The ‘buzz’ around Broderick Shull

The 6-foot-6, 280-pound standout from Bixby (Oklahoma) wants to take four official visits this summer. He already set three — at Auburn, Texas A&M and Texas Tech — and arrives on an unofficial trip to Nebraska this weekend trying to decide which school gets the last slot.

Illinois is in the mix. Kansas State, too. And so is NU, which typically vies for the Midwest’s top offensive line prospect and has two unique advantages to use.

The first is Shull’s original hometown. Webb City, Missouri, home of Husker Outland Trophy winner Grant Wistrom. That one connection led Shull, before NU even started recruiting him, to attend the 2021 Nebraska/Michigan game, a four-quarter thriller featuring a start-of-the-fourth-quarter light show Shull hasn’t forgotten.

“I decided to go and watch and, after that ‘Thunderstruck’ game against Michigan, I really liked the whole atmosphere and everything,” Shull said of the AC/DC song that played during the light show. “It was extremely worth it.”

The second angle involves beehives. Harvesting honey and raising bees is Shull’s passion — what he hopes, one day, is his life’s work. NU offensive line coach Donovan Raiola happens to have some beehiving in his background, too.

“We talked about beehives,” Shull said. One day he hopes to be an environmental engineer who invents “new ways to protect hives and habitable areas” from parasites and encroaching development. Shull’s a nature guy, he said, and a problem solver.

In just a few months, he’s also become one of the most-recruited prospects in the nation.

“A storm,” Shull said. That started when his family moved from Webb City to Bixby, a football powerhouse that finished 18th in USA Today’s Super 25 final high school rankings. Shull’s play and athleticism — labeled as “twitchy” by On3 — got a spotlight.

That led to On3 ranking Shull as the nation’s No. 18 overall prospect in late February. Nebraska had already been recruiting Shull for two years at that point. So had some of his favorites. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State didn’t offer, and couldn’t get back in the race now, Shull said, if they wanted.

For Bixby, Shull played an athletic right tackle — showing off a skillset reminiscent of former Husker Nick Gates — but has been recruited to play multiple positions. Raiola and the NU offensive line coach before him, Greg Austin, have a history of landing at least one of the Midwest’s top linemen in each class. Four remain on the team:

* Lakeville (Minnesota) North giant Bryce Benhart, who signed in 2019, was a top-150 national prospect who picked NU over Wisconsin and home-state Minnesota. Benhart will set the school record for career starts next fall.

* Turner Corcoran, who signed in 2020, was a consensus top-100 recruit out of Lawrence (Kansas) Free State High School. Corcoran has started for three years.

* Elkhorn South tackle Teddy Prochazka, a 2021 signee, was the No. 75 national recruit according to Rivals. He’s likely NU’s starting left tackle.

* Grant Brix, the No. 94 national prospect according On3’s Industry ranking, signed in December, enrolled early and has had a strong spring camp.

Shull could be the next guy. Or it could be Eureka (Missouri) High School tackle Jack Lange, a four-star player from the St. Louis area. Raiola has shown he can pull top linemen from other parts of the country, including Waipahu (Hawaii) interior lineman Preston Taumua and Houston Klein Cain interior lineman Gibson Pyle.

Other parts of the college experience need to fit Shull’s expectations, too.

“I’m looking for an atmosphere that connects with me,” Shull said. “We’ll see what the campus is like, and the city, even the cities around it, too. I want that overall college football feeling that I will want to be there four years.”

* Phoenix Mountain Pointe defensive back Rylon Dillard-Allen has a slight connection to Nebraska, too, though it’s the serendipitous kind that flows through social media.

A few years ago, the 6-foot, 165-pound safety attended a camp held by former Husker Prince Amukamara, who’s from the Phoenix area. Amukamara kept track from afar, Dillard-Allen said, until NU extended a scholarship offer earlier in the cycle.

Once Amukamara saw that on social media, he sent Dillard-Allen a video about the program and the school.

And now the three-star prospect — who has offers from almost every major program on the West Coast — is visiting NU officially for the spring. The Huskers, Washington and Texas A&M are his top three.

“I’ll make my decision based on people I can be around every day, facilities — including nutrition programs and trainers and how player rehabs — and obviously academics and NIL play a role,” Dillard-Allen said.

Nebraska has several players from Arizona, including defenders Ty Robinson and Javin Wright.

* NU coaches are trying to pull another under-the-radar prospect out of Littleton (Colo.) Heritage High School. After signing safety Rex Guthrie in the 2024 class, receiver Tanner Terch — who visited the school Thursday — announced a Husker offer on X.

The 6-foot-2, 195-pound Terch had 55 catches for 876 yards and eight touchdowns last season at Heritage and runs a 10.93-second 100-meter dash.

Last week, Tom Lemming, a recruiting scout who once ranked Nebraska’s 2005 class the No. 1 group in the nation, interviewed Terch. Lemming announced on X he’d found a “Cooper Kupp clone.” Kupp, who has 7,066 receiving yards and 51 touchdowns with the NFL’s Rams, played collegiately at Eastern Washington.

The state of Colorado produces almost no prospects of interest to current CU coach Deion Sanders, who prefers the transfer portal but also, when selecting high school prospects, heads outside the state’s borders for most signees.

* Nebraska has major competition for two of its top 500-mile radius prospects.

St. Louis Cardinal Ritter running back Jamarion Parker and Blue Valley (Kansas) Northwest linebacker Dawson Merritt each have offers from Alabama. Parker, who still has an official visit planned at Nebraska for June 21, also picked up a TCU offer on Friday.

Merritt made an extended unofficial visit for Nebraska’s first scrimmage on April 13. The 6-foot-3, 205-pounder also has reportedly scheduled a visit for June.

* Stanton offensive lineman Ren Brown picked up his first major FBS offer when Oregon State — now coached by Trent Bray — extended a scholarship Thursday. Brown also has offers from Army and Ohio, among other schools.

* Oregon coach Dan Lanning — who grew up in Kansas City — continued his success in the KC metro, landing 2025 receiver Isaiah Mozee out of Lee’s Summit North. Oregon snagged two commits from Missouri in the 2024 cycle.