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Nebraska Football: 5 takeaways from first official visit weekend

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Nebraska Football
Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

The first official visit weekend is in the books for Nebraska football and here are five takeaways for the Huskers.

You can feel the momentum building for Nebraska football on the recruiting trail. You could definitely sense it on social media as recruits recapped their official visits to Nebraska over the weekend.

Whether it was their own social media posts, interviews with various media outlets, or whatever, there were a lot of positive things said about the Huskers and the positive buzz has begun.

Three recruits (Jacory Barney, Mario Buford, Joseph Anderson) on campus have already received new (since this weekend) expert projections to land with Nebraska football from 247 Sports or On3. It definitely seems like some commitments are coming in the 2024 class and with that in mind, here are five takeaways from the first official visit weekend for Nebraska.

Nebraska football hit a home run

The Huskers had 10 recruits on campus if you count Daniel Kaelin and of the nine that aren’t committed, Nebraska might have a shot to land every single one.

It probably won’t work out that way, but Mario Buford, Jacory Barney, Joseph Anderson, and Caleb Pyfrom are all trending to Nebraska. Carlon Jones really seemed to enjoy his time and called his visit a 10/10. Peyton Morgan echoed that sentiment, as did William Nettles.

There is still plenty of work to do with some of these recruits. But the Huskers set themselves up to build some early momentum on the recruiting trail in June and looks like they took advantage of that opportunity.

My guess is that Nebraska gets at least five commitments out of this weekend when it’s all said and done. If I was betting and the over/under was set at five, I’d bet the over.

In-state momentum keeps building

I feel as confident as I ever have that three-star offensive tackle Caleb Pyfrom is going to commit. Kaelin was on campus and took pictures with the big man, who also said Matt Rhule and the coaches made sure he knew how badly they wanted him.

With Brandon Baker trending to Oregon and other offensive line targets coming off the board such as Andrew Sprague to Michigan, Pyfom is a must-get for the Huskers. He’s got a pretty good offer list for a Midwest kid too. He’s ranked in the top 800 overall and with some development, could easily be a Big Ten starting tackle.

Nebraska football has recruited him like a top priority and honestly, I wouldn’t be shocked if a commitment came sometime this week from Pyfrom, which would be another feather in the cap of Rhule and the Huskers.

Carter Nelson visited Georgia this weekend, but the trend has been favorable. The same can be said about Isaiah McMorris and Dae’vonn Hall too.

With Kaelin on board, if the Huskers can land the other four targets they lead with — Nelson, Pyfrom, McMorris, and Hall — this 2024 in-state haul could be even better than in 2023.

Nebraska football recruiting is in good hands with Rhule

Nebraska football did a great job this weekend and every official visit weekend under Matt Rhule has been productive. The people that said Rhule didn’t know to recruit were wrong. That’s not even close to being true.

The recruiting strategy has been damn near perfect and the Huskers are able to execute their plan, which includes backups like Kaelin in case Dylan Raiola didn’t commit.

You can see the visit calendar was set up to build early momentum this month, which might come in handy as Nelson, McMorris, and Hall get ready for their visits.

Everything is done for a reason. It doesn’t always work but Nebraska football recruiting is in good hands with Matt Rhule — that I know for sure.

Don’t overreact

Husker fans are feeling really good about their 2024 class right now and they should. But they aren’t alone. Most official visit weekends go off really well.

Most recruits when doing interviews speak glowingly about the visit they just took. So even though Nebraska did hit a home run this weekend, some other programs will do the same the next.

Surely, the Huskers wrapped up some recruitments this weekend. I’d be surprised if there weren’t a few silent commitments already. Yet, most of these recruits are going to take other visits and Nebraska football will still have work to do in order to land them.

Peyton Morgan is a name that comes to mind. Amare Sanders is too if he visits Florida and/or Miami. Carter Nelson is a perfect case in point.

If you just judged his visit to Georgia this weekend, you might feel like the Bulldogs are the leader. However, there are plenty of other factors at play, such as the size of the UGA tight end class.

I’d say it’s an overreaction to call Georgia the new leader, but it might be an overreaction to say the Huskers are going to land a bunch of commitments from this past weekend.

I don’t think that’s true but I also know it takes more to get a commitment than a strong official visit.

Hitting all the right spots

One thing that’s interesting about this official visit weekend is that Nebraska football hit a lot of key areas in the recruiting pipeline. The Huskers hosted recruits from Nebraska, Missouri (St. Louis), Florida, and Texas.

There are a couple of other key areas such as Pennslyvania, Kansas, and California that Nebraska likes to hit, but if Nebraska can recruit the four states listed in the first paragraph, it will be in good shape going forward.

Nebraska has always been more of a national recruiting program, even in some of the lean years. Matt Rhule is going to have the Huskers back to their winning ways soon and once the wins come, recruiting will get even better.

Yet, it’s still going pretty well and that should be reflected with some 2024 commitments in short order.

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Nebraska Football flips local TE Eric Ingwerson after long pursuit

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Mandatory Credit: Dylan Widger-USA TODAY Sports

Nebraska football landed a commitment from 2024 tight end Eric Ingwerson on Wednesday, according to multiple media reports.

Ingwerson is the 128th overall athlete in the 2024 class, and the ninth overall player in the class from the state of Nebraska per the 247Sports composite rankings. He has a numerical rating of 86 overall.

This is a solid commitment for several reasons. For one, Nebraska football has been interested in him for quite a while. He received an offer from the program on April 11, and had him and for an official visit on June 16.

Ingwerson joins a tight end room that is already in good hands for 2024. Carter Nelson headlines the room, with Ian Flynt also part of the room as well.

It is also worth noting that Ingwerson played on the defensive side of football as a defensive lineman for Papillion-LaVista. He could definitely play the position for Nebraska, as he measures in at six-foot-seven, 235 pounds. There is the chance that he could play a different position other than tight end. However, his size makes him an intriguing option at the position itself.

There can also be the possibility that Nebraska football could be looking at him as an offensive lineman. The size is there. This staff knows how to develop offensive lineman. Ingwerson could fit well in the positional group.

Currently, the 2024 Nebraska football recruiting class ranks 23rd overall in the country per the 247Sports rankings. This class has a solid high school group, and Ingwerson certainly adds to that. The 2024 class has the potential to be a cornerstone class of Matt Rhule’s tenure.

Ingwerson will be an asset to Nebraska football, no matter what position he plays. Furthermore, this is a great flip by the program. Once again, they have shown the ability to identify a prospect they want, and pursue him until they land him. The staff has done a good job of being able to flip recruits. Ingwerson is certainly a part of that distinction.

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Nebraska Football trending towards landing another in-state TE

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Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Nebraska football could be in line for one of their top targets. Tight end Eric Ingwerson is expected to make a visit to Lincoln this weekend, according to a report from 247Sports Steve Wilfong.

Ingwerson is a guy that Nebraska has been after for quite a while. The tight end has been committed to Pittsburgh since March, but Nebraska offered him in April. Since then, they have been pushing to land him. Tight ends coach Josh Martin is currently the coach involved in his recruitment.

Predictions have been made for Ingwerson to end up a member of the Nebraska football program. Notre Dame insider Tom Loy logged in a crystal ball for the tight end with a medium confidence score of six on Wednesday morning. Wilfong did the same thing, with the same confidence score as well.

What could he bring to Nebraska football?

Ingwerson has a tremendous catch radius, and uses it to haul in passes with ease. He has the ability to get into open space, and run after the catch. His ability to catch high throws in particular makes him a threat in the red zone. He is a quarterback’s best friend, and a player that would be a drive starter. He’s the type of player you can deliver safe, easy throws to in order to get the offense going.

Ingwerson would be an immediate red zone threat for Nebraska, as they look to continue to bring in talent to the tight end room. We have seen the emergence of Thomas Fidone this year. This offense has done a good job of involving the position in its scheme, especially in the red zone. Fidone for example already has three receiving touchdowns on the year.

It will be interesting to see what happens this weekend. From the sounds of it, it could be possible that we see a commitment. This would be a nice get for a 2024 Nebraska football recruiting class that already has a ton of talent. Here’s to hoping the coaching staff can seal the deal.

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Nebraska Cornhuskers news: QB updates for Michigan, plus a Christian Jones update

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Nebraska football
Dylan Widger-USA TODAY Sports

Our Nebraska Cornhuskers news roundup features the latest on Nebraska football quarterbacks, plus an update on top target Christian Jones.

Nebraska football was back on the practice field on Tuesday, and the Nebraska Cornhuskers’ two coordinators — Tony White and Marcus Satterfield met with the media.

The coaches always give out some good nuggets but the most important topic addressed on Tuesday were the quarterbacks — Jeff Sims and Heinrich Haarberg.

Haarberg started the last two games for Nebraska football and led the Huskers to a pair of non-conference wins over Louisana Tech and Northern Illinois. The running game was the strength for Haarberg although he tossed three touchdown passes over the two games. He has four on the season as well as three rushing touchdowns.

But Haarberg left the Louisiana Tech game due to injury and didn’t return after the weather delay. Matt Rhule said he could have returned but got tight. On Tuesday, Satterfield said that Haarberg was a full-go at practice for the Nebraksa Cornhuskers ahead of the Michigan game.

Jeff Sims is also “splitting reps” according to the Nebraska OC, but Sims still isn’t “100 percent” which probably isn’t a great sign for his availability on Saturday.

Latest on in-state recruiting target Christian Jones

Over the last two recruiting cycles, the Nebraska Cornhuskers have had an elite recruiting target in the state and in the 2025 class that’s linebacker Christian Jones.

Out of Omaha Westside, the 6-foot-3, 210-pound linebacker is ranked 106th overall according to the 247 Sports composite rankings. He also has some crystal balls in favor of Nebraska football already.

But just like the recruitments of Carter Nelson and Malachi Colman, this is going national. According to Bryan Munson of Husker Online, Jones visited Notre Dame last weekend for the Ohio State game.

Jones was also offered by Penn State. Notre Dame feels like the biggest threat by far though and here’s what Tom Loy of Irish Illustrated wrote about the in-state target’s visit to South Bend:

“He loved the atmosphere and environment of a Notre Dame home game and called it the “best college visit” he’s ever been a part of. Between the visit, the effort from the staff, and the push from his friend and teammate Teddy Rezac, a 2024 Notre Dame commit, I like the Irish as a major contender in this one.”

I agree that Notre Dame is the team to worry about but with the way the Huskers have been playing defense and having success recruiting the state, I’d still say Nebraska is the team to beat.

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