Recruiting Update
8 comments so far
December 5, 2007 by
Now that the Huskers have a head coach, it will become easier to understand which recruits still want to come to Lincoln and which will look elsewhere. Sure, there’s a ton of re-recruiting to be done of the kids who had committed to Bill Callahan, but with a lot less uncertainty surrounding the future of Husker football there’s a much greater opportunity to retain current recruits and land new ones.
It should be noted that much of the recruiting information referenced here comes from the free portion of sites like Rivals.com and Scout.com. There’s probably a lot more known out there to those who pay the toll but rather than violate copyrights, we’ll stick to what’s been offered freely.
Good Bets to Sign
The newest (and surest) recruits are LB/DE Micah Kreikemeier of West Point, Nebraska who joined the Husker recruiting class within an hour of Bo Pelini’s initial press conference in Lincoln. He knows the score coming in, he’s an in-state kid, and his Dad played for Tom Osborne. Count on him being a Husker. Barney Cotton’s son Ben Cotton of Iowa, a four-star tight end prospect is also a slam dunk and committed Monday night.
Joseph Townsend, a class of 2007 juco recruit, is again listed as a commit by Rivals for 2008. He was a four-star defensive tackle prospect a year ago and is the brother of former Husker Larry Townsend. Assuming his academics will be in order, it seems likely he would still come to Nebraska. Three-star center Ricky Henry of Omaha (now at a North Dakota juco) was awaiting an offer from Nebraska pending his academics and it seems likely he’d join Nebraska if the grades panned out.
Other Nebraskans in the class would also seem good bets to become Huskers. That includes five-star offensive tackle Baker Steinkuhler of Lincoln, two-star safety prospect John Levorson, and four-star linebacker prospect Sean Fisher of Omaha. They are all still committed and don’t appear to have other visits scheduled.
Three-star offensive tackle Brandon Thompson of Texas is said to be steadfast in his commitment to Nebraska. Likewise, three-star defensive end Cameron Meredith of California appears to remain committed to the Huskers.
Hard to Say
David Whitmore, a three-star cornerback from Texas is still listed as a verbal with no visits apparently scheduled, but no real current updates have come out in some time on Whitmore. The same is true of three-star linebacker/defensive end recruit Eric Harper of Louisiana. Three-star linebacker Kyler Reed of Kansas is still committed but was in wait and see mode at last report. Three-star defensive end Riley Rieff of South Dakota was committed as of mid-November.
Three-star junior college tight end Tyson Hetzer says he is still very committed to Nebraska as of late November but is scheduled to visit Louisville this weekend. Four-star offensive tackle Dan Hoch of Iowa is still committed, though there have been rumors of him visiting Iowa and Illinois.
Still Looking Elsewhere
Simi Kuli, a five-star juco defensive end committed to Nebraska after things were already going badly for the coaching staff. But his visit to Oklahoma this past weekend brings some doubt as to his intent to come to Lincoln.
Collins Okafor, a three-star running back from Omaha, is listed as a soft verbal by Rivals at this point. You’d think the Huskers could lure him since he’s from Nebraska, but at this point he seems to be in-the-air. Bryce Givens, a four-star offensive tackle out of Colorado, is listed as a soft verbal by Rivals as well, three-star juco wide receiver Adrian Hilburn from the City College of San Francisco, three-star defensive end Josh Williams of Texas, three-star linebacker Doug Rippy of Ohio who had a visit scheduled to Pittsburgh, four-star linebacker Will Compton of Missouri who’s visited Illinois and is set to visit Nebraska this weekend and Missouri next weekend, and Keelan Johnson of Arizona who made a visit to Arizona State last weekend.
Four-star juco linebacker Shaun Mohler is listed by Rivals as a soft verbal has visited Oregon and was set to visit Colorado as well. Scout lists him as no longer interested in Nebraska.
Decommitted
Five-star quarterback Blaine Gabbert rescinded his commitment to Nebraska and committed to Missouri. Four star running back Jonas Gray committed to Notre Dame after decommitting from NU. This all took place before Pelini was hired though. Three-star defensive tackle Darius Parish decommitted in September and appears headed to Wisconsin or Kansas.
Four-star offensive lineman Trevor Robinson was an early decommit, but still has Nebraska in the running along with Notre Dame and Michigan. Three-star wide receiver D.J. Woods accepted an in-home visit last week from Nebraska but has visited schools like North Carolina, Iowa, and Auburn and seems wide open on the schools he’s considering.
You'd think Nebraska has a better chance with defensive players for the time being, but once the Huskers can put together a strong (and exciting) description for their offense, they might have better luck there too.
Did you enjoy this article?
Get Husker news by email
Follow us on Twitter
Related Stories: Recruiting
Post a comment
darren Dec 05 07
Great summary, Steve. It's a hard thing to get your head around an entire class in flux. Thanks for doing the leg work.
My take - we much keep the linebackers and "big people". Why?
1 - NU's most thin defensive area will be linebacker next year. We need an influx of talent right now. Keeping players like Mohler and Rippy at LB.
2 - You can never have enough linemen. This o-line class has a chance to be special. If I had to choose, I'd rather have Givens in the fold than Gabbert. Why? Because we have a few quarterbacks to feel good about. And, a talented line can make almost any QB or RB look good.
Jason Dec 05 07
The Journal had an interesting story about Osborne calling Micah Kreikemeier from West Point Central Catholic.
Micah was looking at ISU and then TO called.
"I can’t say no to him. It’s Tom Osborne."
I think we'll see a few more Nebraskans on the roster next year.
Bill in Iowa Dec 05 07
I was happy to see TO gave his blessing to Pelini to coach the LSU/Ohio St. game. While all the recruits are watching the game, there is going to be plenty of talk about Bo, how good he is, and where he is going. Defensive recruits especially are going to lap it up and put NU back on their list...if we have room for them by then.
Darren Dec 05 07
True that, Jason.
And, it is one thing to find a few more guys from central or western NE. Being from Hastings, I have big respect for that. The *best* players from those towns should have their default setting switch to NU...not ISU, KSU, or KU.
And, I'm almost happier to hear the report that Pelini and Osborne made the rounds to the state's biggest schools (Omaha Central, Millard North, etc) to lock those players up, too. On population study alone, NE's best players tend to come from Lincoln and Omaha. We can't let that erode even a little.
Surely the Prater brothers and Ronnell Grixby at Central (Class A state champs) can get roster spots if Mr. Kreikemeier can.
doombob Dec 05 07
Do you think that we'll start having decommits from other schools switch to us at the last minute now? I'm tired of that happening to us and not stealing people from other schools at the last second.
Bill in Iowa Dec 05 07
KETV has an article on Pelini/Osborne visits to NE high schools to solidify verbal commits and steal kids like Shaun Prater (CB Iowa Recruit) and his brother. Also, for those who had thought we had seen the last of Grixby...there may be another Grixby on the team to look forward to, Ronnell Grixby.
http://www.ketv.com/sports/14779375/detail.html
It is clear Osborne wants to offer 8-10 of the top in-state talent, so I found this link on rivals listing the top 10 Nebraska recruits:
http://rivals100.rivals.com/viewrank.asp?ra_key=1862
Kyle Dec 05 07
Dr. Tom and Bo have been at Millard North a few times now they are looking at a few plays for this year but there is a good amount of people next year they will try to get like nick fallia(led Nebraska rushing), Blake Brission (led Nebraska in picks) and Lundgren they will all be heavy recruit by Nebraska and i believe a couple other players will walk on.
ze bop Dec 05 07
Didn't realize Ben Cotton was a 4 star guy--awesome!
Think we have a great shot at Compton now that BOP is at the helm.
The recruits sound good. We need some stellar D linemen and some home run WRs and rbs and we'll be set pretty well. We already have quality rbs, especially if Lucky returns, but we need some real speed guys. Get Mendoza on the field!
I have a good feeling about the new staff's ability to maximize the teams talents.