Nebraska’s 2023 recruiting class is moving right along. We talk about that and more in the 3-2-1 column.

Nebraska’s 2023 recruiting class is moving right along. We talk about that and more in the 3-2-1 column.

1 – Whipple knows what he wants at quarterback

Mark Whipple has only been at Nebraska for a few months, but we have already seen his impact on the quarterback room bringing in now three different guys in transfers Casey Thompson and Chubba Purdy, along with 2023 Springfield (Mass.) Central standout William Watson.

Whipple is not messing around. When he sees a guy he wants, he makes a move on them and closes the deal.

Whipple was big on both Thompson and Purdy from the start, and Watson has been in contact with him since he was in the sixth grade.

I think most had the perception that both Ankeny (Iowa) four-star JJ Kohl and Maize (Kan.) three-star Avery Johnson were NU’s two top targets based on location alone.

Whipple brought Watson in over the month of January and the rest is history. Now the Huskers are done at quarterback for 2023. They are four months ahead of where they were a year ago at this same time.

Moving forward all the focus should be on 2024 Chandler (Ariz.) quarterback Dylan Raiola. NU needs to hopefully get Raiola on campus again this spring or early summer. Watson will be back for the Red-White game on Apr. 9.

2 – Nebraska is now tied for seventh-most commits in the country

How about this for a turn of fortunes. A year ago Nebraska had the lowest commit total in the Big Ten for most of the year and one of the lowest commit totals for any Power Five school in the country.

After the recent commitments of offensive lineman Sam Sledge and Watson, NU now is tied for seventh nationally with five 2023 recruits on board. They are also tied for second in the Big Ten, only behind Penn State.

Getting the staff out on the road over the month of January along with hosting two big underclassmen recruiting events has really got things moving in the right direction for 2023.

3 – Huskers make three portal pass rush offers

We saw Nebraska make three transfer portal offers to pass rushers on Thursday.

Georgia Tech’s Jordan Domineck and North Texas identical twins Grayson and Gabriel Murphy have all been offered by the Big Red. TCU’s Ochaun Mathis has the Huskers in his final five as well.

We know finding a portal pass rusher continues to be a priority, and this strong offer push on Wednesday makes that even more obvious.

The combination of the Gabriel twins intrigues me, as they put up 15.5 sacks and 26.5 tackles for loss a year ago. They both are three to play three prospects.

1 – What will the summer camp schedule look like?

It took Nebraska a little bit longer to release their summer camp and coach’s clinic schedule than normal. The main thing was they wanted to make sure they knew all the recruiting camp rules for 2022 before putting out a schedule.

NU will build things around two Friday Night Light Camps on June 3 and June 17 and the Adidas Pipeline OL/DL camp on June 18.

They will also have two team camp events, as they will host their 7-on-7 camp on June 5 and their Team Camp on June 12-14.

What we still don’t know is if the NCAA will allow private workouts like they did a year ago. My read now is they will not. Those private workouts took the place of the missed spring evaluation period from 2021.

2 – Recruits can now be “employed by NCAA schools?”

The NCAA tends to have some interesting rules. This week they put one out that had a lot of coaches scratching their heads.

Division I schools can now hire prospective student-athletes to work on-campus camps and events. So that means technically you could pay any recruit to come on your campus to work a youth camp just like you would a high school coach.

There are so many potential issues this could cause. It’s definitely going to be an advantage for the schools with more money, as they could hire as many recruits as they want to “work” their events. Stay tuned on this.

I think it’s safe to say Nebraska is far from done in the transfer portal. We already know they are a finalist for Mathis, and they continue to pursue other offensive and defensive linemen from the portal.

I predict you will see the Huskers add at least three more players from the transfer portal from now until June.

Sean Callahan can be reached at sean@huskeronline.com and he can be heard each day at 6:45 am and 5:05 pm on Big Red Radio 1110 KFAB in Omaha during the football season. He can also be seen on KETV Channel 7 in Omaha during the fall and each week he appears on NET’s Big Red Wrap-Tuesday’s at 7 pm.