Recruiting never stops and it’s easy to miss the top stories day-to-day. Recruiting analyst Greg Smith recaps all things Nebraska recruiting news, analysis and more so you never miss a thing.
The Nebraska wide receiver room got smaller on Saturday and got smaller again on Sunday. Oklahoma native Demariyon Houston announced he was entering the transfer portal on Saturday. The former four-star wideout was unable to make a move up the depth chart. Jamie Nance announced his decision on Sunday. There were several wide receivers who came to Lincoln after them that have seen more playing time.
Samori Toure, Omar Manning, Oliver Martin, Zavier Betts, Alante Brown and Levi Falck leapfrogged them on the depth chart. A change of scenery was needed for each despite his hard work behind the scenes. Just because others passed them on the depth chart doesn’t mean there is no impact on the departures. With the latest news, all four wideouts from the 2019 class transferred out.
The biggest impact here will be making sure the Huskers don’t have holes in the receiver room in the future. Here’s how the class distribution breaks down currently. A star by the name means that player is a walk on.
Senior
- Samori Touré
- Levi Falck*
Junior
- Oliver Martin*
- Omar Manning
Sophomore
- Wyatt Liewer*
Freshman
- Chris Hickman
- Shawn Hardy II
- Barron Miles Jr.*
- Ty Hahn
- Zavier Betts
- Kamonte Grimes
- Will Nixon
- Latrell Neville
- Alante Brown
There is something that jumps out to me when seeing the players and their class listed out. The Huskers are still very young at wide receiver. Part of the reason why is because they’ve had so much attrition at the position. I don’t think the Huskers are in much danger of having a gap in the immediate future. What they are going to potentially run into is a complete log jam of players that are the same class. Nine of the players at the position are freshman. The eligibility freeze last year helped that. Still, eight of the nine were brought on the team in the last two cycles.
Nebraska badly needs those young wideouts to stick around and develop. The position has been in flux since coach Scott Frost took over the program. The other thing to watch moving forward is how the team goes about adding wide receiver talent. There are nine freshman scholarship wide receivers on the team. How many do they need in the 2022 cycle? Victor Jones Jr. is verbally committed to the team. Should they take one more high school receiver? They could probably add the right JUCO player or transfer. That would help balance the classes a bit.
Most importantly the team needs to demonstrate they can retain and develop wideouts. The young group of pass catchers on the roster has lots of potential. Husker fans just want to see that manifest on the field.
Recruit Watch
>> Elkhorn South defensive end/outside linebacker Maverick Noonan was offered by Missouri over the weekend.
After a great conversation with @CoachErikLink I am excited to announce I have earned an offer from The University of Missouri @MizzouFootball pic.twitter.com/TmTERkDEsj
— Maverick Noonan (@MaverickNoonan) May 7, 2021
>> North Dakota athlete target Carson Hegerle was offered by Toldeo.
Grateful to receive my 8th offer from @ToledoFB!! Thank you @CoachRossWatson @vkehres @RickyCicconeUT @CoachCandle #GlassClassXXii pic.twitter.com/DXgeAblBtC
— Carson Hegerle (@CarsonHegerle) May 4, 2021
>> Texas 2023 defensive back target Micah Bell finished his track season as a state champion.
Good way to end the season State Champ
4×100 @Cam11Henry @_presslee_ @dillonbell6_
4×400 state champ @Cam11Henry @TNwabudike @dillonbell6_
LJ State Champ 23’6
Pr in the 100 10.46
Pr in the 200 21.54
On to spring ball pic.twitter.com/8CEpj5C8Hm— Micah Bell (@Bell11M) May 9, 2021
ICYMI
>> Derek Peterson took stock of the Husker outside linebackers (Premium) after spring football.
>> I checked in on the Huskers’ 2022 recruiting needs and if they changed (Premium) after spring football.
>> Middle blocker is the focus of Jacob Padilla’s 2020-21 Nebraska bolleyball position reviews.
>> On the latest Varsity Club podcast I joined Derek Peterson to talk about the most intriguing Huskers post-spring.
