Nebraska parts ways with Kevin Dillman
Denton (Texas) Guyer athlete Kevin Dillman's recruiting odyssey with Nebraska took another unusual turn this afternoon.
The 6-foot-4, 205-pound native of Sweden had a tremendous sophomore season at La Mirada (Calif.) La Mirada high school, his first full season of playing the sport in the U.S. He suffered an injury to his Achillies during his junior season which set him back.
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After transferring to Denton Guyer, Dillman had to deal with more adversity when he was ruled ineligible to play on the varsity level as a senior in the state of Texas. Consequently, he played as the Guyer starting junior varsity quarterback in 2014.
Dillman and his parents toured Lincoln this past spring, and he committed to play for Nebraska shortly thereafter. With the change in head coaches for the Cornhuskers, Dillman recently announced that he would be playing H-back for NU under the new staff led by Mike Riley.
That all changed Tuesday afternoon when Dillman posted the following tweet:
Much like how my eligibility for varsity football my senior year was taken away from me so was my scholarship to the university of Nebraska.- kevin dillman (@kevindillman10) December 16, 2014
HuskerOnline.com was able to speak with Dillman's guardian, Peter Danes Jr., to see if he could shed any light on the situation. Danes said that he was still trying to gather more information about Nebraska no longer honoring Dillman's scholarship.
"Well, all I know is that the Guyer coach [John Walsh] contacted someone at Nebraska, I think it was a coach," Danes stated, "and they said they would not be honoring his commitment any longer, which is unfortunate for both sides.
"Given their A.D.'s comments about honoring all scholarships last week it was a little surprising to hear that, but it is what it is. We learned the news probably 20 minutes before Kevin's tweet."
When reached, Dillman explained his situation further and talked about the news that unfolded today.
"I hadn't heard anything from the new coaching staff since they've been in place," Dillman explained. "I know Avery (Anderson) one of the corners and (Christian) Gaylord one of the o-line already had coaches come to their houses. So I just found it a little odd that I hadn't got a text or a call or heard from anyone on Twitter.
"So I asked Coach Walsh to contact them to ask what was going on and Coach Walsh got the news that there was no scholarship for me at Nebraska. They pulled it for whatever reason, I don't know what reason. But that's what they decided."
Dillman said he was unsure what reasoning Nebraska had given Walsh about their decision to go a different direction.
"I think that's something you'll have to talk to Coach Walsh about," Dillman said. "He just told me that when he talked to the coach he said there was no scholarship for me at Nebraska anymore."
Danes was asked what their plans would be for Dillman moving forward.
"It's all still fresh for us, so I really don't know," Danes replied. "I mean, he's been 100 percent committed to Nebraska for the last nine or 10 months.
"There's now a great quarterback and H-back available and someone is going to land a good kid and a great athlete. It's just unfortunate that this had to happen."
Danes added that Dillman was completely healthy and he would now be looking for his new collegiate home in a short time frame.
"He's doing great," Danes said of Dillman's Achilles and health. "He's 100 percent ready to go and after the dead period ends in January he will open things up and let everyone know he's available."
Dillman added that he would be further interested in learning more about Nebraska's decision to move on from him and to see if there was some sort of misunderstanding. However, he's now focusing on trying to find another opportunity once the dead period ends.
"Well, if I could I would love to get an answer why," Dillman said about Nebraska's decision to part ways with him. "It's going to be something that bothers me as to why they decided to honor all of the other commitments except for mine even though I've been committed for such a long time.
"From now on we're just going to work on going a different direction. We have about a three week period in January where all of the schools are going to come through Guyer. So we're just going to try and get in contact with all of those schools and see what happens."