Alston gives Huskers commit No. 3 on weekend

Speedy Ventura (Calif.) St. Bonaventure wide receiver Lavan Alston was a key target for head coach Mike Riley while he was at Oregon State and that remained the case once Riley became the new head coach at Nebraska.

The 5-foot-11, 173-pound playmaker was one of the first players Riley offered as the Huskers' head man and they got the last opportunity to show Alston what NU's program was all about on the final official visit weekend before signing day. Following the visit, Alston felt he had seen enough to commit to the Huskers. He announced his decision on Twitter.

HuskerOnline.com caught up with Alston following his visit where he talked about what led him to his decision.

According to Alston, he and his parents came away very impressed by what they experienced in Lincoln. They especially enjoyed spending time with the coaching staff and seeing the facilities.

"It went really well," Alston said of his visit to Nebraska. "I got the chance to sit down with Coach Riley, (offensive coordinator) (Danny) Langsdorf and also (wide receivers) coach Keith Williams. It went really well.

"The facilities definitely stood out. Nebraska has a Sports Science facility, they have a great weight program, a great field - it's really nice. You can tell Nebraska is the No. 1 thing in this state. They pump a lot of money into this school. I was really shocked. I didn't think Nebraska was like that when I got here. It wasn't really a shock I guess, but I was more astonished."

Coach Williams hasn't been at Nebraska very long, but Alston says he's been impressed with his background.

"I think Coach (Keith) Williams) is a great coach," Alston said. "He put a lot of receivers in the NFL from small schools, he develops receivers and I think if you are a receiver you'll be in good hands if you go to this school under Coach Williams."

Alston recently played in the Semper-Fidelis All-American game and was hosted by Semper-Fi teammate and current Husker early enrollee defensive back Eric Lee. Alston said he enjoyed hanging out with Lee and was also impressed with the rest of the players he met while on his visit.

"Eric Lee (was my host), I think he is going to be a great player," Alston said. "He's my age, so (we'll) be pushing each other throughout practice. He's a good player and a good kid too.

"Most of the players here were recruited under Coach Bo (Pelini), but they all like Coach Riley. They think he's going to be great for this program."

Finally one of the highlights for Alston this weekend besides seeing the campus and facilities were the snow-like conditions in Lincoln.

"This was the first I had ever seen snow in my life," Alston said. "When you see it on TV you think it's really, really cold, but it's not that cold unless it's windy. It's actually really nice. I actually enjoyed the snow. They said it hasn't snowed like this in a while, but then when I got here it just started pouring down snow, so that was pretty cool."

Alston becomes commitment No. 19 for Nebraska and the third known commit from this past weekend. He chose the Huskers over Washington State, Cal, Oregon State and Arizona State.

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