Three & Out: 2024 R250 targets, 2023 OffensiveBoard, baseball’s rocky start

This is HuskerOnline.com’s feature in which recruiting analysts Mike Matya and Bryan Munson give their weekly takes on topical issues concerning Nebraska football, baseball, and recruiting.

Today in our next installment of “Three and Out,” we hit on 2024 Rivals250 Husker targets, 2023 Offensive Big Board, and NU baseball’s rocky start.

Rivals recently came out with their first version of the top 250 national recruits for the Class of 2024. There were several names on the list of interest to Husker fans.

Three in particular – legacy quarterback Dylan Raiola, in-state receiver Dae’vonn Hall, and fellow legacy Mario Buford – are near the top of Nebraska’s board.

All three are “must-gets” for NU in the 2024 class, and I expect all three of them to be in attendance at the upcoming April 9 Red-White game.

Raiola has already confirmed to us he will be at the spring game, and he is undoubtedly the No. 1 target for Nebraska for that cycle. He will likely be ranked as a Rivals five-star eventually, as he already is on at least one other recruiting website. He is a potential program-changing player for whichever team eventually signs him.

Which next leads us to three other members of the R250 who have a legitimate interest in Nebraska. Two of them have already visited Lincoln on their own, and the other was supposed to have attended the Huskers’ Mar. 5 Junior Day.

Illinois receiver I’Marion Stewart came to one of Nebraska’s Friday Night Lights camps last June, where he and Hall caught passes from Raiola.

Missouri defensive end Williams Nwaneri attended NU’s Junior Day on Jan. 29 and came away with a Husker offer.

“It went well. I enjoyed it,” Nwaneri said of his time in Lincoln. “I liked the coaches. I thought the coaching staff was cool. We had a player panel where we could ask the players about adjusting to college life from high school.

“The highlight of the day for me was the photoshoot and getting to take pictures in their uniform. Coach Frost was the one who told me about my offer. Our conversation went well. We went into his office, and some other coaches were there, too.”

Kansas City, Mo., outside linebacker Jayshawn Ross intended to make the trip to Lincoln for last weekend’s Junior Day, but his transportation fell through.

“No, I did not come because my ride got canceled,” Ross told me a couple days ago. “My coach was supposed to take me there, but he couldn’t. I wanted to visit them because I thought the facilities would be nice, and I wanted to see what they had to offer.”

Nebraska is one of several colleges giving Ross a lot of recruiting attention.

“On a scale of 1-10, I would say they are about at a 7,” Ross said of NU. “I think they are persistent, I would say. Notre Dame is probably recruiting me the hardest.”

Kansas and Kansas State are the only two programs he has visited this year, but Ross plans to take official visits to USC, Oregon, and Notre Dame over the next few months. The Trojans just offered him on Monday, and he expects to receive an Irish scholarship tender any day.

Ross is also considering official visits to Iowa State and Iowa, and he intends to get up to Nebraska sometime this spring or summer.

“There is a high chance I will visit Nebraska,” Ross said. “I’m really liking their persistence, their consistency, and all that stuff. I like what their coaches have to say, so I want to hear more from them. It will probably be one of those guaranteed visits, too.”

The Cornhusker coaches invited Ross to the Red-White game, but he has not scheduled any spring game visits to colleges yet.

Ross knows what will determine where he ends up playing his college football.

“I would like an up-front coach who is straightforward and gets to it in showing what they can provide for me,” Ross stated. “I want them to give me that, you know, family feeling. I don’t plan to rush it. I’m going to take it easy and let it come to me to see which one fits me best.”

Rivals intially rated two other 2024 in-state Husker targets as three-star recruits. Nebraska was one of the first schools to offer Omaha Westside athlete Caleb Benning and Bellevue West quarterback Daniel Kaelin.

With Raiola the top QB target for the Huskers in that 2024 class, Kaelin seems like a lower priority for Nebraska than the legacy Benning, the son of former NU I-back Damon Benning.

In recruiting, if you’re not working ahead several classes, you are falling behind other colleges putting in that effort with underclassmen.

Nebraska has gotten off to a good start with Class of 2024 recruits, but it needs to keep building and developing relationships with these high-priority targets.

– Mike Matya

There have been some questions about when the Big Board would return. I have some concerns about bringing it back too soon and around the frequency of the recurring article.

Through the tough months of the summer, starting in July and well into October, the article was as tough to produce as I am sure it was for some of you to consume.

Unfortunately, there are some similarities from last year to this year. And before you groan too much, let me explain. The 2023 class won’t touch 20 commits. In fact, I think the number will be closer to 15, which means that this class is 1/3 completed.

So maybe it makes more sense not to do the board every week (regardless if it alternates between offense and defense)? Perhaps it’s better to do pre- or post-events, or a run of visitor weekends?

As we sort that out, we did feel like it was reasonable to provide a first draft list here for the offense. We will give the defense a go next week.

Mark Whipple gets his man with Watson. A long-standing relationship, as well as a good understanding of what Whip wants to do with his offense, won out over some other interesting prospects like JJ Kohl and Avery Johnson.

This list is the most difficult to pull together on offense. Edwards, Joyner, and Braswell have visited Nebraska, and Edwards and Randle are in Nebraska’s backyard. Edwards gets the edge because of his film, followed by Joyner. I can easily see Braswell being the back in the class, however.

The receiver room in Lincoln is already freaky athletic, and this class will add to that if the Huskers can get two of these players. Coleman is the No. 1 guy at this spot and on the overall board. Coleman can be more of an X or Z, while I think Doss is a perfect slot. Harrison-Pilot may be the best athlete the Huskers are pursuing, and while it sounds like he wants to visit, he will be a tough pull. Manning has seen Nebraska already, and Davis will supposedly be in Lincoln after spring break.

Nebraska already has one tight end commitment with Brahmer, and it may be a little shocking to see the Huskers are pursuing another one for the class. Whenever this comes up, alarms go off in our minds because it sometimes means there could be attrition coming at that spot in the class and/or the current roster. Ortwerth couldn’t visit for the last junior day, but could be in for the spring game based on some recent communication with him. He’s interested in the Huskers. Remember, NU offered him first, which tends to carry some weight with recruits.

2023 is a terrific year in the Midwest for offensive linemen. The Huskers will miss on some of those “top-top” guys like Cayden Green and Kadyn Proctor. However, there were a pair of very good, complimentary lineman in-state with Gottula and Sledge. Gottula projects to OT while Sledge is an interior guy at guard and/or center.

The other players on this list have all visited Lincoln already, and things look good for Nebraska to host most of them again in the future. It’s hard not to mention Brock Knutson here because he’s an in-state guy with D1 offers. It’s believed that there are just some guys a little higher on Nebraska’s board that are keeping the Husker coaches from offering.

It will be very interesting to see how things play out with this list. I could see Nebraska going with four if they could get another inside guy and a massive OT to go along with Sledge and Gottula.

– Bryan Munson

With a 6-9 record through the early portion of their season, Cornhusker fans are hoping the funk that has recently affected Nebraska’s football and men’s basketball programs hasn’t also spread to the baseball team.

By most metrics, NU’s start of the 2022 season has been underwhelming, to say the least.

Even with all they had to replace from last year’s Big Ten championship roster, I don’t think many Husker fans expected a sub-.500 record approximately 1/4 of the way into this season.

The table below spells out where the Big Red is coming up short statistically compared to last year’s team.

[All the below numbers are through March 14]

The only statistical categories Nebraska is approaching last season’s excellence are in pitching shutouts, sacrifice bunts, and, to a certain extent, team ERA.

This year’s squad is struggling early on where Will Bolt coached teams usually excel: namely, hitting and fielding. There has been a precipitous drop-off in production with most of the batting stats and fielding percentage.

Quite frankly, the Huskers’ bats have been in a deep freeze, and the only area where NU’s offense has thrived so far this season is in striking out. Nebraska has just not consistently been able to put the barrel squarely on the ball.

Although the starting pitching was spotty the first few games, it has been much better as of late. But that has been offset in several games with the Cornhuskers committing numerous untimely errors which led to unnecessary losses.

There have been some individual bright spots on this year’s team. Koty Frank has stepped in as a confident No. 1 starting pitcher, and has an impressive 1.35 ERA. Shay Schanaman has lowered his ERA to just above 3.0 after a shaky start of his season.

At the plate, freshman Garrett Anglim‘s .375 batting average has earned him increased playing time in the outfield. Griffin Everitt has started to hit his stride with some timely power hitting lately. Freshman Luke Jessen has been steady with a .333 batting average, and Colby Gomes has been much more impressive as a hitter than a relief pitcher.

The two Huskers who were being counted on to carry the offensive production for this year’s team, Max Anderson and Brice Matthews, would have to be considered disappointments to date, even though they have started to have more success in the past few games.

There is still a lot of time to turn this season around as Nebraska has yet to play their first conference game. This is a sophomore and freshmen-heavy team, which means there were bound to be some growing pains.

Monday’s walk-off win over Omaha could just be the spark this team needed to boost its fragile confidence.

I have no doubt the Husker coaches will keep grinding to find the right answers for this 2022 squad when it comes to the pitching rotation, starting lineup, and continued development of their roster of young players.

– Mike Matya