiah McMorris and Dae’vonn Hall – have national recruiting profiles. It’s not Rhule’s fault that Nebraska’s struggles swung the door wide open for in-state recruits, but it is his responsibility now.
And the camps should help, if they become what Rhule wants them to be.
On with the Rewind:
>>If Logan Smothers walked back through Nebraska football’s doors, I think there’d be a spot in NU’s quarterback room for him.
Casey Thompson left for Florida Atlantic, which he told ESPN has an offensive line “that can protect me.” And Richard Torres left for Incarnate Word, a FCS spread offense that fits Torres’ gunslinger approach. Don’t be surprised if one day he’s back in FBS as a transfer.
Smothers - quiet, serious, steady – seems unlikely to land a starting job at a Power Five school. He might at a smaller Group of Five school in FBS, or perhaps one in FCS. Or he can return to NU and battle for a backup role that hasn’t been decided.
“My point to them was, quarterback’s so different, only one of them plays, so if you want to go look, you can still come back,” Rhule said. “I don’t know that anyone will…the door’s open on our end. If you’re here, I want you to be all-in on being here. Jeff (Sims) played well and Heinrich (Haarberg) had a good spring. I’d love to have one more guy.”
>>Did John Bullock’s ascension to scholarship player get an assist from Rhule’s simple purchase request?
“One of the first things I did when I got here was I requested ‘hey can I buy enough GPS units for the whole team,’” Rhule said Wednesday. “So every workout I could get the GPS start/stops, loads, speeds.”
He learned Haarberg was one of the fastest players on the team. He learned Bullock had impressive data, too. So NU moved him from safety –a loaded position – to a linebacker spot. Bullock’s at 218 pounds on the way to 225 by fall.
“We moved him and he was just real natural,” Rhule said. “He got better and better. I think he’s a legitimate starting-caliber player.”
>>Rest assured, Nebraska’s going to have a traditional fullback next fall. Boy, will it. Maybe two or three.
It’s not clear how often Janiran Bonner – who played the role in the spring game – will be lined up as a lead blocker vs. operating in space as a Chancellor Brewington-style H-back. Bonner would need to bulk up some for a thankless, almost merciless role of violence in a power-run offense.
The job could fall to Braden Klover, or Trevor Ruth, some of Nebraska’s new additions, like Wyoming transfer Caden Becker, Columbus Lakeview senior Landon Ternus – a 6-foot, 220-pound state wrestling champion who can run a 10.9 in the 100-meter dash – or, as of Saturday, Notre Dame transfer Barret Liebentritt, the Omaha Skutt graduate who played on the Fighting Irish’s special teams in 2022.
NU has quietly been adding some intriguing late walk-ons to the 2023 roster – including Chicago-area linebacker Danny Pasko – who may pay dividends down the road.
>>ESPN’s FPI said 5.7 wins. A couple gambling operations suggested six or just above it. Those seem like appropriate prognostications right now for the Huskers.
One note: Wisconsin is probably getting roster credit, to some degree, for adding a quarterback (Tanner Mordecai) who threw for 7,152 and 72 touchdowns over two seasons at SMU. Unless he’s Russell Wilson, Mordecai not going to perform anywhere close to that standard in Madison. The Big Ten and the American Athletic Conference have few similarities. Ask Scott Frost.
>>Nebraska basketball has another scholarship available for the 2023-2024 season. Finnish import Eemeli Yalaho could be the guy who grabs it.
A 6-foot-8, 230-pound shooting forward, Yalaho took a visit to Nebraska on Friday before heading to Texas Tech over the weekend. He’ll turn 19 later this month as he graduates from Western Reserve Academy near Cleveland. Yalaho has extensive international experience, including in the Adidas Next Generation Tournament and the 2022 U18 European Championships, where he averaged 8.4 points and 4.1 rebounds for Finland.
If Nebraska lands him, and loses no one else in the transfer portal processing, coach Fred Hoiberg probably has a slightly better roster than last year.