The 3-2-1: Preparing for another big weekend

We get you ready for another jammed pack weekend of recruiting and more in this week’s 3-2-1 column.

1 – Another jammed-packed recruiting weekend is coming

I’ve covered recruiting extensively since the year 2000, and it’s hard to remember many June’s like this.

Sure there have always been camps and visits that take place during this time of year, but it’s been taken up another level in 2021 for obvious reasons.

In Kearney on Wednesday, it was interesting to hear Nebraska head coach Scott Frost speak more about the month thus far, where NU has hosted 14 official visitors, conducted over 40 private workouts and run multiple camps each weekend.

“We have never had a June like this,” Frost told HuskerOnline during the Big Red Blitz Tour in Kearney. “It’s great because it’s been a year, to year and a half since we’ve had recruits on campus and been able to evaluate kids. It’s time that we need to catch up. We are really trying to fit a year of recruiting into a month.

“There are days where we have individual workouts every hour on the hour all morning and then I meet with the guys that I need to meet with while we have camps going on and official visitors on campus. It’s good that we are getting to catch up, but this is taking a lot out of the coaching staff and we need to recharge our batteries for the rest of the season.”

Friday and Saturday will arguably be the pinnacle of June for Frost and his staff. NU will host an afternoon BBQ recruiting event from 1 to 5 p.m., but before that conduct around 20 private workouts from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

During the time of the BBQ, the official visitors will begin arriving on campus and then the Friday Night Lights Camp will take place in Memorial Stadium from 6 to 8 p.m.

On Saturday, the Huskers will hold their final major camp of 2021, concluding with the Adidas Pipeline event.

Getting facetime and one-on-one evaluations continues to be the most important aspect of June.

“This class, there is a lot of kids that we are recruiting that have never been to Lincoln and we’ve never met them,” Frost said. “I think we have a lot of catching up to do. Because of numbers and COVID numbers we’ll end up signing a smaller class this year.

“The timing is pretty good with that because we are playing catch-up. We really want to make sure the ones we do get are the right kind of kids and guys that make us better, help our roster and help supplement a young team.”

2 – Nebraska’s QB recruiting strategy worked

Credit Mario Verduzco and Frost. They had a plan with their quarterback recruiting and it worked to perfection.

Frost and Verduzco brought San Antonio (Texas) Southside quarterback Richard Torres in on the first weekend of June. Torres was their No. 1 guy on the board.

From there they were brutally honest with Torres that they were going to bring in A.J. Bianco on June 18. This gave Torres a timeline where he knew a decision had to be made.

If Bianco got to Lincoln this week, the spot was probably going to be his and Torres was more than likely heading to K-State.

Torres got back from Manhattan and weighed his options and committed to the Huskers, which shut down the Bianco visit this weekend.

3 – 2024 QB Dylan Raiola is this weekend’s most intriguing visitor

Of all the recruits who will be on campus this week, 2024 Burleson (Texas) quarterback Dylan Raiola may be the most intriguing.

The 6-foot-3, 215-pound Raiola is the son of former Husker All-American center Dominic Raiola. He will be at NU’s BBQ event on Friday, along with 2024 Bellevue (Neb.) West quarterback Daniel Kaelin, who NU has already offered.

Raiola has been offered by Georgia and Washington State, while Kaelin has offers from NU, Florida State and Arizona State. I’m most curious if Raiola leaves NU with an offer in hand.

They may very well be the top 2024 quarterbacks on the board for Nebraska after this week.

1 – What direction will Nebraska go with spot No. 25?

Now that Ohio State transfer Tyreke Johnson is in the boat, the focus for Nebraska shifts to spot No. 25.

The question is will they take a 25th player for 2021? You get the sense now, unless it’s an absolute “this guy makes our team better tomorrow” pick-up, Frost and his staff are totally ok with sitting on that final spot.

The unknown numbers situation for 2022 also adds to this. NU is really not in a position to force a player into spot 25. We saw that already with Iowa Western C.C. defensive lineman Jordan van den Berg, who NU was not willing to commit spot No. 25 to for the Class of 2021. Van den Berg ended up committing to Penn State, but you get the sense the Huskers had a chance to land him if the offer would have been full immediately, and not a walk-on situation for the first semester. That kept the door open for Penn State and Iowa to make full offers after his workout with the Huskers.

2 – Do you believe NU will only sign 14 recruits in 2022?

I know there is a lot of disbelief that Nebraska may only sign 14 high school recruits in their 2022 class, but the reality is that’s the numbers they have.

The NCAA has offered no official statement on how super seniors will work for 2022 and beyond, but every school appears to be operating as if the super senior model is only a 2021 thing, meaning you will have to be back to 85 after this year.

The best analogy I can give is every school is going to be forced to fit six people in a car that only has five seats. It will not be easy, and it’s only going to make the transfer portal bigger in the coming years.

I know Lincoln Southeast’s Jake Appleget has said he would like to take his time with the recruiting process, but the reality is that’s going to be very difficult.

NU already has a tight end committed and they only have one outside linebacker spot being held for him, with Tyler Martin being recruited as a combo inside/outside guy.

With that said, I have a hard time seeing his recruitment going much deeper into the month of June if he really wants to be a Husker. I predict you will see Appleget commit by the end of this month.

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.