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Can Nebraska Football land Brandon Baker? Plus more recruiting news

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Is Brandon Baker a realistic possibility for Nebraska football? Plus more Cornhuskers recruiting news.

Five-star offensive tackle Brandon Baker could still take an official visit this fall to Nebraska football, plus more Cornhuskers news.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any better for Nebraska football recruiting, multiple reports came out on Monday about Brandon Baker considering an official visit to Lincoln this fall.

Baker is a five-star offensive tackle out of Mater Dei in California. He’s about as good as it gets in terms of left tackles in the 2024 recruiting class. Last week, he tweeted out a picture that had images of him in Nebraska gear, along with Florida State, Georgia, and Oregon.

Then came this tweet by Greg Biggins who said that Nebraska football was making a strong push and Baker was considering an official visit this fall.

The 6-foot-5, 285-pounder ranked No. 21 overall according to the 247 Sports composite rankings, visited Nebraska football twice during the spring. However, when he took official visits elsewhere this June, it seemed like the Huskers had faded from his recruitment.

However, the tweet about Nebraska must have meant legit interest. He also re-tweeted something about Preston Taumua committing on Monday morning to the Huskers.

There are some other signs that Nebraska has a legit shot. Yet, we’ll see if that visit gets scheduled. Adam Gorney of Rivals tweeted that Baker “Could commit soon or might take a visit to Nebraska.”

If a visit to Nebraska is what keeps him from a commitment, that seems pretty interesting. A fast start this fall wouldn’t hurt but don’t count out the Huskers just yet for Baker. I said he needed to take a visit for us to take it seriously and now that might happen, which would be great news for Matt Rhule.

A top EDGE target set for an unofficial visit

Devoux Tuataga will visit Nebraska football on June 28th, but it will be for an unofficial visit, not an official visit as reported by On3.com.

This comes from Blair Angulo of 247 Sports who reports that Tuataga will be taking unofficial visits to Nebraska and Oregon on July 28th and July 29th.

The 6-foot-6, 240-pound pass rusher out of Utah had 32 tackles last season, as well as 15 tackles for loss, 10 sacks, and 11 pressures. He’s ranked 36th among EDGE prospects in the 2024 class while ranking 507th overall according to the 247 Sports composite rankings.

Tuataga said he wanted to make a decision around November. So the Huskers have time. It will be key to get him back for an official visit sometime this fall. Oregon hosted him for an official visit this summer and appears to be the leader, which is also why the July 29th trip to Eugene is worrisome.

Northwestern loses 4-star linebacker to transfer portal

The Wildcats haven’t lost many players to the portal since the departure of Pat Fitzgerald who was fired last week, but on Monday, four-star linebacker Nigel Glover, the top signee of the 2023 class, entered the portal.

That’s pretty significant. He was the seventh-ranked player in the state of Ohio for the 2023 class. The 6-foot-3, 210-pounder ranked 335th overall.

Glover is listed as a safety but is expected to play linebacker in college. He could also be a hybrid of sorts and that’s why I think Nebraska football should express some interest. He’s good in coverage and Nebraska could use another talented linebacker.

Matt Rhule has talked about transfers that will have a long-term impact and since Glover is a 2023 recruit, he would be coming to Nebraska as a freshman, so why not try to add another blue-chip right before camp?

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Nebraska Football lands athletic playmaker in JD Crisp

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Mandatory Credit: Dylan Widger-USA TODAY Sports

Nebraska football continues to recruit for the 2024 class. They picked up a commitment from 2024 wide receiver JD Crisp on Wednesday afternoon. Crisp played both sides of the football in high school, playing both defensive back and wide receiver for Second Baptist High School.

He is not ranked in the 247Sports regular or Composite Rankings. However, he does have a solid offer sheet.  Crisp had seven offers in total, including one from Minnesota. He was officially offered by the program on September 16 and quickly made his decision.

It’s also worth noting that his recruitment was active throughout the summer. He attended Texas A&M Aggies camp on June 14. At the very least, he garnered interest from a prominent Texas school. That is notable in of itself.

What could he bring to Nebraska football?

It’s interesting that he is a two-way player. He played both the receiver and safety positions in high school. As far as Nebraska is concerned, I could certainly see him playing at receiver. He has as a tremendous amount of athleticism, and played mostly on the outside and high school. Crisp was very good at catching in space, and making contested catches and tight windows.

Playing receiver would make sense for him, given Nebraska’s lack of depth at the position moving forward. He has the agility and ability to become a solid piece if developed properly.

Nevertheless, he has overall qualities that could make him a good safety as well. This coaching staff loves the opportunity to work with athletes and molding them as they see fit. His ability to fire off the football and read a play certainly stands out.

The commitment of Crisp adds to a 2024 recruiting class that ranks 24th overall nationally. The class itself is stacked with talent. It currently has 25 commitments in total.

It will be interesting to see what Crisp can do for Nebraska football. He is definitely more of a project player. Nevertheless, his athleticism and speed is intriguing. One of this coaching staff’s strengths is identifying how players fit into the program. They will have to do that with Crisp.

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BASKETBALL

Nebraska Cornhuskers news: Jeff Sims still not 100 percent, a flip attempt, and more

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Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports

Nebraska football QB Jeff Sims still isn’t 100 percent, plus more Nebraska Cornhuskers news.

One thing we know for sure about the Nebraska football quarterback situation is that we won’t know anything until kickoff on Saturday against Louisiana Tech.

Matt Rhule said that he won’t be making any announcements prior to the game, similar to last week, about the starting quarterback. Marcus Satterfield told reporters on Tuesday that Sims took “50-55 percent of the snaps” so he’s improving, but according to Rhule, he’s still not 100 percent.

Rhule indicated that Sims is throwing the ball well. The Nebraska Cornhuskers just want to see some more movement skills out of their starting quarterback. One of the starting quarterbacks I should say since Sims and Heinrich Haarberg were listed as co-starters this week on the depth chart.

We’ll see how it plays out. If Sims is healthy, I expect that he will get the start or at least play, but with how thin Nebraska football is at running back, both quarterbacks will probably be needed, especially with their prowess for pounding the rock.

Nebraska Cornhuskers aiming to flip Michigan State 4-star

Andrew Dennis is a 6-foot-5, 275-pound offensive lineman rated as a four-star prospect by the 247 Sports composite rankings. He’s out of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, and has been committed to Michigan State since April but Nebraska football is one of many programs to throw out a recent offer.

We don’t know if Dennis has any plans to visit Nebraska football. He’s been offered by Auburn, Stanford, Penn State, and Purdue just since Monday. I wouldn’t get too serious worrying about Dennis until he takes a visit to Nebraska, but if that happens, watch out.

It’s at least a name to keep on the radar and a decommitment definitely seems possible with the situation going on at Michigan State with Mel Tucker getting fired.

Nebraska Cornhuskers Big Ten basketball schedule released

We knew which teams Nebraska basketball would play in the 2023-24 Big Ten season but got the official schedule on Tuesday. The Huskers released it on their official Twitter account.

Nebraska basketball will open Big Ten on December 6th against Minnesota on the road. Fred Hoiberg’s first conference home game will be against Michigan State on December 10th.

The schedule is fairly balanced in terms of the home and road games. The Huskers have consecutive home games twice on the conference schedule. Nebraska has also back-to-back road games twice.

My first impressions though, are that Nebraska basketball is capable of a winning season in Big Ten play, which would definitely keep Fred Hoiberg in place and likely, would give the Huskers a realistic shot at making their first NCAA tournament since the 2014 season.

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Nebraska football is trending for a priority target, plus more Cornhuskers news

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Dylan Widger-USA TODAY Sports

Nebraska football seems to be closing in on the commitment of three-star athlete Caleb Benning, plus another win for volleyball.

For the first time this season, Nebraska football fans are enjoying a victory Monday following the Huskers’ 35-11 win over Northern Illinois on Saturday.

It was an important win for plenty of reasons. But Matt Rhule’s team needed some momentum. The Huskers got it with that win and now, they are picking up momentum with top recruiting target Caleb Benning.

Benning has been one of the top high school players in the state this fall. He was injured last year, which slowed down his recruitment, but the Huskers have been putting on the full-court press and hosted him for a visit during the game on Saturday.

After that, Benning told reporters how much he wanted to play in the Nebraska football defense. He also said that a decision could be “pretty soon” which sounds like great news for the Huskers.

Over the weekend, Nebraska football also picked up a new expert projection to land Benning from Bryan Munson of Husker Online. This was after another recent crystal ball from 247 Sports.

The On3 prediction machine now gives the Huskers a 91-percent chance to win the commitment of Benning, while all of the crystal ball projections agree. Even Greg Smith, a former Nebraska insider who covers Midwest recruiting for rivals, also projected Benning to Nebraska.

The 5-foot-10, 183-pounder is one of the top targets left on the board along with the likes of Grant Brix, Brandon Baker, and Jayshawn Ross. His addition to the 2024 class would be huge and regardless of his ranking, Benning is a player the Huskers need on their roster in the future.

Nebraska volleyball notches another top-25 win

The Cornhuskers were back in the Bob Devaney Center on Sunday and scored another win over a top-25 opponent, their second of the week with a 3-1 win over Kentucky by the scores of 25-14, 25-22, 23-25, and 25-21.

Merritt Beason was on fire for Nebraska volleyball as she had a team-high 17 kills, a total that was matched by freshman standout Harper Murray. Beason also added three blocks, as did Murrary, but Beason hit .438 compared to .308 for Murrary.

Nebraska had 62 kills compared to 53 for Kentucky, which was limited to just a .243 hitting percentage. The Huskers only had four service aces but Bergen Reilly had 32 assists in the win, while Lexi Rodriguez pitched in with 18 digs and had a perfect serve-receive percentage.

The Cornhuskers (9-0) open Big Ten play this week against Ohio State on Friday at 8 PM CST.

For More Nebraska content, follow us on Twitter, like our Facebook Page, and Subscribe to the Husker Big Red YouTube Channel. You can also find our podcast on Apple or Spotify.

 

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