The last time we took a look at QB offers from the Huskers, we had six listed. Since then Nebraska has extended an offer to Zack Darlington out of Florida (he wasn't on the list initially) and continue to heavily pursue Nicodem Pierre, also out of Florida. What happened to the others?
Well, Dimonic McKinzy committed to Minnesota, the Huskers have completely fallen out of the running for DeShone Kizer, Jerrod Heard was never coming to Nebraska, Rafe Peavey is visiting camps and is as firm to the Hogs as ever and Will Ulmer committed to Maryland (huh?).
Like Brandon, I believe that as long as we're running this type of offense, we need to take a QB every cycle. Both Darlington and Pierre are capable of running Beck's offense, although I believe that Darlington would blow up Gangnam Style if he was the trigger man here.
We'll start with Nico Pierre first.
Nicodem Pierre, Coral Reef - Miami, Florida
Pro-Style Quarterback
6'3" 203 lbs
YouTube - Junior Highlight Reel
When we last left Nico Pierre, he had recently picked up an offer from the Huskers. His favorite so far is Duke with Nebraska and Louisville essentially running 2A and 2B. According to Rivals, he's also lost about 15-17 pounds (and shrunk two inches according to 247Sports).
Don't be too shocked at Nico listing Duke as his favorite. David Cutcliffe is the head coach there and tutored both Manning brothers (Peyton at Tennessee and Eli at Ole Miss) so the man knows QBs. If Nico has aspirations of eventually going pro, there may not be many better than Cutcliffe to get him there.
I already covered Nico a bit, and although he hasn't picked up any additional big offers, he'll be hitting some more camps this summer. I imagine that after he attends, he'll grab the interest of some of the bigger schools by the end of summer into early fall.
Zack Darlington, Apopka - Apopka, Florida
Dual-Threat Quarterback
6'1" 205 lbs
Darlington recently picked up an offer from the Urbz (that's tOSU for the slow ones out there) and stated "This was the offer I was waiting for."
What does that mean for Nebraska? I'm not sure, but I can tell you that I don't feel good about it. After watching his highlight reel, you can see why Beck, Urban, and schools like WVU, Ole Miss, Arizona, NC State all want him. Quite honestly, I think he'll get bumped up to a four-star when the recruiting services re-evaluate their prospects and refine their lists for the year.
He runs Apopka's spread offense like wizard. I was amazed at the amount of touch and accuracy on his deep balls, especially from the pocket. There were a lot of these throws because they constituted the majority of the passes on his highlight reel. He has good arm strength and his throwing motion is not awkward or stiff. It appears to be very fluid (which accounts for why his throws are on target) with great follow through.
While he appears to throw well rolling outside the pocket, he seems much more comfortable throwing from within. He did take some snaps from under center, when the offense was lined up in the ‘I', and threw some great play action throws out of it.
He also seems to be a great decision maker when running the zone read and speed option from the spread. He has good, not great speed, and is tough to bring down if you don't tackle him well. He would be a great fit for Beck's offense.
If I had to pick one out of the two that would be most likely to commit, I would say it would be Nico Pierre, hands down. That doesn't mean that I hope Nebraska doesn't keep pushing for Darlington. I really believe he could be something special running Nebraska's offense. I really, really hope Beck stays on him and Joseph drops by a few times to visit, just to let him know how much we want him.
Also boys and girls, don't think for a minute that getting Nico's commitment would be like winning the shiny blue participation ribbon that you got when you played little league baseball. I believe Nico would be a great pick up for the Huskers.
So that's it folks. What do guys think about our chances with Darlington? Which one of the two do you like?