Nebraska has landed their signal caller in the 2021 recruiting class. Just under a week ago the Huskers extended an offer to in-state recruit Heinrich Haarberg from Kearney (Neb.) Catholic and the talented quarterback committed to Scott Frost Friday night.
The 6-foot-5 and 195-pound recruit had planned on taking some time into June, or later this summer, to announce a commitment. Heinrich had some hard questions for the Nebraska staff this week and their answers allowed for him to trim the timeline on his decision and feel good about choosing the Huskers.
"It was the conversations with coach (Matt) Lubick, coach (Mario) Verduzco and head coach (Scott) Frost the last week," Heinrich said. "I was really questioning them hard about quarterback development, where they see me, and they gave me some very good answers that I feel confident in."
Nebraska, and particularly head coach Scott Frost, made it clear to Heinrich that he was their guy. Additionally, they told Haarberg that they'd wait for him to be sure even if that meant taking trips to other schools. That approach by Nebraska, with patience and understanding, went far with Haarberg.
"Coach Frost has been telling me that he's wanted me to come and be his quarterback since the first time I visited Nebraska. It's been super-important to me and how they have handled it. They respected the fact if I felt like I needed to take an official visit to another school and that was a key part in me making my decision so early. I felt so confident they wanted me enough that they would wait on me."
Haarberg will go down as one of just a handful of 2021 recruits who got to Nebraska this spring for an unofficial visit. He was able to get the relationship with the new offensive coordinator started and understand how he saw him as a quarterback in his system. There was a tremendous example for Lubick to use with Haarberg.
"I look up to Justin Herbert and coach Lubick was at Oregon with Justin," Heinrich said. "Coach Lubick molded his offense around Justin and he's told me that he sees me being about the same player; an athletic, tall quarterback that can throw the ball.
"He said that there is going to be a lot of passing and he's going to make the system fit around me. It was very positive for me to hear him tell me that."
High school players go to college because they don't want their last days of football to be in high school. Players also go to college to play football with the hopes they can play beyond college. Player development at the quarterback position was key for Haarberg with Nebraska.
"It was one of the things I was looking at. I asked coach Frost how he's developed some of his other quarterbacks and how he sees me developing. He told me about working with Marcus Mariota and seeing me like Marcus.
"People don't realize that coach Verduzco was key in developing Marcus, too. He went out and talked to coach Frost about mechanics. And coach Verduzco developed McKenzie Milton and almost took him to a Heisman at UCF.
"It was one of the biggest things for me. I wanted to be sure and go somewhere that I could be developed as a quarterback because I don't want my last days of playing the game of football to be in college."
Kearney Catholic head coach Rashawn Harvey knows what kind of a player Nebraska is getting in Haarberg. Haarberg will enter his third year of being the starter for Harvey this fall.
“I believe he’s a great get for Nebraska because of his upside and, obviously, because of his athleticism,” Kearney Catholic head coach Rashawn Harvey said. “He’s continually growing. He’s working on his craft. He’s dedicated to working at his craft at the position of playing quarterback. He’s a great athlete that can move and I think that he’s talented throwing on the move. I think that he can sit in the pocket.
“He’s deceptive running the football. He’s tall and he has longer strides. He studies the game and studies the coverages, and understands the tendencies of defensive backs and linebackers. He’s very cerebral and processes things. He will come off the field and talk to me about it then go out there and apply it.
"He will study the last series of plays right on the sidelines. He is dedicated to the game of football, dedicated to playing the quarterback position, and someone who has high aspirations even beyond college and into the next level.”
It would be a fair statement to say about Haarberg that his best days of playing the game of football are still in front of him. He's added size, but his frame will hold more. There are also the improvements that Harvey notes from one season to the next.
“When we got done with our season, he was probably 6-foot-5 and 185-pounds,” Coach Harvey said. “He understood if he was going to play at the next level, or even for his senior season of high school, he was going to have to put on a little weight to absorb some hits he was going to take.
“He’s about 195-pounds right now. The thought is that he can get up to about 220-pounds and really not lose any speed. He understands that and he’s working on the nutrition side now as well. He’s doing that and still working on his craft. He works out in Denver with Jenkins and works here with his buddies. He’s been in the weight room a lot with the understanding he needs to add muscle to his frame.
“Heinrich has grown the most, I believe, in his accuracy and his decision making from his sophomore year to his junior year. I am excited to see what that senior year is going to show in those two areas. He’s gone from throwing 10 interceptions his sophomore year to just four his junior year, and two of them were forced at the end of the game trying to make a play.”
Haarberg has felt from coach Verduzco the belief in his abilities. Heinrich said that he thinks his position coach at Nebraska knew before anyone else that he would end up at Nebraska, even though Verduzco was surprised to get the news today about the commitment.
"I had the whole team looking at me and he was saying I was the 'fastest cat around'. I didn't know what to say because we were in front of Wan'Dale Robinson and the rest of the team. It felt like a genuine moment and I have always felt like he believed in me and my abilities. I also feel like he just knew before I knew that I would be at Nebraska."
"When I called to tell coach Verduzco that I committed to coach Frost, he couldn't say anything. He was so excited and so stunned. He just couldn't get out the words that I had done it this week."
In the end, people will look at Haarberg as being a local kid or a legacy recruit and say those are the reasons why he chose Nebraska. That couldn't be any further from the truth. It's worked out that way, but all for a very different set of reasons and boxes that he needed to check when it came to his decision about where to go to school.
"It was never about my affinity for the school," Heinrich said. "I never dreamed of playing for one school or another. I was looking for a fit. I don't think, really, the legacy part had anything to do with it. I wasn't set on going anywhere that my dad went. I do think that it was a cool thing that happened.
"That whole 'I am from Nebraska so I am going to go to Nebraska' wasn't key to my decision. It was really just the fit. That's why I took so much time and that it took so many conversations and calls with the staff, and I think that it worked out for the best."
Haarberg held a Power Five offer from Boston College prior to his offer from Nebraska on Monday morning. Following the offer from Nebraska, on Monday came offers from N.C. State and his home-town school Vanderbilt. Interest following those offers ramped up with inquiries from Iowa, Clemson and a number of other schools.
