Closing the Deal

3 comments so far November 20, 2009 by Steve Hanway

This week is about closing. Nebraska showed they can close out a game with the way the finished at Kansas. They needed to make some plays offensively and they did in a big way. Saturday's game will be no different. The division is seemingly on NU's racket. Hold serve at home on senior night and you are Big 12 North champions. Nebraska is a more than two touchdown favorite. The game should be theirs to win. But that's not the only thing for the Huskers to close on this weekend.

As the final home game for Nebraska, Saturday is also the last opportunity this season to host recruits in a game day environment. In many ways, you'd expect the enthusiasm to be on the level it was against Oklahoma. Even if the opponent isn't quite so exciting, the stakes certainly are. Not to mention the likelihood that Nebraska will score more than 10 points (meaning there may be more to get excited about). It seems like the perfect setting to capture the last few recruits.

Nebraska reportedly has seven recruits slated to visit (as of Thursday evening), but these things can change rapidly). Four of them come from the high school ranks. Five-star defensive end recruit Owamagbe Odighizuwa might be the most talked about visitor. Not only would he continue a tradition of standout defensive linemen, he'd also continue the more recent tradition (started by Ndamukong Suh) of players with names that hard to pronounce. Four-star quarterback and NU commit Tyler Gabbert is also slated to visit and this visit could still be important as he still is being pursued heavily by schools like Missouri who don't seem to want to take 'No' for an answer. Three-star cornerback prospect Jonathan Mack of California will attend the big game. Waverly defensive back/receiver and Husker commit Tyler Evans will also make his official visit.

Then there are three junior college players coming to visit. While there has been some debate about the value of junior college players, you'd think those like Dejon Gomes, Ricky Henry, and Brandon Kinnie this year have put to rest the idea that you wouldn't want any on your team. Four-star offensive tackle recruit Jermarcus Hardrick (currently still listed as an LSU commit) will make a visit. Then there's three-star defensive tackle recruit Anthony White and four-star linebacker recruit Lavonte David (so far the first linebacker recruit to visit). All three attend Fort Scott Community College in Kansas.

Grabbing (and holding) some talented players this weekend could make this Saturday's game a big one not only for this season, but also a strong one for securing the future. That's the way to close a season.

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