The 3-2-1: Sizing up the 2022 In-State recruiting scene

We talk In-State recruiting and more in this week’s 3-2-1 column.

1 – Area recruiting scene starting to take form

Nebraska has made five in-state offers for the Class of 2022, two for the class of 2023 and one for the class of 2024.

I would expect that number for both 2022 and 2023 to grow here very soon.

The challenge continues to be the lack of in-person evaluations, as many of these kids you’d like to see and workout in person, but that’s just not a reality at this point. Even getting an accurate height and weight measurement would be nice on a lot of these players.

The other thing about the class of 2022 is it appears the Huskers are on the outside looking in with the state’s three top prospects in Omaha Central offensive lineman Deshawn Woods, Omaha Burke linebacker Devon Jackson and Bellevue West tight end Micah Riley-Ducker.

Both Woods and Jackson will be announcing their top five’s on Saturday. Riley has already seemed to move on from Nebraska based on all reports.

I do believe they are in it with Bellevue West tight end Kadem Helms and Columbus outside linebacker Ernest Hausmann.

If the Huskers strike out on the top three, getting Helms and Hausmann becomes even a bigger priority.

Then they also have some interesting decisions to make with Council Bluffs (Iowa) Lewis Central, and their top prospects for 2022.

The Titans have three players that could end up being Big Ten level recruits – running back Jonathan Humpal (2023), tight end/OLB Brayden Loftin (2022) and defensive lineman Hunter Deyo (2022). You almost have to treat Lewis Central as if it’s an in-state school, and I could see at least two of those three players getting Husker offers.

After that, there the potential to identify one or two more in-state players that are worthy of offers, and that’s not easy to do without camps and in-person evaluations.

Lincoln Southeast linebacker Jake Appleget would be the most likely name today. Bellevue West offensive lineman Henry Rickels, Waverly defensive lineman Trevor Brown, Aurora outside linebacker Mack Owens, Fremont Bergan athlete Koa McIntrye, Omaha North wide receiver/defensive back Keshaun Williams, Palmyra athlete Andrew Waltke are a few names to keep your eyes on.

I’ve had the chance to see them all in person at our In-State Tour events, and every one of them passes the eye test and will get a look from the Huskers in the coming weeks.

2 – The plug was finally pulled on Ireland

This was probably the worst kept secret in the world, but the Nebraska-Illinois game set for Ireland was officially moved to Champaign on Wednesday.

The big key here is the game gets to stay on Aug. 28, which allows both the Huskers and Illini to have two bye weeks in 2021. Every other Big Ten team has just one.

NU moved a non-conference game vs. Southeast Louisana to Nov. 13, so they no longer could play on the original weekend.

Illinois has bye weeks now on Oct. 16 and Nov. 13, while the Huskers have open dates on Sept. 5 and Oct. 23.

The two most logical options would have been either Sept. 5 or Nov. 13, and neither would work. Having the game canceled in Ireland is also out of their control, so I’m glad the NCAA is still letting them play on Week Zero.

That will be a good opportunity for both programs to play on a big stage to open up the 2021 season. The only other match-up for Week Zero right now that features another Power Five school is Hawaii at UCLA.

3 – Big Ten COVID policies hurt baseball more than any sport

It’s hard to get too excited about the upcoming baseball schedule, because of a lot of what we’ve become accustomed to watching for the Huskers will not happen in 2021.

There are no mid-week games with local schools like Creighton, Omaha, Wichita State and Kansas State.

Gone are the open weekends in Arizona where traditionally thousands of Nebraska snowbirds caught an early series or two of Husker baseball.

You also won’t see NU square off against any name programs, to serve as a measuring stick of where the Big Red are at heading into the new year.

In some ways that might be a good thing, as Nebraska was almost overscheduling in the non-conference, which would dig an early hole at times.

The bottom line is the different COVID-19 protocols and politics within the Big Ten are why the schedule looks like it does.

Other than non-conference basketball games and football bowl games, no other Big Ten athletic programs have been allowed to play out of the conference.

I’ve yet to hear anyone say they like this, or publicly back this stance by the league. All we’ve seen is the Big Ten wait longer than anybody to release their schedules, and the same thing happened with baseball.

I do think NU at least got a pretty favorable opening weekend draw vs. Purdue in Round Rock, Texas to start things off.

1 – Will Nebraska make a special teams hire?

What is the status of special teams for the 2021 football season? Will another hire be made by Scott Frost?

What I can tell you today is I do not expect any more direct special teams hires to be made. I think there is a plan in place with what Frost has on his coaching staff, and I believe it will be something that gets addressed here very soon.

My prediction today is one of the full-time 10 assistant coaches will probably carry a special teams title in 2021.

2 – Is Nebraska taking their radio and marketing deal in-house?

HuskerOnline’s Steve Rosen outlined a very detailed report about Nebraska’s upcoming radio and marketing deal that’s currently worth around $14 million per year.

Typically contracts don’t get this close to their expiration date. That tells me things are in for a change with NU’s deal with Learfield-IMG College.

My read is the timing of the pandemic last March probably put a halt to things. Learfield-IMG has taken a big hit nationally. If there was a renewal deal once on the table in early 2020, it’s probably not the same now.

If I were a betting man, my guess is Nebraska will be taking their radio and marketing deal in-house. This will require them to make a few new hires in the Athletic Department, but there’s been plenty of crossover over the years with employees of NU working for both Learfield-IMG and Nebraska.

I’ll be more interested in how things will be structured and if they can make the same kind of money in-house Learfield-IMG was paying NU since 2008. The other interesting thing is can they structure some NIL things into this going forward to increase revenues?

Both Woods and Jackson will make their top five announcements sometime on Saturday. I already hinted I don’t expect to see Nebraska make their list.

The other thing I predict is you will not see a single Big Ten school on either Woods or Jackson’s top five.

The closest things to regional programs probably in play are Missouri for Woods and Notre Dame for Jackson.

I’ll also be curious if Nebraska continues to make a strong push at both players because as we know early top-five lists can always change.

Remember this, Omaha Westside defensive back Avante Dickerson committed to Minnesota last spring and they were not on his early list of three finalists. Dickerson announced Nebraska, Ohio State and LSU as his initial finalists, before committing to Minnesota. At the time of his April 2020 commitment to the Gophers, his finalists changed to NU, Minnesota, Oregon and Boston College. He eventually signed with Oregon in February.

What I’m getting at is things can always change in recruiting. They don’t appear to be good with Jackson and Woods for the Huskers, but there’s a long time from now until December.

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.