Nebraska Football Recruiting: Trying to steal one from Wisconsin

The way the weekend is shaping up, it could be a very big one for Nebraska football recruiting efforts. The visitors for this weekend are supposed to have a few new wrinkles and one of those might be an official visit from a defensive lineman who is, at the moment a Wisconsin Badgers commit.

Jamel Howard has been a commit since June 26 but he just recently got an offer from the Huskers. Now that the offer is in the bag, he’s said to be taking a trip to Lincoln. While these visits don’t always mean that a player is going to decommit, it’s certainly not a bad sign.

That’s especially the case when talking about a program like Wisconsin who is in a state of flux with its head coach. Howard received his offer from and committed to Paul Chryst. Now that former defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard is at the helm for the Badgers, Howard might have second thoughts about his commitment.

Of course, the Nebraska football recruiting efforts are going on with its own interim head coach at the helm. However the way that Mickey Joseph is going about his recruiting, he’s not acting like someone who is the interim head coach.

In fact, he’s going about his recruiting efforts like someone who knows he’s going to get the head coaching job. There’s certainly been talk about that but there hasn’t been any confirmation.

Still, managing to get Howard to town shows how hard Joseph and his assistants are working and that their approach appears to be resonating.

Howard is a 3-star prospect out of Chicago and is the 18th-ranked player in the state of Illinois, according to 247Sports.

He also would fill what is a pretty obvious need for the Huskers who appear to be trying to stock up quickly on offensive and defensive linemen. It’s clear Joseph has identified special needs in the Nebraska football recruiting efforts in those areas.