Three observations after the Huskers land Creighton Prep O-lineman Sam Sledge | Recruiting

Nebraska landed a verbal commitment from Creighton Prep class of 2023 offensive lineman Sam Sledge. Here are three observations following Sledge’s pledge.

1. Offensive line recruiting already looks different in 2023 than it did in the last cycle.

That, largely, is due to the in-state crop.

In fact, two of Nebraska’s four 2023 verbal commitments so far are from in-state offensive linemen in Sledge and Lincoln Southeast standout Gunnar Gottula.

Now, the question becomes about how many offensive linemen the Huskers might take in the 2023 class, and it looks like it could potentially be a big one. NU has two sixth-year scholarship linemen in Broc Bando and Trent Hixon and two more who are playing their fifth seasons of college ball in transfers Kevin Williams and Hunter Anthony. As we’ve seen this year, it’s no sure bet players use that sixth season just because it’s available to them.

On top of that, there’s no doubt that attrition could happen among the underclass group and the Huskers took just one high school lineman in Justin Evans-Jenkins in the 2022 class.

Will the in-state run continue? The most likely way that happens is if the Huskers end up extending a scholarship offer to Scottsbluff tackle Brock Kuntson. The 6-foot-7, 280-pounder so far has offers from Iowa State, Kansas and Colorado State, but is squarely on the Huskers’ radar screen and has been to campus several times.

Outside of him, NU can now turn its attention to other players who are high on the board and know that they’ve already got two in the bag. That’s a good place to be at this point in the cycle.

2. This is the first true recruiting “win” for new offensive line coach Donovan Raiola, and it’s clear he was a hit with both Sam and his dad, former All-Big Eight Nebraska guard Bob Sledge.

The elder Sledge has been Creighton Prep head coach Tim Johnk’s offensive line coach dating back to 2007, when they both were at Omaha Gross.

“To be quite honest, it’s kind of old-school,” Johnk told the Journal Star about Raiola’s style. “He’ll be the first one to tell you that. Again, nothing against what anybody else teaches because it’s all been proven and it all works, it’s just kind of what do you believe in? They’re going to get off the football and there’s not going to be a whole lot of passiveness about what they’re going to do on the offensive line. They’re going to get people moved off the football. Just the terminology and what he’s going to teach really resonated with Sam’s dad, Bob, who played under Milt Tenopir and Dan Young.

“He goes, ‘Tim, it’s like verbatim. The things that I’m teaching our guys and the way I was taught at Nebraska is exactly the way Donny Raiola teaches it.’”

3. Sledge is capable of playing any position at the high school level, but he’s got interior offensive lineman written all over him in college.

He, like Evans-Jenkins in the 2022 class, is a standout wrestler and the pair could end up competing for the center job down the road in Lincoln.

In fact, Sledge drew a comparison to Iowa All-American Tyler Linderbaum in the month of January from a man who would know.

“He’ll be an interior guy and everybody that comes through loves him at center, just because of his athletic ability,” Johnk said. “Kirk Ferentz was in two weeks ago and he compared him to — and they haven’t offered him, but I felt when they left that they were very close and that they will at some point here — they compared Sam to Linderbaum coming out of high school, but that Sam is an inch or two taller.

“Athletically, they said Sam reminds us a lot of him when he was a junior/senior in high school.”