Nebraska Football Recruiting: How Spring Game Trips Bring Results
We recently discussed how Nebraska football‘s 2017 Spring Game is loading up on quality visitors. There’s a big reason the Husker staff wants to jumpstart visits.
During the yearly spring scrimmage, recruits have the opportunity to get a taste of what a big game Nebraska football environment is like.
Sure, it’s not the total package, but it’s a taste. An appetizer, if you will.
What it means for the Huskers’ staff is that prospects will have a major point of reference in their recruitment.
To give you an idea of just how important the event can be when it comes to locking down talent, let’s look at who visited last year.
Tristan Gebbia, Keyshawn Johnson Jr, Jaevon McQuitty and Austin Allen stopped by and were committed at the time (they would eventually sign with Nebraska).
Other prospects that the Huskers were in the hunt for such as Maurice Bell, Jamire Calvin, Jeremiah Hawkins, Dalton Keene, Deommodore Lenoir and Nick Pickett were in attendance.
While the Huskers didn’t pick up their signatures, they would eventually get five more from those who showed up (Brendan Jaimes, Tyjon Lindsey, Ben Miles, Deontre Thomas and Andrew Ward).
What this means is out of the 21 recruits from the 2017 class that attended the Red-White Spring Game, nine eventually signed National Letters of Intent come Signing Day. That’s nearly 43 percent of all attendees for last year’s cycle.
Let’s look even further as there were 2018 recruits on campus. Kolin Demens, Will Farniok, Cameron Jurgens and Bookie Radley-Hiles were taking in the show as well.
Of those, Jurgens has already committed and the probability of Farniok and Radley-Hiles joining him looks pretty high at this point.
Between the 43 percent signing rate of last cycle’s recruits and a possible 75 percent of this cycle’s recruits, it’s hard to say the Spring Game wasn’t a complete success in terms of recruiting.
Now that we’ve seen what Husker recruiters can do (and note that even better ones have been added to the staff), let’s stack those numbers up against this year’s scheduled visitors.
33 prospects are scheduled to visit in April with 27 coming from the 2018 class including Husker commits Cameron Jurgens and Masry Mapieu.
If Nebraska takes home 43 percent of this visit list, that means we’re looking at 11 or 12 commitments between 17 four-star and 10 three-star prospects from the 2017 cycle.
This includes names like running back T.J. Pledger, wide receivers Manuel Allen and Joshua Moore, defensive lineman Michael Thompson and, of course, Radley-Hiles.
Keep in mind that Nebraska is likely looking at a smaller class this year due to how the scholarship numbers stack up.
If roughly half (or more) of the class is made up of this year’s Spring Game attendees with the Huskers getting six four-stars and six three-stars (or whatever combination you want to make), that’s huge.
Let’s not forget the 2019 prospects on their unofficial visits. Quarterback Grant Gunnell, tight end Cameron Sanders, cornerback Max Williams, defensive back Chris Steele and athlete Marquez Beason are all scheduled. Nebraska could conceivably wrap up their search for next cycle’s gunslinger already.
If that isn’t enough, a 2020 prospect will be in the house in wide receiver Donnovan Moorer.
Next: Better Know a Prospect – Stephan Blaylock
Now all that has to happen is knocking on wood and hoping all of those young men are able to make their trips.
Even if a few miss the boat and have to travel later, the Huskers will be sitting with one of — if not the — biggest recruiting weekend of any Spring Game. Ever.