3 thoughts on Evan Taylor commitment to Nebraska football

The roll on the recruiting trail continues for Nebraska football as Evan Taylor committed on Monday to the Huskers.

Nebraska football continues to build momentum on the recruiting trail in the 2024 class as the Huskers landed their fourth commitment in the past two days on Monday.

Evan Taylor, a three-star defensive back that visited over the weekend, announced his pledge on Monday. Some crystal ball projections had started to trickle in for the 6-foot-3, 180-pound receiver out of North Carolina.

Just before he committed, Taylor, who was unranked in the 247 Sports composite rankings, was bumped up to No. 888 overall. East Carolina was one of the top competitors as he just took an official visit to see the Pirates.

Rutgers was the only other Power-5 offer and with all that in mind, here are three thoughts on the commitment of Evan Taylor to Nebraska football.

1000% COMMITTED! @CoachMattRhule @evancooper2 @HuskerFBNation @NEB_Recruiting @dukehwt @coach_cmattison pic.twitter.com/smk6lAqxsB

— Evan Taylor (@EvanTaylor66) June 19, 2023

Another under-the-rader commitment

Taylor is starting to get his due from the rankings, but this is another commitment where Nebraska football and the coaching staff are trusting their own eyes.

And to be fair, there’s a lot to like about Taylor. He’s 6-foot-3 and a smooth athlete. His 247 Sports profile says he ran the 100-meter dash in 11.36 as a junior, which isn’t blazing fast.

It’s not slow either. Plus, there are some guys that play faster on the football field. Taylor looks plenty fast on the field and he also looks really smooth.

He’s a good route-runner and has good hands. His highlights show a few contested catches and he gets down the field quite a bit. Taylor caught 38 passes for 528 yards and seven touchdowns as a junior, as well as playing mostly defensive back as a sophomore and tallying four interceptions.

I thought for a minute Taylor was going to be the first true wide receiver in the 2024 class. But it looks like he’ll be a defensive back which is interesting since he’ll be the second DB at 6-foot-3 or taller to commit in two days.

The Huskers need talented athletes on the back end of the defense for the 3-3-5 and that’s why this makes sense, even though the DB numbers are growing.

Another DB/athlete

Both Isaiah McMorris and Dae’vonn Hall tweeted about big announcements coming. They have also been projected to land with Nebraska football via the On3 prediction machine. Sean Callahan put in expert projections for Hall and McMorris.

This comes on the heels of Callahan reporting that Hall and Nebraska football weren’t mutually interested going forward. Hall took a visit to Kansas State last weekend and maybe, Nebraska looked more favorable after that.

It’s hard to say what happened. Nebraska didn’t want to be a fallback option for Hall, who visited Tennessee unofficially earlier this month.

Yet, the Vols haven’t offered. Hall is a four-star recruit but his ranking has dropped a bit. It would still be huge if Nebraska landed him, but you have to wonder how the addition of Taylor could impact it.

With Quinn Clark of Montana also on the books for an official visit this weekend, maybe the threat of the other spots being taken has motivated McMorris and Hall to join their quarterback.

Taylor’s recruitment might have something to do with that and Nebraska could be taking him as more of an athlete. He would be the fifth defensive back/athlete in the 2024 class for the Huskers. It does seem like a lot, especially with Caleb Benning still out there, but most of the athletes have the ability to play more than one position.

Taylor could easily play wide receiver once he gets on campus. The important thing was getting his commitment.

A strong official visit weekend

Previous official visits weekends haven’t yielded many commitments, at least not yet. Mario Buford committed after the first official visit weekend in June, but this past weekend was much more successful.

The Huskers have already landed four 2024 recruits that visited this weekend. Braylen Prude was identified at a camp, offered, took an official visit, and then committed.

It was a process of evaluation and it really worked out. Jake Peters recruitment essentially went the same way. It would be nice for Nebraska football to land some recruits with more Power-5 offers. I get that.

However, if Rhule and company are getting ahead of others due to evaluations, in addition to being more active in camps, why not take the opportunity to close?

Every new commitment, outside of Kamdyn Koch, is ranked as a composite three-star recruit and while Rhule is betting some on development, it’s worked before (at his previous stops) and it can work again.

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