Recruiting never stops and it’s easy to miss the top stories day-to-day. Hail Varsity recaps all things Nebraska recruiting news, analysis and more so you never miss a thing.
As noted in Monday’s notebook, Nebraska offensive lineman target Zalence Heard has a commitment date. The prospect intends to make his commitment announcement on Thursday, Sept. 1.
Do the Huskers have a chance? Heard is between Nebraska, Houston, Florida, Florida State and LSU.
The short answer is that LSU is going to be tough to beat. The 6-foot-5, 300-pound offensive tackle hails from Monroe, Louisiana. His ties to the Tigers run deep. There’s a lot of hype around him and LSU right now too. So much so, if you Google his name, quite a few of the returns are from LSU sites speculating on his decision.
Heard is ranked a high four-star by 247Sports, and a five-star by On3. He was recently named the No.1 player in The News Star’s inaugural Fab Four, “a collection of the Monroe area’s top college football recruits for the Class of 2023 as picked by the newspaper.”
As for who is leading Heard’s recruitment for Nebraska, Louisiana native Mickey Joseph and running backs coach Bryan Applewhite are the two tasked with the job. He also has a Nebraska connection through Ajay Allen. The two played for Monroe Neville together in 2021. Heard also took an official visit to Nebraska over the June 10 weekend.
Nebraska has its eyes on a couple of additional offensive linemen for the 2023 class—Bo Hughley is another, although he seems likely to stick with his Georgia commitment—but the Huskers do have a number of linemen already in the class. Sam Sledge, Gunnar Gottula, Brock Knutson and Riley Van Poppel are all part of Nebraska’s 2023 class.
While LSU appears to be the favorite, it’s still too early to rule out Nebraska in the race for Heard’s commitment. Husker fans will certainly want to keep an eye on how this evolves in the coming weeks.
Recruit Watch
>> Let’s look at some basketball recruiting. Keyontae Johnson, a grad transfer from Florida, is visiting Nebraska.
Keyontae Johnson now looking at Kansas State, Western Kentucky and Nebraska, source confirmed to @Stadium.
Former Florida standout will be visiting Nebraska today. First reported by @On3sports.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) August 17, 2022
ICYMI
>> The 2022 Nebraska high school football season kicks off on Friday, and Jacob Padilla gets you ready for what could be a special year.
>> After receiving significant interest in the open position on his staff, Fred Hoiberg hired former Mississippi State assistant Ernie Zeigler who “checked all the boxes.”
>> The August 2022 issue of Hail Varsity, our annual Nebraska volleyball issue, is on its way to newsstands and mailboxes as we speak. Get a look at the latest issue now.
Erin is the Deputy Editor and Digital Marketing Strategist for Hail Varsity. She has covered Nebraska athletics since 2012, which has included stops at Bleacher Report, Cox Media Group’s Land of 10, and even Hail Varsity (previously from 2012-2017). She has also been featured on the Big Ten Network, NET’s Big Red Wrap-Up, and a varsity of radio shows nationwide. When not covering the Huskers, Erin is probably at Chipotle.
