Stadium Dr. Rumblings: Nebraska Hits The Road To Finish The 2017 Cycle

- With the way the Nebraska regular season ended, expect a vast majority of the coaching staff to hit the road and do some major recruiting before the bowl season dead period clicks in.

I had a post ready to go with the dates that outlines the dates to follow, but Mike Schaefer of 247 did a pretty good job laying that out, so I’ll refer you to that since it’s a free post.

Expect coaches to first hit their committed targets, getting in-homes with them all this week to touch base and reaffirm things. Nebraska has done a great job with communication this cycle, not having any kids decommit from the class yet. I say yet because there tends to be at least one kid who finds themselves wanting a different home. As I have said before, I don’t fault kids who do this because they think it’s a better fit for themselves.

- Time to go around the room and go to what coaches should be looking to close on during this traveling time.

QB: No real need to close on Tristan Gebbia, so Danny Langsdorf will be working on 2018 kids. You should see some offers fly out this week, as the Huskers have 5 out on QBs so far but only 2 to non-committed kids.

RB: Outside of FB Ben Miles, there’s no commitment yet and no real target to make sense of. It seems like Reggie Davis is hell-bent on getting a visit from Stephen Carr (USC verbal), Nathan Tilford (Arizona verbal) or Kylin Hill (Miss. St. verbal). With the loss of Terrell Newby to graduation, Nebraska needs to at least hit on one kid this cycle.

Tre Bryant was a late find last year by Nebraska, but even then that was in the first week of November when he committed. It’s possible that Nebraska passes on the position, but that brings in a big depth issue that would be exasperated with a injury or two.

Reggie Davis is starting to catch heat as possibly the weakest recruiter on the staff, and we remember last year what happened to the weakest one in Hank Hughes.

WR/TE: Wideout seems to be set up with a good haul, looking for Jaevon McQuitty and Keyshawn Johnson to early enroll. Hitting on 2 of the final 3 targets of Joseph Lewis, Jamire Calvin and Jeremiah Holloman would be the perfect finish. Nebraska has spots open to play next year, and the incoming class will be expected to contribute in some manner.

As far as tight end goes, the Huskers are set up well with Austin Allen and Reese Leitao. The only real target right now is Josh Falo, but if Nebraska doesn’t get him it probably won’t be the end of the world.

OL: Nebraska has better odds than you think with their top tackle target in Foster Sarrell. Tackle-wise, Nebraska will invest a lot in keeping Matt Sichterman from Ohio committed, as he’s one of the bigger targets for other schools looking to fill out their class. The Huskers still have Aaron Banks and Chuck Filaga as targets. Hitting on at least one of those and Foster would give Nebraska 4 tackles with Brendan Jaimes.

Guard-wise, Broc Bando seems to be the only actual guard Nebraska is thinking of, but there’s a probability of one of the tackle commits moving inside.

DL: With the 2 commits in Deontre Thomas and Deiontae Watts, Nebraska could finish out the cycle with one more DT if they really wanted. The goal is still Damion Daniels out of Dallas, and Nebraska does like their chances with him.

As far as defensive ends go, John Parrella is going to have to get creative and find someone he likes very late in the cycle to pair with Guy Thomas. The best target, Iowa Western CC DE Andrew Van Ginkel, committed to Wisconsin.

LB: With Avery Roberts and Willie Hampton coming into the fold already, along with 4 freshmen, Nebraska could take one more in this cycle. However, if no one stood out, there’s not a real big need to.

CB/S: This position gets to be a little murkier than once projected. We all know the Darnay Holmes story, but Nebraska is better off not worrying about him. There are several irons in the fire with Quran Hafiz deciding soon, Thomas Graham and Chevin Calloway still being aimed for, one way or another.

Brian Stewart made sure to hit up Hafiz on Sunday, and it sounds like things went well in that aspect.

ATH: Rhayme Johnson falls under athlete in this aspect, however it looks like the Huskers are going to go hard on this one during the live period. They went into Youngstown, Ohio to offer Lynn Bowden, a four-star ATH that has been courted mostly by Indiana and Kentucky.

- There are several targets from other schools that could bring Nebraska back into play if head coaches are on the move. A school-by-school observation:

Oregon: If Mark Helfrich is let go, it’ll bring in several kids Nebraska has been efforting in back into play. Deommdore Lenoir & Nick Pickett come to mind immediately, but it also could let Rahyme Johnson to the fray.

Texas: The Horns only have 7 commits currently, so I don’t really think that there’s anything to try to pry away from there.

Houston: The Cougars, on the other hand, do have a couple corners in Terry Petry & Timarcus Davis to take a look at.

UCLA: With the news of OC Kennedy Polamalu being dismissed, the Bruins will be on their third OC in three years.

- On the dismissal of Bruce Read Sunday, one thing that was stated that Read really did well was to find talent to point the direction of other people on the staff. He did find Caleb Lightbourn by himself, but it’s completely not fair to say that it is a wasted scholarship right now. Especially with Lightbourn getting a new coach this coming year.

Tavita Thompson, the graduate assistant coaching tight ends, should get the spot on the staff for both pay and recruiting reasons. When the NCAA allows the 10th assistant spot available later this spring, you could see another special teams coach if possible. However, naming Thompson to the staff soon would handle anyone poaching him, as well as getting him able to be on the road quickly and without needing a waiver.