Nebraska poised to swipe Longhorns’ backyard star in late recruiting twist

Recruiting experts tip Nebraska to win major linebacker battle with Texas, boosting Huskers’ 2026 class
Matthew Holst/GettyImages

Is the Nebraska football team about to steal one of the best linebackers in the state of Texas away from the Longhorns? It's starting to look like Calvin Thomas could be headed to Lincoln for his college days.

Now that July is officially here, Nebraska is bracing for some massive recruiting wins. For Tuesday, all eyes are on wide receiver Larry Miles, set to ignite the fireworks when he picks between the Huskers and several other Power 4 programs. The Cornhuskers have to wait a little longer to find out whether they'll score 4-star linebacker Calvin Thomas, but on Monday, things started to look quite a bit brighter.

Until this week, Thomas's preference had seemed to be undecided. It was considered a major showdown between the Texas and Nebraska football teams. However, three separate predictions from On3 experts now have the Huskers as the clear frontrunner.

Calvin Thomas would give Nebraska a signature recruiting win over Texas

Steve Wiltfong, Sean Callahan, and Bryan Munson all entered their picks within hours of each other. All for NU. When that kind of thing happens, it's usually because the player has explicitly told them something, or someone close to the prospect has strongly hinted he knows where he's going.

As with Miles, who admitted in an interview over the weekend that he was a "silent commit" and announcing days after he gave his pledge, the situation could be similar for Thomas. Or it could simply be that Thomas has been effusive enough in his praise of Nebraska that the picks were no-brainers.

Thomas pinpointed July 12 as the day he'll announce his commitment. Will the Cornhuskers really have to wait that long to find out if they are indeed the winner in this race? Perhaps not.

Keep in mind that Leon Noil Jr was thought to be waiting until July 7 to make his announcement. Instead, he moved things up a week and declared for NU on Monday. The announcement gave the Huskers two offensive line commits in one day.

If the Nebraska football program has to wait until the middle of the month to score Calvin Thomas, that's a price they're willing to pay.