Satellite Camp Notebook: Huskers back in the Midwest on Saturday

ST. CHARLES, Mo. - The Nebraska football team conducted their sixth Satellite Camp of the week on Saturday at Lindenwood University just outside St. Louis.

Here's everything you need to know that came out of Saturday's camp at Lindenwood.

Related: HOL Radio Satellite Camp special | Georgia notebook | Miami notebook | UTSA notebook | Texas A&M notebook

It’s been a long week on the road that’s seen the Nebraska staff travel to Texas, Georgia, Florida, Missouri and California, but after it’s all said and done NU head coach Mike Riley has been very pleased with the final results.

The new NCAA rule allows schools to have 10 total camp days, and the Huskers have used six of them on this Satellite Camp tour.

“I will say I think it’s been great,” Riley said. “It’s a huge allotment of time – it’s a whole week plus. We kind of dedicated a large period of time and it has to be productive, and I think it has been. We’ve seen guys that are committed, we’ve seen guys that we are recruiting and we’ve found guys.

“In Florida, I was totally impressed with the athleticism and the speed and the number of guys. Just a lot of really good looking athletic people. I think it’s been really good. Then we met some people on the side like coaches that we haven’t met and they can be a connection to certain areas when we come down and recruit. I think it’s been very, very good and our coaches have done a really nice job working these things. We’ve got people like Donte Williams, Keith Williams, John Parrella, (Mike Cavanaugh) and Trent (Bray) that are all really good relationship people. It’s a good representation for Nebraska.”

-Sean Callahan

Trinity Catholic High School has quickly become one of the must-stop destinations in the St. Louis area for college football recruiters. Head coach Corey Patterson produced and handful of signees in the 2017 class and has well over 10 prospects in his 2019 and 2020 classes that already have several offers to their name.

Patterson and his staff brought out roughly 10 of his top players to work out at the Lindenwood University Satellite Camp on Saturday, several of which already hold offers from the Huskers. With only 120 total campers in attendance, Nebraska head coach Mike Riley and his staff got plenty of quality time to personally work with many of them.

Wide receiver Marcus Washington and Isaiah Williams, both of whom are 2019 Rivals100 prospects, already have offers from NU and received a lot of attention from the Huskers. The 6-foot-2, 170-pound Washington was among the top standouts at the camp and was a player NU wideouts coach Keith Williams singled out several times.

The 5-foot-10, 160-pound Williams showed why he's ranked as an "athlete" by Rivals.com. He worked out as a quarterback and also took reps as a wide receiver and cornerback during one-on-ones.

2019 linebacker Shammond Cooper was one of the only prospects at his position at the camp. That allowed Nebraska linebacker coach Trent Bray to essentially spend the day focusing on him during drill work and one-on-ones. Cooper's performance on the day landed him an offer from the Huskers.

Cornerback Isaac Trice was one of the few kids from Trinity Catholic from the 2018 class in attendance. Much like Cooper, cornerbacks coach Donte Williams was able to devote a lot of time instructing the 5-foot-10, 170-pound Trice throughout the day.

-Nate Clouse

Riley said he obviously knew the talent level in South Florida, but after working events at Florida Atlantic and Florida International on Thursday he has a whole new appreciation for the skill level in that state.

Thursday’s camp alone at FIU was the most talent rich event of the tour, as well over half of the 600 participants were Division I prospects.

“As much as it’s recruited and some say, ‘over recruited,’ I don’t know if that’s true or not,” Riley said of Florida. “There’s a lot of guys that can run and good-looking athletes. I’ve been to some (camps) before down there and was impressed, but I don’t know if hit me like it did watching the two camps that we did in the Miami area the other day.”

The Huskers already have made multiple offers this week on the road, and Riley said they expect to make some more from the Florida camp.

“Probably Florida more than anywhere else is where we found some new names,” Riley said.

-Sean Callahan

One of the negatives this week for Nebraska is a good chunk of the staff has had to be away from the players as they begin summer conditioning.

When Riley put things together this week he really put that into account, and decided to keep both coordinators Bob Diaco and Danny Langsdorf back home with the team, along with running backs coach Reggie Davis and all four of his graduate assistants.

“I had to make a big decision on how to do this, because one of my concerns through the years, and this goes back many, many years is we spend so much time recruiting our next team, it takes away time from being with our own team,” Riley said. “What we started a year ago and put in place is I’ve made sure we’ve left some coaches back at home to work with our team during the off-season program.

“The rules opened up a couple of years ago where you could do that, so you would be remised not to take advantage of that. So we’ve got guys back home working with our players and guys back home working with our next team.”

-Sean Callahan

Satellite camps are the perfect opportunity for prospects who are under the radar or still in search of landing their first offers to showcase their abilities in front of several coaches from different staffs. 2019 St. Louis (Mo.) Parkway North wide receiver CJ Boone and 2019 Highland, Ill. wideout/tight end Sam LaPorta were two that certainly took advantage of their opportunity to turn some heads at the Lindenwood University satellite camp with Nebraska on Saturday.

The 6-foot-3, 170-pound Boone is a new transfer into Parkway North and has been working towards landing his first offer this spring and summer after his sophomore film was deleted off of hudl by his previous school. He's a prospect that the Huskers have known about for several months now as he was a visitor for the Red-White Spring Game in April.

Boone had himself a solid showing at the Adidas 3 Stripe Rivals Camp in St. Louis in May and followed that up by showing off his skill set in front of the Nebraska coaches Saturday at the Lindenwood camp. His 10-foot-3 broad jump was one of the top marks of the day and he was one of the top standouts during one-on-ones. He is still waiting on that first offer, but based off his performance Saturday it seems like it will only be a matter of time until the flood gates open up for him.

The 6-foot-4, 205-pound LaPorta entered Saturday's camp as a virtual unknown, but he left the camp with at least one offer coming from Lindenwood University.

LaPorta started off the day putting up some impressive testing numbers as he ran a 4.6 40-yard dash, 4.5 second pro-agility and recorded a 9-foot-9 broad jump.

When it came time drills and the one-on-one portion of the camp he showed off his speed, physicality and leaping ability to go along with soft hands. LaPorta has the frame where he could project as a wideout or tight end on offense or possibly even as an outside linebacker on defense.

The talented prospect hails from the same school as current Husker offensive lineman Tanner Farmer and also has an uncle that lives in Nebraska. Those connections to the Big Red could lead to him camping at one of NU's upcoming Friday Night Lights camps on either June 16 or 23.

-Nate Clouse

Former Nebraska and NFL offensive lineman Keith Williams was one of several small college coaches helping out at Saturday’s camp at Lindenwood University.

After playing four seasons in the NFL, the 29 year old Williams has retired from football and now serves as the offensive line and strength coach at Missouri Baptist University.

“I’ve been a year out, so I kind of wanted to transition into coaching,” Williams “I love the game and I kind of wanted to give my wisdom to the players. Now I’m out here at Missouri Baptist University trying to change the culture there and get it back to a winning program.”

The St. Louis native said he continues to follow the Husker program from afar, and likes what he’s seen the last two seasons under Riley.

“I’m still in the family,” Williams said. “I still watch Nebraska from afar and I’ve watched them progress. The change of staff between Pelini to Riley, I knew there would be a period that it would take some time. (Riley) has done a great job though, and he’s improved each year and that’s all you can ask for.”

-Sean Callahan

***Riley said they want to continue to make St. Louis a priority in recruiting, which is why they chose to be there for Saturday’s Satellite Camp. Riley was also one of the only guest head coaches that actually rolled his sleeves up and coached at the Lindenwood camps this week.

“The selection of Lindenwood in the St. Louis area is not an accident,” Riley said.

***Nebraska will hold fan fest events on both June 16 and June 23 when the Huskers hold Friday Night Light camps. The fan fest event will be completely sepereate from the FNL Camp, but it will allow all of those fans the opportunity to come into the stadium and watch the camp if they want.

"If they have an opportunity to go to fan day and go see the Friday Night Lights and go see these future Huskers, that’s a pretty good day for a Husker fan.”

***Riley did not give a reason why safeties coach Bob Elliott was removed from the road in recruiting this past month.

“I think there’s no really new news on anything, it’s status quo at this point,” Riley said.

***Brian and Connie Farmer, the parents of current Husker offensive lineman Tanner Farmer were present at Saturday’s camp. They live about an hour outside of St. Louis.

***There were around 120 participants at Saturday’s camp at Lindenwood.