Stadium Dr. Rumblings: A Big Fat Nebraska Recruiting Update

It’s been kinda slow with recruiting tidbits, but with certain commits coming down the pipe, camp season opening and the summer unofficial visit train rolling, it’s time to get to talking recruiting.

- Most folks noticed that Nebraska’s #1 quarterback target for 2019, Grant Gunnell, decided to commit to Texas A&M on Monday.

Now, even with this commitment, Nebraska is not totally out of the picture. How? Well, that whole Kevin Sumlin hot seat discussion helps the cause. If Sumlin is out of a job come December (or, hell, even next December), Nebraska could very well be back in the race for Gunnell, but if it’s later than sooner, Nebraska may not have room for a second quarterback.

Max Duggan, who hails from Lewis Central HS in Council Bluffs, got his Nebraska offer on Monday afternoon. If you are a timestamp guy, it’s just right after Nebraska found out that Gunnell was TAMU bound.

You’re not going to see a 247 composite score on him, and that’s cause there’s only one service (247) who has a rating on him. But I’m sure that will change in the not too distant future, especially since he’s getting offers and has camped with several folks.

- If you dig social media a lot, you saw the Snapchat of Nebraska football the other day. QB Tristan Gebbia was the man on it, primarily showing you the new arrivals from the ‘17 cycle coming to Lincoln. If you did miss it, here it is.

The kicker is that you didn’t see two guys in the class in that video. Deiontae Watts and Elijah Blades are currently not on campus right now, and it’s due to academic issues. Word on the street is that Watts needs to do better in his ACT scores to make it to Lincoln for the fall. While I’m not sure on what Blades needs to do, his Twitter activity last night was not promising.

Now, before you get all bent out of shape over the mentions to that tweet, realize that Nebraska holds his Letter of Intent, and he can’t just “go to another school” because of that. If he’s not going to get past the NCAA Clearinghouse with Nebraska, then the odds of him doing it with another school simply do not exist.

Blades would probably have to go the JUCO route, and the lone defensive back in the ‘17 cycle would not be in Lincoln. Mike Riley did state that he expects everyone to qualify for classes in August, so maybe it’s not as bad as we think. Still, the thought of a kid of Blades’ talent not in Lincoln would be seen down the line somewhere.

- We’re still on schedule for Joshua Moore to make his commitment in 11 days, then make it to Lincoln for Friday Night Lights. With all the chatter on the web, it sounds like Florida State still thinks they can get his commitment. Matter of fact, Moore is set to visit both schools, but at different times.

Moore was at the College Station satellite camp this past Monday, where Keith and Donte’ Williams were with Texas A&M coaches. Joshua has stated that he wants to play with his brother Jordan, currently an Aggie verbal, in college. However, it’s seeming like more and more likely that they will split for school.

Even though FSU Crystal Ball mentions keep coming in, I’m going to stick with mine and say Nebraska. It seems like the early work with the Williams gang is going to work out here.

- Sean Callahan went on and talked on 93.7 The Ticket in Lincoln yesterday, stated that due to the lack of size in this class, Nebraska may pass on running back in this cycle. Of course, that comes with the caveat that they’ll take the right guy if he’s out there, which is true for any damn position on the field. Maybe it’s due to how last year went down, but I’m finding it incredibly hard to believe that Reggie Davis is struggling once again to get quality RB’s to commit or even consider Nebraska, given the history of how this school has done.

Nebraska has shown a way to get bad recruiters and marginal coaches out the door on the defensive side of the ball, and I’m starting to wonder when that will get to the offensive side as well. For those that immediately think Mike Cavanaugh, I’ll argue that Cav has brought better talent, and has a decent track record getting kids to visit and consider Nebraska way more than Davis.

Now, I will say that Nebraska’s main target, all-purpose back Mychale Salahuddin just did put Nebraska in his Top 11 this morning, so maybe not all is lost here.

That all being said, Davis did not have a backup plan last year had RB Bradley not raised his grades enough to make it to Lincoln. When Kansas has a top 10 recruiter on offense in Tony Hull that is coaching RB’s, one wonders what he could do in Lincoln.

- Speaking of Cavanaugh, Chris Bleich should be one of the next verbals for Nebraska. What does he bring to the table? Well....

That’ll do, Chris. That’ll do.

- There is a talk going around on the numbers of the ‘18 class, which right now Nebraska is over halfway to filling. Since it seems that the class can range from 15-17 players, there are not many spots left. You seem to have maybe 4 spots on offense (1 OL, 2-3 WR) and 4 on defense (1 DT, 1 OLB, 2 DB) at the most available.

Yes, Nebraska has 11 verbals, but word all around is that the Huskers do not expect to take Eric Fuller when the cycle is all said and done. He’s gone radio silent in the past few months, and most folks expect that Fuller will not sign with anyone, Nebraska or not.

The numbers I put up are with Fuller not being in the fold, but who knows where it all leads with positions. The numbers, however are reasons that guys like Lincoln Southeast Bryson Williams are not getting Nebraska offers. If the class is 21-22, Williams is a sure fire offer and verbal. But, with the numbers Nebraska already has on the roster and lack of room on the signing class, you only get to 21-22 if you have serious attrition on both the team & at the position.

- The Nebraska coaches have been on the road this week at several Adidas schools, hitting up satellite camps aplenty. They spent the first two days in Texas at Texas A&M and UTSA, before hitting Mercer this morning in Macon, Georgia.

From the quotes in this article, it sounds like this is a much more popular camp with coaches, whereas the previous ones maybe didn’t get them enough time to evaluate. The amount of offers should spark up as well.

From this, expect a plenty of kids hitting up Lincoln on June 16 and 23, when Nebraska coaches have their own Friday Night Lights camps. It was such a successful endeavor with both players and fans that I would expect it to be even bigger this year in both factors. Granted, there’s a lot of work being done to Memorial Stadium at this time, but there’s no reason to think that the Huskers can’t replicate last year’s vibe in this aspect.