Three & Out: no cachet for Husker football, R250 shutout, and OL targets

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 no cachet for Husker football, R250 shutout, and main OL targets.

Not that they needed any further reminding, but the past few days drove home to Cornhusker fans how Nebraska’s football program is currently viewed nationally.

Whether it be the media, other college football fans, and especially current prospective recruits, the Big Red remains a moribund program with its best days in the rearview mirror.

Favorite son Scott Frost was brought in to change that, but the initial hope and excitement of his hiring have mostly dissipated after not much discernible progress on the field in his first three seasons.

The proof is in the pudding.

Just this past week, several recruits who took official visits to Lincoln and raved about it committed to other programs: offensive tackle Ashton Craig [Notre Dame], defensive lineman Nico Davillier [Arkansas], receiver Landon Samson [South Carolina], and perhaps most painful of all, Husker defensive back legacy James Monds III [Indiana].

You can add to that list of futility the No. 1 in-state recruit for this cycle, according to Rivals, Omaha Central offensive tackle Deshawn Woods who chose the border state Missouri Tigers (!?). Woods had long since eliminated Nebraska as they did not even make his final five schools.

The reality is, if current Huskers Turner Corcoran or Ty Robinson were members of this recruiting class, they likely would not have ended up in Lincoln. They were swept up in the initial excitement of Coach Frost’s coming home to Nebraska after all the success he had at UCF, which seems like a distant memory now.

Now, those types of top regional or even national recruits with Husker ties are giving Nebraska the cold shoulder. That level of disinterest and apathy has even filtered down to many of the Huskers’ “Plan B” targets.

All of the above is not meant to bash the current staff, nor to rub salt into the wounds of the Big Red faithful, it’s simply to state the obvious: Scott Frost was brought in to fix this mess but he has yet to gain any traction in the win/loss columns.

The importance of success in this upcoming season cannot be overstated. There has to be demonstrable and dramatic improvement on the field in 2021 in all the areas Nebraska has recently been deficient for this football program to even start establishing some momentum, which would inevitably give a boost to recruiting.

As things stand today, this recruiting class is shaping up to be underwhelming. There’s still time to change that, but it won’t without marked improvement on the field and on the scoreboard this season.

– Mike Matya

There were a flurry of commitments from the Rivals250 over the long 4th of July weekend, with several top national prospects committing to various teams across the country. Alas, Nebraska was not one of them.

In fact, looking over the remaining legitimate and realistic Husker targets in the R250, for the first time in the Rivals.com era, Nebraska could get completely shut out when it comes to signing any Rivals100 or Rivals250 recruits.

Let that sink in for a moment: since Rivals came on the college football recruiting scene, Nebraska has signed at least one R250 prospect, yet they may not do so in this cycle.

Only twice over the past two decades have the Huskers signed only one R250 recruit, in 2006 [239. DB Rickey Thenarse] and in 2008 [8. OT Baker Steinkuhler] Every other year they have signed at least two Rivals250 players.

There are certain football programs Nebraska has historically recruited against for the best 500-mile radius regional players, and they have certainly benefited from the Big Red’s decline. They have stepped in and filled the gap with a lot of these recruits NU would typically be getting commits from and eventually signing.

There are three in particular who have benefited this cycle from Nebraska’s struggles. Two of those programs, Oklahoma and Notre Dame, have become semi-regulars in the college football playoffs. And another, Missouri, has a dynamic new young coach who is able to sell his vision to some of the region’s best recruits.

They each are doing very well when it comes to current Rivals250 commitments:

Of the above 18 Rivals250 commitments those three programs have accumulated so far, seven of them are from the 500-mile radius, four hail from Texas, and another three of them come from the Big Ten footprint.

The recruiting competition level has also increased since the Tom Osborne days, with Ohio State firmly entrenched in St. Louis, and even teams like Alabama, Clemson and other top powers now regularly recruiting the Midwest and Great Plains states.

Nebraska has always gotten their fair share of the top area recruits, but this year is looking like an anomaly and outlier. After ranging in the Nos. 15-18 range in the final Rivals team rankings in Coach Scott Frost‘s first three, full recruiting classes, it’s looking as if the Huskers’ will be fortunate to make it into the top 30 for this cycle.

– Mike Matya

With the limited class size for this particular recruiting cycle, the Huskers will likely only be taking two offensive line signees. That’s all they will have room for unless something changes.

NU had three offensive line prospects visit for the Red-White spring game on May 1. Two of them returned for official visits in June: Jake Maikkula and Valen Erickson. The other, Lucas Heyer out of Minnesota, subsequently committed to Stanford.

The other main trench target for the Cornhuskers in the Class of 2022 is John Patore, who earned his scholarship offer after his June 4 individual workout with a Nebraska coaches.

11 total offers

Erickson visited Lincoln twice this summer, and he liked both experiences a lot. He was also supposed to take an official visit to Tennessee, but it doesn’t look like he made it there.

“I am currently down to my final 2 of Nebraska and Mizzou,” Erickson told me yesterday. “My decision is coming soon.”

28 total offers

I exchanged a couple text messages with him yesterday and he said he is down to his “final eight + Stanford.” Those other final eight programs are Nebraska, Colorado, Duke, Virginia, Kansas State, Minnesota, Missouri and Cal.

He has taken either official or unofficial trips to nearly all of them, but said he hopes to get to Stanford to check them out before committing. He wants to have his college decision made by the end of July.

“I will choose the place I feel like will be a great home for me,” Maikkula said in a text to me yesterday. “A place where I can be developed extremely well on and off the field, including in the classroom and in real life.

“I have had some zoom calls with Stanford, and I have been texting and calling with coaches at all the other schools as well.”

2 total offers

In addition to Nebraska, Pastore visited Kansas State in June. He’s primarily looking at those two programs, but is keeping his options open for other offers. He has not responded to any inquiries from us lately.

We should know by the end of July where all three of Nebraska’s main OL targets are going to go to college.

Greg Austin has done a nice job of restocking the Pipeline with young, promising talent since he arrived as the Huskers’ offensive line coach. Getting two of the above three recruits as commitments, and eventual signees, would continue that trend.

– Mike Matya