Huskers Add Two D-Tackles
One of the great arms races in college football recruiting is for bodies at defensive tackle. There are so few guys that can meet the physical and physiological demands of the position and play at a high level, that it can be a true differentiator between the have and have-nots. Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State all featured tackles that are projected to go in the first round of the upcoming NFL draft. Notre Dame's got one expected to be drafted as well. Nebraska saw their season end badly after a key injury at tackle. Over the weekend, the Huskers added two prospects at this critical position for the future.
Orlando's Kevin Maurice pledged first. Maurice wasn't the most highly rated or sought after tackle, but that's at least in part because he didn't play the position until he was a sophomore. Physically, he looks like an NFL tackle. Most of the top prospects are 6'3", like Maurice. At 270 lbs., you'd like to see him add weight but that's still better than former commit Antoine Miles who was also listed at 6'3" but was 20 pounds lighter. Maurice had offers from North Carolina State and Boston College, among others.
Kansas City's Maliek Collins was next to join and had offers from Iowa and Missouri and a number of others. At 285 lbs., Collins looks even more physically ready than Maurice. Both players would still likely benefit greatly from redshirting though.
If the star ratings for these players don't impress, a quick scan of other Big Ten schools recruiting at tackle should bring home why these are good gets. It puts Nebraska ahead of more than half of the conference in terms of what they've added so far at the position.
The Huskers lose a good tackle in Baker Steinkuhler, but then Ohio State and Illinois may be losing standout juniors, and Penn State, Michigan, and Michigan State all are losing very good seniors.
There's still a fair amount of recruiting to be done and the Huskers may not yet be done adding tackles for 2013. Thankfully, they've solidified their standing at a critical position.
Michigan
1/7/2013
YES looks like NU recruiting is picking up. Bout time! Now if NU can keep em and develop them….. GBR
1/8/2013
There should be plenty of practice time in 6 of the first 7 games.
Hartford SD
1/8/2013
During tonights game, maybe we should be asking ourselves if we really belive that Bo can get NU back to that stage.
1/8/2013
These two new commits it moves nebraska 12th rankes recruiting class. Axxording to bigredreport.xom
1/8/2013
Scout ranks us #12
247 with their ranking has us at #15
247 Composite which includes, scout, rivals, espn, 247 median has us #22
Rivals #28 ( They also dont include Singleton)
So from 12 -28 ...Scout scoring goes more by average star plus commit total, where as rivals weighs more into commit totals than they do stars..
1/8/2013
The big thing about these two recruits is that they played great senior seasons,.. Star ratings are usually generated on how the kids play as sophmores and juniors.. These kids got scholarships based on the senior season and they are darn good players.. PRoabably need a redshirt year and developement but both are good adds
1/8/2013
Good gets, but we need more defensive AND offensive tackles. We need beasts. Animals. Suh types.
It must be hard to be a recruiter for Nebraska. We are the Alabama of old, but that doesn’t ring with many prospects. They want it now and they want to play for top flight teams. Winning cures all doesn’t it? Maybe taking GA all the way to the 4th quarter helped? I’m glad we have those 2, but they are only 2 and 3 star guys, guys that no one else hardly wanted, so while it’s good we got them because frankly we need bodies, we still need a coup in the recruiting on the lines. Notice Alabamas O line last night? Wow.
1/9/2013
Check out their films man, the way the recruiting process works out is that those stars are based on these kids junior and sophmore seasons.. Some bloom later.. Scout and Rivals havent even evaluated Maurice yet.. Wait
Helena, Montana
1/9/2013
When teams win, they always look unbeatable, but when they lose they always look not so much. ND appeared great until they played Alabama, alabama looked unbeatable until they played Georgia and some other average team beat them as well. Except for a couple of lucky plays NU would have beaten Georgia. I don’t think NU should have to beg for top recruits, any prospective player should see a tremendous opportunity to play for a National Championship at Nebraska in the very short future. Certainly in the next 4 years of their College careers. GBR
1/9/2013
To prove my point above scout has revised their star rankings today after the season and our new dt collins is now a four star .. Ten other nebraska recruits moved up as well , either position rankings or stars