Nebraska picked up their 2023 QB commit last night in 5.6 three star William Watson out of Massachusetts. He was the player of the year in the state, and he has been a 3 year starter for his team. Whipple coming from that area obviously had a good connection with him and liked what he saw.
But there are some things I just struggle with for this commitment. The first is, whenever we have a Power 5 player in our own backyard, I think it’s imperative that we keep them here. Zane Flores from Gretna has multiple Power 5 offers now with more coming. Take a look at his hudl highlights.
There’s definitely a difference you see when watching the HUDL films. First, Watson is more of a runner while Flores definitely has the more talented arm. For me, with the struggles i’ve seen our offense have with a running QB that struggled with accuracy from time to time in Martinez, I would lean towards accuracy. Our staff went that route too, after grabbing Martinez, McCaffrey, and Smothers, we reversed course and went with Haarberg as our 2021 QB. Flores touts a 70% completion percentage while Watson was 60% at the high school level this past fall.
Another thing I take a look at is Flores won games with inferior talent compared to teams like Omaha Westside. He just made his team better. Let’s not make it look like Watson didn’t do the same, but when you have a home state kid doing it, I think it’s something to ponder.
The last thing I wonder about is who we are going after at QB. After taking Haarberg from Kearney Catholic, we followed that up with Torres out of San Antonio who blew his knee out senior year, Casey Thompson the Texas transfer, and Chubba Purdy the Florida State transfer. Why not take a chance on Flores now? Let’s be real, Flores isn’t beating out Thompson in 2023 if he is still around, but if you believe in Purdy and Torres, might not be a bad time to grab a local kid. Instead, we go grab a guy from Massachusetts.
In year 5 I think you should be able to grab the Power 5 QB in your own backyard that wants to come here.
But let’s be real… QB play was one of the reasons we have struggled a bit the past 4 years and we fired our OC for the second time and are now on our third. What are we supposed to do, tell him he can’t go get who he wants? I actually like Watson as a commit. I’m just not sure he is that much better than a guy we have locally.
Frost needed to revamp the QB room and let Whipple have his way a bit, so i’m ok with their decision. I just would have found a way to get Flores here as well. If it were me, once we made an OC switch I would have told Torres he needed to find somewhere new and offered Flores AND Watson a scholarship for 2023. You have plenty of guys competing for 2022 with Haarberg, Smothers, Purdy, and Williams. If you need a 5th string guy you’re in trouble anyway, and you have Masker still here.
Last point on this… the transfer portal makes it so Flores is less of a risk in my opinion. Let’s say Flores sucks, after 2-3 years you can go get someone that has the experience of Purdy or Williams anyway. I just think we should have tried a bit harder to keep the local kid home. It’s not like we pulled in Arch Manning here for this 2023 class.
I know some people are rolling their eyes, that’s fine. For the record we have stepped up Omaha recruiting with some renewed energy, so that’s not what this is about. I just think if Oklahoma State and Kansas State are recruiting a kid in your backyard, get him here.
To reiterate, I like the Watson commit. Just get them both here.
Should have DB preview up later this week!
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