Thursday was an especially bad day for the Nebraska football team on the quarterback recruiting front. Not only did it lose out on one of its top targets, but it also lost the battle for Owen Herrick to a Big Ten rival.
Herrick pulled the trigger on a commitment to the Illinois Fighting Illini this week. Now that he’s headed to Champaign, the Huskers might have to go back to the drawing board and pinpoint their Plan B for their 2028 quarterback pursuit.
Owen Herrick is a 3-star quarterback in the 2028 recruiting class. The 6-foot-2, 190-pound QB plays for Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He’s ranked as the No. 417 player in the 2028 class, the No. 28 player at his quarterback position, and the No. 13 player in the state of Pennsylvania, according to Rivals Industry Rankings.
While those rankings and his 3-star status might have suggested an under-the-radar player, his P4 offers told a different story. In addition to Nebraska and Illinois, he had offers from Arkansas, Cincinnati, Minnesota, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and Syracuse, among others.
Nebraska football loses Owen Herrick to Illinois as 2028 quarterback search resets
As a sophomore in 2025, Herrick completed 157 of 287 passes for 2,469 yards, 20 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions, completing 54.7 percent of his passes while averaging 164.6 passing yards per game. He helped Central Catholic finish 13-2, win the WPIAL championship and advance to the PIAA Class 6A state championship game.
Through three games of his 2026 junior season, he’s already shown great development and maturity. Herrick has completed 40 of 57 passes for 443 yards, 5 touchdowns, and 1 interception. He has completed 70.2 percent of his attempts, averages 147.7 passing yards per game, and has posted a 115 quarterback rating. Herrick has helped Central Catholic start 3-0 with victories over Bergen Catholic, Woodland Hills, and Pine-Richland.
Earlier this spring, Herrick visited Nebraska and seemed blown away by what he saw. "When I visited Nebraska in March, it was a surreal experience,” Herrick told On3 back in June. “They have a state-of-the-art facility that has everything a college athlete would ever need."
Unfortunately, it looks like Illinois managed to forge a strong bond with the Pennsylvania quarterback. "My connections with the coaches are the best and most genuine I have with any school," Herrick told 247Sports last month. “The people there are the people I want to be around each and every day. Not only on the field, but off the field as well.”
There is, of course, plenty of time for Nebraska to keep fighting for Owen Herrick, if they decide they want to. He can’t sign with a school until December of 2027. For now, though, Illinois has a measure of revenge against the Huskers for stealing Trae Taylor out from under its nose.
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