Nebraska Football: Omaha lineman picks conference rival

The Nebraska football team has been on an incredible recruiting roll but the school did lose out on one in-state prospect in Omaha lineman Caleb Pyfrom.

21 commits. After Carter Nelson announced on Wednesday that he was going to the play for the Nebraska football program, Matt Rhule and company officially have 21 commits in the 2024 class already. It’s been one heck of a run for the Huskers.

That run hit a bit of a speed bump on Thursday morning. Instead of adding an Omaha offensive tackle to the list to make it 22, Caleb Pyfrom picked a Big Ten rival school. Pyfrom announced he was headed to the University of Illinois.

There is some solace here in the fact that the Fighting Illini didn’t exactly pull a rabbit out of a hat here. Bret Bielema’s squad had been the favorite for a little while now. It’s still a recruiting loss and one that stings if for no other reason than it’s not entirely clear just why the Nebraska football team slipped down the player’s favorites.

There was a time when Pyfrom was high on the Huskers. He marveled at how Matt Rhule carried out practices. Nebraska was the first Power 5 school to offer him. It seemed to be a done deal earlier this winter.

Nebraska football loses out on one

Some of the rationale behind Pyfrom picking Illinois might lie in Rhule and his staff’s approach to recruiting over the last few months. It’s clear that the valued some recruits over others. At the moment it’s not entirely clear why someone like Jake Peters was reeled in as quickly as he was while Pyfrom was left looking elsewhere.

Whatever the reason, Illinois became the favorite to land the big offensive lineman just ahead of his announcement. On Wednesday morning he made it official and will be squaring off against the Nebraska football team in future seasons.