As 2022 recruiting class steps to forefront, uncertainty remains ahead of potential spring blitz | Football

On Wednesday, the 2021 recruiting cycle will hit essentially the end of the road.

That’s when the second National Signing Day arrives and most of the remaining high school prospects will sign with the college teams they intend to play for. Early February is not the massive moment it once was — most players in college football now sign during the December period — and many teams, including Nebraska, will likely carry at least one open scholarship forward into the spring to use either on transfers or junior college players.

NU will formally welcome four-star linebacker Wynden Ho’ohuli (Mililani, Hawaii) to its 23-man class and currently has two spots remaining. The Huskers could land a commitment from Omaha four-star defensive back Avante Dickerson or four-star outside linebacker Davon Townley (Minneapolis), or they could head into the offseason with two spots to use on transfers. Wednesday will be an interesting, if not overwhelmingly busy, day on Stadium Drive.

More than a grand finale, then, this week marks the completion of a transition from the 2021 cycle to 2022.

If you thought it was an odd year for the most recent signing class, the coronavirus pandemic and its fallout has had perhaps an even bigger effect on the next one.

Devon Jackson had a timeline in mind for his recruitment, detailed down to the week.

The four-star linebacker prospect from Omaha Burke would put together a standout junior season, help the Bulldogs compete for a Class A state title in the fall of 2020, turn his attention to seeing interested colleges through the winter and spring, whittle down his list to finalists and then focus his summer energy on the Junior Olympics, where he’d compete in track.

“Junior Olympics is the last week of July and when I got back from that, I’d have the first week of August, then the next week, it’s game time (with Burke),” he said. “So in between that area, I wanted to commit. … And that would be that.”

Obviously, none of that happened. Omaha Public Schools pulled the plug on fall sports, so Jackson and Burke didn’t play at all.

There are no junior days to attend this winter, no camps to decide on this summer.

He’s continued to pick up scholarship offers, but some schools have fallen out of contact. After all, Jackson is a dynamic athlete, but he has, in his own words, half a season’s worth of sophomore film out there. Still, Oklahoma just offered and has been in constant communication, he’s already talked with new Notre Dame defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman a couple of times (including on Thursday), and he hears all the time from Nebraska, Texas A&M, Missouri and Arizona State.

He’s not in a bad spot in his recruitment. He just knows he has to be flexible with his plans. If that means having teams see him play his senior season, so be it.

“If I have to wait until February 2, 2022, which is the second signing day, I’m good with it,” Jackson said. “I’m going to take my time with it.”

The rush of visits, however, has a chance to start this spring.

According to a Yahoo! Sports report, the NCAA is considering ending its 13-month dead period April 15 and moving to a “quiet period,” through June 30, which would allow recruits to visit campuses but would keep college coaches off the road.

“When the day comes and the dead period ends and prospects can get on the road, they’re going to be there the next day,” 247Sports director of scouting Steve Wiltfong told the Journal Star. “Prospects and their families are champing at the bit to go see schools and coaches are likewise going to be prepared for that rush and excited to have the young men and their families on campus.”

In a normal summer, schools compete to get players on campus for recruiting weekends, camps, cookouts and other staple recruiting events. Some are already putting the wheels in motion now for what may or may not happen nearly three months from now.

Take Nebraska, which is slated to have its Red-White Spring Game at Memorial Stadium on May 1. That could, if the timeline holds, serve as a major welcome-back to on-campus recruiting at NU.

“Nebraska loves having kids in on gamedays because it’s a tremendous atmosphere for all of their home games, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want kids to come in the spring and summer, because they definitely do,” Wiltfong said. “I just think with Nebraska, sometimes there’s only a handful of prospects within driving distance, so it’s, ‘When do you want a young man to come see Nebraska if he’s only going to see it once?’

“In the climate we’re in now, if a kid wants to come see your campus and you haven’t had anybody on your campus since January of last year, you’re going to be bringing kids in right away.”

Jackson said he hopes the initial rush around the country doesn’t backfire.

“If they do this right, I think it can go smoothly,” Jackson said. “I could see by the fall people going on official visits. I just don’t want them to rush it where they go to a quiet period and thousands of kids across the country rushing to go see their schools and then COVID cases go up and they shut everything back down.

“I think if they play it safe and do it right, it can go well.”

An eventual end to the dead period, of course, would be an exciting development for 2022 recruits and their families.

“These guys weren’t able to get out to any camps this summer,” said Sheree Helms, the mother of 2022 Bellevue West tight end Kaden Helms. “The previous class had their junior year to get to camps. This class, nobody’s got to do anything.”

The ensuing frenzy will be exciting, but also potentially stressful.

Kaden Helms has reported 16 Power Five scholarship offers via Twitter since the pandemic started, stretching from Buffalo to Florida State to Arizona State and many places — Nebraska included – in between.

“There’s no way (we can get to them all),” Sheree Helms, a physical therapy assistant, said. She moved out of management to full-time home health a couple of years ago to build in maximum flexibility in anticipation of Kaden’s recruitment and his final years before moving to college. “We kind of have an idea of who we want to go see first. …

“We’re already looking at days and we’re already trying to make plans to hit as many places as we can,” she added.

Jackson said he might wait a couple of weeks after the dead period ends to see how the first weekends go, but that he’s looking forward to seeing schools.

“I’m not going to be too in a rush, but at the same time I want to get out there as soon as possible,” he said.

Whether the NCAA does indeed start to allow visits in April or if it gets bumped back again, one thing is certain: 2022 recruits and their parents are hoping they, at some point, get to meet coaches face to face and actually set foot on the campuses they’re being recruited to.

“We have probably three or four Zoom calls with colleges every week and you get to see faces and hear voices and you get to kind of spend time with these people,” Sheree Helms said. “But it’s still really impossible to get a feel for how you or your kid will fit in that environment when you can’t be in front of them and be in their environment.”