It should be clear by now how much Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule values camps. He’s already extended dozens of offers to kids he put eyes on last June, with several ending up in this recruiting class and others being targets in future classes. In fact, the majority of the current in-state offers are to kids that camped last summer.
Rhule wants to have a pulse on the talent that’s upcoming in-state. He wants kids coming as middle schoolers and returning every year so he can build relationships and track their development. He doesn’t want to miss on someone in his backyard.
A truncated offseason after he was hired was directly responsible for his losing Omaha Westside’s Teddy Rezac to Notre Dame after the Irish beat Nebraska to the punch on an evaluation. Rest assured that won’t happen again. If there’s someone inside the borders who is a Power Four prospect, Rhule will have him on his radar early from here on out.
Being late almost cost him another of the top players in the state, but Rhule and his staff were able to overcome being late to the party with Papillion-La Vista tight end Eric Ingwerson.
The 6-foot-6, 250-pound Ingwerson originally committed to Pittsburgh on March 21, the day after the Panthers extended him his first Power Five offer following an unofficial visit to watch a spring practice. Despite starting to receive heavy interest from Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Iowa State and Kansas State, Ingwerson decided to say yes to Pitt and not let his recruitment play out.
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Rhule and Nebraska came through with an offer a few weeks later on April 11, and planted the seeds of an eventual change of heart.
It wasn’t immediate, and Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi tried his best to keep the big tight end committed.
The Huskers got Ingwerson on campus for the Red-White spring game shortly after extending him the offer. Coaches were in the process of trying to iron out an official visit, but after Ingwerson took his official visit to Pitt the first weekend of June, he reaffirmed his commitment and initially shut down his recruitment.
Rhule never closed the door, however, and circled back in early September. Ingwerson grew up rooting for the hometown Huskers so there was internal conflict even after turning them down in June.
Two of his uncles were walk-on offensive linemen who played for Frank Solich: Tim (1999-03) and Mike Green (1997-99), so the pull to stay home and play for the home team was always in the back of his mind. But Ingwerson is loyal, so the decision didn’t come lightly.
In the end, though, the chance to stay home and play in front of friends and family ultimately meant too much for Ingwerson to ignore. He decommitted from Pitt and flipped to Nebraska on Sept. 27.
He’ll arrive in Lincoln this summer as an in-line tight end with plenty of experience blocking. As a senior he caught four touchdowns playing in a run-first offense that averaged 227 yards per game on the ground.
Ingwerson is an intriguing prospect who comes with position flexibility. He could stay at tight end or – like Ian Flynt – could also arrive in Lincoln and outgrow the position down the line after a few years working with Corey Campbell and the strength staff.
If that were to happen there are plenty of options. He could slide out to tackle where his background as a basketball player could come in handy thanks to his footwork and athleticism. He could also move to the other side of the line.
Ingwerson was a two-way starter at Papillion-La Vista and was named first-team Super State by the Lincoln Journal Star and second-team All-Nebraska by the Omaha World-Herald as a defensive end after finishing with 52 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss, five sacks and a fumble recovery. He also earned honorable-mention all-state recognition as a junior when he had 47 tackles, 9.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks.
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