KENNESAW, Ga. – Last year Shannon Ferbrache and his team at Adidas had a vision. They wanted to do something no other shoe partner was doing for their schools.

Adidas wanted to set up prospect camps on the campuses of their Division I partners that are located in recruiting hotbeds. They wanted all of their schools to be able to attend these camps in places like Atlanta, South Florida and Texas. The 2017 tour was a major success, and they’ve grown things even bigger in 2018.

In all, Adidas will host camps at Kennesaw State just outside Atlanta, Florida International, Florida Atlantic, Texas A&M, Arizona State, South Florida and a JUCO camp at Kansas.

“We just wanted to continue to find those hotbeds where our college coaches want to go,” Ferbrache, the Adidas Director of US Sports Grassroots said. “That’s why coming to the state of Georgia like we are here is so important, because there are so many players. There’s different areas where we’d love to do camps, but it really depends on where our coaches want to go. They’ve identified Florida, Texas and Georgia as three of those spots.”

In all, 35 different schools were represented at Kennesaw State on Wednesday. Nebraska had four coaches at the event, including defensive coordinator Erik Chinander, secondary coach Travis Fisher, tight ends coach Sean Beckton and outside linebackers coach Jovan DeWitt.

NU’s other seven full-time coaches were back in Lincoln working their first of two individual camps that will take place on Wednesday and Thursday.

“This is the first year for me actually doing something like this,” Beckton said of working satellite camps. “Down at UCF, we didn’t actually have to do this, because we had kids coming to us in Orlando being a vacation destination there. This has been huge for me to get to one spot and intermingle with some of the coaches and getting the chance to see a lot of quality football players all in one spot.”

Ferbrache hinted on Wednesday that by next year, Adidas would like to have a special camp in Lincoln, featuring possibly top linemen from around the country.

It’s still a long ways out, but he thinks it’s something that has a lot of potential.

“I’m talking to Coach (Scott) Frost right now about doing some kind of unique camp in Lincoln,” Ferbrache said. “I won’t say exactly what it is, but I think we could be coming to Lincoln soon to be putting together some sort of camp. I think there are some things about Nebraska that are unique to recruits, that recruits would come out there.

“They are known for linemen, so why wouldn’t linemen come out to learn from Nebraska.”

Stay tuned on that.

Of the four Nebraska coaches in Atlanta, Beckton arguably got the most out of Wednesday’s event.

Beckton handles North Florida and Georgia recruiting for the Big Red, and he had several different contacts show up to Wednesday’s event.

“The biggest thing is coming down and seeing some guys that are on the fringe, and then being around some of the high school coaches from the south,” Beckton said. “We’ve got a lot of coaches that came up from Florida, and obviously you’ve got a bunch form Georgia. Just getting around those guys and keeping those relationships, and then seeing those guys you saw in the spring that were on the fringe that may not have showed you enough, and then you can solidify a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ as far as being recruited.”

One of those coaches on Wednesday was Atlanta Westlake head coach Kareem Reid, who Beckton coached at UCF under George O’Leary.

Reid keeps in regular contact with the Husker staff and is very excited to watch what they can do the next few years.

“I think it’s going to be amazing with what they are going to get done,” Reid said. “Obviously it’s going to take them a season or two, but maybe quicker to get things going the way they really want to as long as they get their personnel in. I’m excited to see what they can get done.”

As for new faces, Beckton said several names jumped on his radar after today’s camp.

“I saw about 10 guys that popped up on the radar,” Beckton said. “The biggest thing that you have is you kind of know all the kids in Georgia, but there’s some surrounding state kids that came down. There were a couple of kids from Memphis that showed up on my radar. There were a couple of kids from North Carolina and South Carolina that we didn’t know a whole bunch about that popped up a little bit for us. We’ll take their names and get them up on the radar in the recruiting office. It’s been a very beneficial trip.”

A number of former Husker coaches and players were apart of Wednesday’s camp at Kennesaw State. Former offensive lineman and assistant coach John Garrison was working Wednesday’s camp for Florida Atlantic. Lane Kiffin and the Owls hired him shortly after signing day.

Former Husker defensive back and assistant coach Jimmy Burrow was there with Ohio, as was former NU running backs coach Tim Albin.

Another former Husker that was at Wednesday’s camp watching was quarterback Terry Luck (1971-75), who also played two seasons in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns. Luck currently serves as an assistant coach at Coahulla Creek High School in Georgia.

Former Nebraska head coach Frank Solich will be going into his 15th season at Ohio, and according to Albin, he’s showing no signs of stopping anytime soon.

Albin and Burrow have been with Solich now 18 years dating back to their time at Nebraska.

“Frank’s health is great, and he’s feistier than ever,” Albin said. “(Retirement) is not on the table. I can assure you that.”

Albin served as a graduate assistant from 2000 to 2002, before becoming the full-time running backs coach at NU in 2003. Before that, he was a national champion head coach at Northwestern Oklahoma State at the NAIA level.

He has not been back to Nebraska since leaving after the 2003 Alamo Bowl but is still very fond of his time in Lincoln.

“The relationships I formed there just in my five years just with the tight ends like Aaron Golliday and Tracey Wistrom, we still text from time to time,” Albin said. “It was a tight, tight group of guys. Ron Brown to Turner Gill were mentors for me as coaches. I still keep in touch with a lot of those guys.”

As for Frost, he never coached him at Nebraska but got to know him well during his time in Lincoln.

“I got to know Scott when I was up there,” Albin said. “He was still playing the NFL, but he’d come back and talk with us in the off-season. He also helped coach with us in the Independence Bowl. He’s better than what you read, and you read all good stuff, and he’s better than that. It’s an exciting time for Nebraska.”

Nebraska’s four coaches in Atlanta caught a flight to Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday, and they will move on with the Adidas tour to Miami.

Lane Kiffin and Florida Atlantic will host a morning camp, while Butch Davis and Florida International will hold a camp in the evening. Last year the two events in Miami were regarded as the best on the entire tour by most of the coaches.

“We expect to see a lot of speed tomorrow,” Beckton said. “You are going to see a little bit smaller guy, but they all can run.