Gates commits to Nebraska

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Las Vegas (Nev.) Bishop Gorman offensive tackle Nick Gates will tell you that there are a lot of factors that go in to making a commitment as a high profile recruit.

However, in the end it came down to relationships that had been built with the coaching staffs that were recruiting him. He felt like he was the closest with the coaches from Nebraska and today he informed them that he was becoming a Husker.

"Yes sir, I just announced my decision to commit to Nebraska," Gates said. "I've been talking with my family over the last couple of weeks about making a decision and it became pretty serious with us. We decided that it would be Nebraska.

"All of the other schools, I felt like I had a good opportunity at, but I just felt like I had the best state and the best relationship with all of the coaches at Nebraska."

Nebraska coach Barney Cotton played the role as lead recruiter for Gates and was a key reason why the talented lineman visited Lincoln for Big Red Weekend last June and for an official visit this fall when the Huskers played Northwestern. Gates said that the whole Nebraska staff was with him from day one which counted for a lot.

Gates hosted Cotton, offensive line coach John Garrison, and head coach Bo Pelini for an in-home visit this past week and he had a pretty good feeling he'd be a Husker after that visit.

"They were pretty much with me from day one," Gates said of the Nebraska coaching staff. "They were like my third or fourth offer so I had been able to build a really good relationship with them ever since the end of my junior year.

"I had a pretty good feeling that I was going to commit to Nebraska (after the meeting). The Arizona coaches just wanted to come in one more time so I went ahead and talked to them just to see if it would make me feel any different about my decision and it didn't. So I went ahead and decided to commit to Nebraska today."

The 6-foot-4, 275-pound lineman is athletic enough to play anywhere across the offensive line, but says Nebraska has him slotted to start working out as a tackle.

Gates is coming off of an impressive showing at the Semper Fidelis All-American Game where he was able to play on the same line with fellow Nebraska commit D.J. Foster. Tackle Kenyon Frison is another NU target who played alongside Gates and Foster in that game and Gates admits there has been talk about all of them playing together at Nebraska.

"There has been a lot of talk between me, D.J., and Kenyon (about playing at Nebraska together)," Gates said. "We all hung out a lot at that game and we kind of made a good bond with each other."

Gates chose Nebraska over Arizona, Oregon, Texas A&M, and among several others. He ranks as a four-star offensive tackle and is the 20th commit for Nebraska's 2014 class.

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