Nebraska football faces strategic pivot after apparently losing top WR recruit

Nebraska football, once a frontrunner for a top 2025 wide receiver, now faces a crucial decision: can they regain their position or shift their focus?

Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

At one point, the Nebraska football team was thought to be the leader in the clubhouse for one of the best wide receivers in the 2025 class. Unfortunately, things can change dramatically in the recruiting world.

Things can change dramatically when it comes to the biggest and best players in the class especially. That doesn’t make it easier when the Huskers go from being the team to beat, to the team that appears to be an also-ran. 

Now, the pressing question is, can the Nebraska football team regain its position? Or is it time for Matt Rhule and his team to pivot their strategy and focus on a new target, leaving Cortez Mills behind?

Nebraska football in the rearview mirror for 4-star wide receiver

There’s been some rumblings that the Cornhuskers might be in trouble as far as Cortez Mills goes for a while. The Miami Hurricanes of course had been the team to beat for a while, but there were rumblings that NU had in fact, managed to beat them out, or at least would when signing day rolled around.

Unfortunately, according to the four-star prospect out of Florida, a new team has taken the lead. The Clemson Tigers are now the team that has his attention. Unfortunately, it appears NU is nothing more than an also-ran.

"That first visit was great, it shot to the top and made the other visits have to come hard," Mills recently told Rivals. "When I got up there , it was just outstanding. I fell in love with the program."

247Sports analyst Tom Loy also believes that Clemson “made a move” in Mills’ recruitment. 

“The visit went great,” Mills told The Clemson Insider. “It’s a great program and I just enjoyed my time there. Just showed me the culture is super different, and there’s no other college that’s like that.”

MIlls also told that publication that he’s got a few more visits to wrap up, but the Huskers don’t seem to be in the mix considering he talked about Florida and Miami again. It seems as though it’s time for Nebraska football to find someone in the class to replace Cortez Mills. Whatever happened, they’re almost certainly not in the running anymore.

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