The first National Signing Day has come and gone, and it appears Nebraska got nothing but surprises in a good way yesterday. I still remember signing day flips such as Travis Lewis leaving us at the altar for Oklahoma, Andrus Peat for Stanford, Jean-Baptiste getting a snow delay at school and giving enough time for Ohio State to sneak in.
According to Rivals rankings, in the last 3 days Nebraska flipped 5 star QB Dylan Raiola, 4 star LB Vincent Shavers, 4 star DB Larry Tarver, and 3 star CB Amare Sanders. The most important position on the field (QB), a spot where we are very thin (ILB), and a spot where we play 5 players most every snap (DB). While the number has to be down to 85 scholarships by fall camp, we are right around 100 currently. That will work itself out, but overall a great day for Nebraska. I go over each position group, what grade I give the recruiting, and then rank my top 10 recruits.
Quarterback A+
If you aren’t happy with the QB class Matt Rhule and staff brought in, you probably will never be happy. Somehow this staff was able to solidify commitments from not one but two Elite 11 QB Finalists. While I understand that one is an in-state commit and one is a legacy commit, it’s tough for me to sit here and apologize that we were good at football when Raiola’s dad played here so that gives us an advantage for a good football player. I’m also not going to try and move the University of Nebraska to take away the advantage. While Raiola will certainly have the leg up and I give it close to a 95% chance he’s our day 1 starter, Kaelin is someone I will keep my eyes on closely, don’t forget that he had an offer from Florida State as a freshman before ever starting a high school game due to the tools he possessed.
Runningback INCOMPLETE
Rhule and staff get an incomplete grade here, I don’t think we are finished. They wanted a back, as evidenced by taking the commitment from Lacy who has since flipped to another school. Whether it’s portal or a late blooming high school recruit, we need someone new to the program.
Wide Receiver A-
Nebraska needed help at WR, as they lost Washington and IGC to injuries, Betts quit, and Fleeks is gone. That literally puts our entire WR room as first or second year players next year if none of those guys are able to come back. Nebraska pulled in a big class for 2023 and did it again in 2024. Nebraska locked up the borders for WRs pulling in the #2 and #4 guys in the state with Hall and McMorris who both had big time offers. Keelan Smith (more on him at WR later) and Quinn Clark are legacies that the staff is very excited about and bring some big bodies that we can put out wide to get the ball. And last but who could be the best of the bunch is Jacory Barney out of Florida.
Tightend A-
I struggled what to grade this position group, but in the end, anytime you get the #1 recruit in your state and 62nd nationally in a class, it probably needs an A in front of it. Rhule and staff fended off Georgia and Notre Dame for Carter Nelson, and while he will probably see some time out wide as well as TE, he’s a great foundation for this position. Flynt is a legacy from Texas that is more of an inline blocker IMO. Ingwerson flipped from Pitt to Nebraska and many people think he may end up at tackle, but the staff wants to see what he can do at TE first. Nebraska high school football turns out so many TEs that we literally couldn’t offer them all from this class, but the staff did a great job securing 2 of them.
Offensive Line B+
If someone told me this needed an A in front of it for a grade, I wouldn’t argue. The Brix recruiting win along with Taumua (those two are #2 and #3 in our class) are huge recruiting wins. However, Taumua had an injury all of his senior year and I believe there is a reach or two in here. With that said, Nebraska is pretty old on the OL this year starting, and they will call on their 2023 and 2024 class to backfill those players leaving in 2025 and I believe this class is a great foundation to look for to supplement any holes from 2023.
Defensive Line C-
With so few numbers, this class can swing pretty wide on the grading scale. Carlon Jones was a long time commit who ended up at USC, and if we still had him it’s probably an A. Nebraska is in a nice spot on the DL with young players ready to step in like Lenhardt, Umanmiellen, Van Poppel, Lefotu, and Carroll-Jackson, but you have to continue to replenish the talent pool and we didn’t really do that with only one signed. I love Ashton Murphy as a recruit, so this grade isn’t an indication of that. It’s more an indication of the fact it’s a big 2025 for Knighton’s recruiting class to make sure we have young guys ready to get going.
Linebackers B
Nebraska loses Reimer, Snodgrass, and Henrich at the ILB spot and need some help replenishing that. I am assuming this is where they see these two fitting in. While I like both of their films, it will be interesting to see how quick they fit in. I think one of them needs to not redshirt as our ILB depth is scary thin right now. Wright and Bullock are your starters, then you have Stenger, Kpai, and Rogers. McGahee is here for the spring, which will help tremendously.
Defensive Backs B+
Nebraska got a B+ here just because the sheer number of guys makes it so there are going to be some hits in this group. However, just like with OL, I think this staff got a little too excited at camps in the summer and offered some guys a little early. That’s not to say that some of them won’t pan out. But when there’s numbers crunches, sometimes coaches that have never been here before don’t know the caliber of player you can get. This was Rhule’s first full year recruiting here. While I do trust their evaluations of players, especially live at camps, some of the guys were hurt most of this year and/or were reached even before that in my opinion. But that’s not to say they didn’t grab some really good players. Even a guy like Caleb Benning who doesn’t have a very impressive offer list is someone I really like in this class.
SSO’s Top 10
1.
The #1 ranked QB recruit according to three different recruiting sites gets the nod here. An unreal 38 touchdowns and 1 interception this year, this is exactly the type of arm that Satterfield wants running his offense. Let’s be real, there’s some red flags. 3 or 4 high schools, 3 commitments to 3 different colleges. But a legacy with this kind of talent and this kind of ranking, I don’t care if he’s only here for a season (relax hypothetically) you take him all day long.
2.
I truly believe that Rhule and Satterfield want to use TEs like the 49ers do with Kittle, and this is exactly the guy to do it. While we may split him out wide, or have him in the wildcat, his athleticism gives us a ton of options and is the exact type of weapon the #1 QB in the country has to be drooling over getting to utilize in our offense.
3.
In what seemed like the longest recruitment ever, we had to fend off schools like Oklahoma and Kansas State to get this commitment. Rhule knows that a strong OL makes everything look better from your QB, to your OC, to your HC. Getting Brix on board has us in a great spot for seasons to come in the trenches.
4.
We finally get to the defensive side of the ball, and I love the ball skills for this kid and his abilities while it’s in the air. With his brother on the team, he knows exactly what to expect from this staff and with Newsome gone and Hill & others older, he could see an early impact here.
5.
6.
To be fair, Preston could have been much higher, but he had an ACL injury for much of his senior year. Another player of the year that the Huskers signed, he helps solidify our line for many years and is exactly what Rhule and Raiola need to get the pipeline back on the right foot.
7.
With how many DBs play in the 3-3-5, it only makes sense to put another one in my top 10. Gradney comes from a very good high school football state and can find his way into playing sooner than later.
8.
With Nebraska needing WRs to play early in a bad way, I think Barney can make a name for himself in Lincoln. His high school wanted the ball in his hands so much they had him taking snaps from center at one point.
9.
While he may not be as big as Isaac Gifford out of high school, his ability to always be around the ball reminds me of him for the Huskers. I think he may be able to start working his way into the lineup with his instincts and ability to recognize the play in front of him with where the ball is going.
10.
I had to put this kid on here, as he may very well be the most mature recruit i’ve seen in a long time. He got put through the ringer in his recruitment, but things could pay dividends for him as Raiola may not be here more than 3 years and then we will need someone to take over.
Summary
Boy, how far removed are Husker fans from being mad at legacy players like Clester Johnson for “hating Nebraska” and other made up things for not sending their kid to play in Lincoln? Nebraska has 8, yes EIGHT, legacy recruits in this class (counting walk-ons Koch and Uhlir). There’s a lot to be said for that with fathers and brothers wanting their kids to play with what they see going on at Nebraska. HC Matt Rhule mentioned it, but the biggest endorsement and recruiting pitch you can have is people hearing it’s good to be a football player in Lincoln.
And let’s also talk about Rhule not only locking down legacies, but the state of Nebraska as a whole. If you’ve followed my stuff before, i’ve mentioned to you how bad in-state recruiting was getting for Frost and his staff. In 2019, Frost’s first full year of recruiting the state they cleaned up, and grabbed 5 of the top 5 players in the state of Nebraska. They continued to sell what their vision was with recruits in year 3, 4, and 5 with no tangible on the field results, and things started to spiral slowly but surely. According to Rivals, in 2020 Nebraska signed 2 of the top 3 players in state. In 2021 they signed only 1 of the top 3. In 2022 they signed 0 of the top 3 and only 1 of the top 5. In 2023, Rhule grabbed 2 of the top 3 and 3 of the top 5. In 2024 it was more of the same, but they landed 8 overall recruits from Nebraska. The life blood of what this program was built on.
There really is only two positions i’m concerned about, and that’s RB and DL. Other than that, this staff did an excellent job getting us players and depth where it was needed. 2 Elite 11 QBs, playmaking WRs and TEs, restocking the OL with 2 of our top 3 players being in the trenches. And replenishing the DB room and ILB position. JACK seems to be in good hands with Gbayor, Noonan, Sherman, etc. The future indeed looks bright in Lincoln.
Overall I would give this class an A minus. They needed a RB and some DL, but that’s more for depth purposes. Unbelievable job by our staff. We were 21st overall and 6th in the B1G, but the people in front of us should be (Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, USC, and Oregon). We just can’t compete there. But we filled holes, grabbed high profile players like Raiola, Gradney, and Brix, along with players we found at camps such as Clark and others.
Join us tomorrow where I go over the state of our NIL, why our donors are so confused, and what is going really well for us now and what still needs work.
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Is Gradney projected to be a safety?
I know we liked him in the secondary and we thought corner or safety when we got him. But we grabbed a couple corners in the class besides him so I think they will start him at safety.