The Weekly Rundown: Official visits and camps set the tone for June

Nebraska laid a very good foundation for what the month of June is going to be this past week. We hit on that and more to start your Monday in the Weekly Rundown.

You have to feel pretty good about these things right now:

The Nebraska official visit: Before this weekend, Nebraska hasn’t had an official visitor on campus since Jan. 19, 2020. They brought in a priority group of eight this weekend.

I think we almost forgot how powerful the NU official visit can be in the recruiting process. It typically debunks a lot of stereotypes and prenotions of what a recruit thinks the state of Nebraska is going to be like.

The HuskerOnline recruiting team spoke with all eight visitors this weekend, and every single one of them were blown away by the trip. The key now is, can that feeling hold up as these recruits take other visits this month?

Camps: We saw Friday Night Lights camps on Nebraska’s campus for the first time since June of 2019 this past week. These were far from 2016 and 2017 in terms of star-studded performers, but they still delivered.

Since Friday, the Huskers have made two offers from their FNL camp. These are evaluations the staff never would have gotten if not for having camps back.

Lincoln Southeast football: Nebraska made two offers to Lincoln Southeast 2022 athlete Jake Appleget and 2023 offensive lineman Gunnar Gottula this week. Since 2002, NU has made 15 offers to Lincoln Southeast Knights. No other program in the state is close to that mark over the last 20 years.

Will Bolt will be getting a nice pay raise: If winning the Big Ten didn’t already do it, NU’s showing in Arkansas this weekend was even better.

Nebraska needs to lock up Will Bolt for a long time. The entire state is behind Bolt right now and the way his team is playing. He represents every characteristic Husker fans want to see with the way his team plays.

These were my surprises of the week:

Ohio State CB Tyreke Johnson: Nebraska kicked off their visit weekend with a surprise visit from Ohio State transfer portal cornerback Tyreke Johnson. The former five-star left Lincoln very high on the Huskers. The feel I have is the Big Red could be in the driver’s seat for his services.

CB Quantaves Gaskins: This is why you have camps. To dig up new names like Happeville (Ga.) Charter cornerback Quantaves Gaskins. With no visits or coaches on the road in over 15 months, new names like Gaskins are going to keep popping up. Travis Fisher offered Gaskins after seeing him on Sunday at the Florida State camp. Kansas State followed. He also just switched to corner, so there is very little evaluation out there on him.

OL John Pastore: Private workouts brought out a few surprises this week, but arguably the biggest of the three offers made was Erie (Colo.) offensive lineman John Pastore. He didn’t even have a Rivals profile until Friday. The Huskers like Pastore as a center.

Questions still surround these things:

Jordan van den Berg: South African native Jordan van den Berg got an offer from Nebraska Friday and Iowa Sunday. The Iowa Western C.C. defensive lineman will work out for Penn State on Tuesday.

The five-for-four JUCO prospect would have to walk-on at NU in August before going on scholarship in January. Iowa has offered to put him on full scholarship in August. Will that ultimately be a deciding factor?

Can Frost and the Huskers reevaluate their offer and put van den Berg on scholarship in August? They currently have two 2021 spots left, with one earmarked for Johnson it appears.

2023 and 2024 in-state recruiting: Nebraska currently has 2023 in-state offers out to Elkhorn South’s Maverick Noonan, Pierce’s Ben Brahmer and Lincoln Southeast’s Gunnar Gottula and Teitum Tuioti. For 2024, the Big Red has offered a pair of Bellevue West prospects – QB Daniel Kaelin and WR Daevonn Hall.

Other names are out there like Grand Island Northwest outside linebacker Victor Isele, Omaha Creighton Prep offensive lineman Sam Sledge and Gretna quarterback Zane Flores.

We’ve seen the Huskers be much more aggressive with making 2023 and 2024 offers. They are in a position right now where they can’t sit back and “wait it out” on these guys. The offer this week to Kaelin was maybe the most interesting of them all. Florida State came in and essentially offered Bellevue West’s 2020 junior varsity quarterback, but he obviously has a huge upside. It put the Huskers in a position where they had to follow up.

It also tells you how impactful the QB private coach world is. Their word to Division I schools carries a ton of weight.

The 2022 recruiting approach: The early feel of this 2022 recruiting class for Nebraska is different.

You don’t see the Big Red chasing after some of the big names like we’ve seen before. The approach for 2022 has a much more regional and overall fit “feel” to it. I go back to Frost’s comment last year where he said “they have to find the right football players for Nebraska.”

The framework of this class right now has that feel. The Huskers have tried the heavy four-star national approach early, and the reality is it’s delivered a lot of transfer portal departures. Sure, those guys were good players and it wins the internet every June, but they came in expecting things to be handed to them because of their ranking.

I’m also not saying “don’t recruit four-stars.” What I’m saying is finding guys that fit your program who will be here for four years and you can develop.

Moving forward, this has my attention:

Richard Torres vs. A.J. Bianco: How will this be handled? Torres came in this weekend, and he will take more visits this month. Honolulu (Hawaii) St. Louis quarterback A.J. Bianco comes in for his visit June 18.

Will NU take a commitment from Torres before Bianco visits campus? Or will they hold things off until after the June 18 weekend? My sense today is they want to get a good look at Bianco.

Private workouts on Friday: Expect another big group of prospects to come through for private workouts on Friday. One I’ll be watching closely is North Platte (Neb.) linebacker Vince Genatone.

Torres, Williams and Samson: Are quarterback Richard Torres, running back Justin Williams and wide receiver Landon Samson the potential foundation of the 2022 Husker recruiting class? After this weekend, it sure feels that way. How much will this weekend impact their decisions?