In-state tight ends Chase Loftin, Reiman Zebert narrow lists

For the first weekend in a while, two of the top uncommitted 2025 football prospects in Nebraska — both tight ends — mostly laid low. But they know it won’t last ahead of a stretch of visits that will ultimately decide their college futures.

Loftin, an all-stater at Elkhorn North last season now at Millard South, put out a top-10 list last month that has gained definition since. The consensus four-star prospect has set official trips to Florida State (June 7), Texas A&M (June 14) and Nebraska (June 21). He wants to add a couple more between Oklahoma, Missouri, Penn State and Kansas State. Tennessee remains on his radar, too, though the Vols have yet to extend an offer.

The Huskers are front of mind first, with the 6-foot-6, 215-pounder planning to attend the spring game Saturday. He’s been to Nebraska plenty of times — at least seven, he thinks, including a practice this month — but wants to see how the tight ends fit into the new-look offense in front of a crowd.

The fact that NU’s offensive coordinator, Marcus Satterfield, would double as his position coach has his attention, too.

“That’s definitely a cool thing,” Loftin said. “Because you’d think they’d target the tight ends a little bit, right?”

Similar thoughts have occurred to Zebert, the three-star prospect from Platteview High School in Springfield. He attended NU’s scrimmage last Saturday and was impressed anew at Satterfield’s ability to communicate five-word plays and how crisply the tight ends executed them. Watching the offense break off chunk plays — many with true freshman quarterbacks Dylan Raiola and Daniel Kaelin at the helm — left him nodding his head.

“They’re aggressive on their routes,” Zebert said of the tight ends. “The routes they ran down the seam or split out or even blockingwise or quick routes, they utilized them very well.”

The 6-foot-6, 210-pound standout also played basketball in the winter and is in track now in the sprint relays, 300 hurdles and long jump. His summer will feature at least four scheduled official visits, including Stanford (May 31), Wisconsin (June 7), Duke (June 14) and Nebraska (June 21).

“I think those are my main focus,” said Zebert, who also holds offers including Miami, Oklahoma State and Minnesota. “If anything comes up, maybe I’ll add them and do a weekday visit.”

The state of Nebraska has produced a bumper crop of tight ends across the last decade. Each of the previous nine cycles has yielded at least one such scholarship player to ink with a Power Five school. The 2024 class alone netted Husker signees Carter Nelson of Ainsworth and Eric Ingwerson of Papillion-La Vista, along with Creighton Prep’s Michael Burt (Iowa) and Cross County’s Tanner Hollinger.

Include Council Bluffs (Iowa) Lewis Central’s Thomas Fidone (Nebraska) — just east of the Missouri River — from the 2021 class, and 19 tight ends have committed to Power Five schools since 2016. That number will rise this year with Loftin and Zebert, while Papillion-La Vista South’s Casey Popish has already pledged to FBS program Northern Illinois.

Nebraska would like to draw more from the pool. Of its six or seven current scholarship tight ends, Fidone and former walk-on Nate Boerkircher are established juniors, while redshirt sophomore Luke Lindenmeyer has seen regular field time, too.

Loftin, a top-400 national recruit, said his family tries to stay out of the process so it’s his decision. His older brother, Brayden — a former 2022 prospect who played at Lewis Central and is now a tight end at Kansas State — advises him to stay focused on getting better even as the outside attention intensifies. Oklahoma offered him first last June while Nebraska was among those to follow a couple of weeks later.

The opportunity isn’t lost on Loftin. Not everyone gets to do the Seminole chop in the office of FSU coach Mike Norvell or tour top-end facilities or meet famous college football leaders at Alabama and USC.

“I still enjoy it,” Loftin said. “I try to be thankful for it because before the recruiting process, every day I would wake up and work for this. It can be overwhelming with calls and coaches coming to see me but I think I’m pretty excited to just find my home and where I can commit to.”

Zebert is also relishing his chances since Nebraska became his first offer in early January. He’s the only one of his friends who has played coach Matt Rhule in pingpong — the coach “whooped my ass,” Zebert said, immediately recalling the 11-4 score from a winter Junior Day event. “I’ve been practicing; he’ll see now I’m way better,” Zebert said.

The Huskers and others like Zebert’s measurables including speed, height and how he projects to add 30 or 40 more pounds to his frame without losing explosiveness. The teenager said the recent track record of in-state tight ends has him motivated to live up to the standard.

“Especially when they grow up here, it’s just a different kind of people around here,” Zebert said. “They just know how to work.”