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The Weekly Rundown: Six final days on the road for Nebraska

We set the stage for the final six days of the NCAA recruiting contact period and more in the Weekly Rundown column.

Nebraska staff will have six more days out on the road before things shut down.
Nebraska staff will have six more days out on the road before things shut down. (Getty Images)
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Sure bets 

You have to feel pretty good about these things right now:

A very busy week of 2023 and 2024 recruiting: There are just six days left in the January contact period in recruiting. After Jan. 30, things will go into a dead period until Mar. 1.

Tuesday is the final day mid-year enrollees can join the Husker roster. At this point, the Huskers appear to be done adding, but never say never as we learned this weekend.

Meanwhile, the staff will spend most of this week worrying about 2023 and 2024 recruiting getting in front of as many priority targets as they can.

NU hosted a Junior Day this weekend and they will have another one on Saturday before the dead period.

This is the home stretch of what has been the busiest roster movement stretch in college football history.

An aggressive In-State recruiting approach: Nebraska made the first offer to 2025 Omaha North defensive lineman Tyson Terry on Sunday and they made the first Power Five offer to 2023 Omaha Creighton Prep offensive lineman Sam Sledge on Saturday.

With wide receivers coach Mickey Joseph now leading the charge in the Omaha and Lincoln areas, in-state recruiting has gotten a nice boost the last two weeks. Joseph has really impressed the local coaches at every stop he's made thus far.

500-mile radius for 2023: The local 500-mile radius is loaded for 2023. In all reality, the Huskers could land five to seven in-state recruits and another five to seven from bordering states if they play their cards right.

A good chunk of this recruiting class could end up coming from the 500-mile radius if things break right over the next few months. This is a good thing.

History tells us players that can get home by car and have easy access to their families have a better chance of succeeding at Nebraska.

UNI transfer Omar Brown.
UNI transfer Omar Brown. (Getty Images)

Surprises 

These were my surprises of the week:

17 mid-year roster additions: We always knew Nebraska's traditional signing class numbers were going to be small. In fact, the current number at 17 is bigger than most of us expected.

Nobody could have seen 17 players added to this football team at mid-year. It really is incredible the job Scott Frost has done to try to reboot his roster and create more competition this spring.

Then you add five new full-time coaches to the mix, this almost feels more like a year one in some respects.

DB transfer Omar Brown: I get the feeling every January is going to be like this. There are going to be some transfers you can see a mile away, and some that come out of nowhere. The addition of Northern Iowa All-American cornerback Omar Brown is one of those that came out of nowhere.

Nesta Jade Silvera to ASU: I'm always very careful about what I share and when I share it when it comes to transfer portal news because things are so fluid. With that said, things appeared to look very good at one time with Miami transfer portal defensive lineman Nesta Jade Silvera from multiple sources I talked to.

His commitment to Arizona State this past week is the transfer portal in a nutshell. Things happen that very few can predict when it comes to portal recruiting.

QB transfer Casey Thompson.
QB transfer Casey Thompson. (Getty Images)

The jury is still out 

Questions still surround these things:

Blending in 17 new players at mid-year: As the staff wraps up this final week on the road recruiting, their No. 1 priority over the month of February should be helping blend in the 17 newcomers that have been added to the roster.

We have never seen a number like this before, especially when it comes to the older players. In 2021 we saw a big early enrollee number of 14 added to the roster, but many of them were high school players not in contention for starting jobs.

The dynamics of 2022 are much different, as you will have multiple players battling for starting jobs this spring.

Husker NFL combine invites: At this point, just two former Huskers have been invited to the NFL combine in JoJo Domann and Cam Taylor-Britt. Offensive lineman Cam Jurgens is expected to get one.

So what does that mean for tight end Austin Allen, defensive lineman Damion Daniel and wide receiver Samori Toure? Right now, it feels like they are going to have to earn their keep at Pro Day in March. The depth of the 2022 draft is going to be the best we've seen in years.

The future quarterbacks of the AFC all have a Husker tie at some point in their career.
The future quarterbacks of the AFC all have a Husker tie at some point in their career. (Getty Image)

This has my attention 

Moving forward, this has my attention:

Husker ties to the QBs of the AFC: I was thinking about this on Sunday as I watched the Chiefs play the Bills in Kansas City. The future of the AFC at quarterback is obviously Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert.

Three of those quarterbacks have a unique tie to Nebraska. Burrow is coached by former Husker QB Zac Taylor and is the son of former Husker Jiimmy Burrow and the brother of former NU players Jamie and Dan Burrow.

Allen obviously played in Memorial Stadium in 2016 and was coached by former Husker coach/player Craig Bohl at Wyoming.

Herbert was recruited by Scott Frost at Oregon in 2016 before he left to take the UCF head coaching job.

It really is remarkable the connections you can draw there. As for Mahomes, his Nebraska connection...he does a Nebraska Furniture Mart TV commercial.

RB Ajay Allen: Could Nebraska be adding a seventh scholarship running back to the roster in the next week? Things appeared to go very well with TCU commit Ajay Allen in Lincoln this week. It's also a good indication the staff expects at least one more piece of movement in the running back room by May.

The Polynesian pipeline: Will a Polynesian pipeline ever happen at Nebraska?

There have been multiple unsuccessful attempts to get this off the ground, but with Tony Tuioti now at Oregon, it's going to be tough. Wynden Ho'ohuli's entry in the transfer portal also was notable. He got to Lincoln in June, and my guess is one taste of January weather and that was enough for the Hawaii standout who has not played in a football game since 2019.

He was NU's first scholarship recruit from Hawaii since 1999.

The Jan. 29 Junior Day: Nebraska held a very successful Junior Day on Saturday and they will hold one before the dead period this Saturday. Their next scheduled Junior Day won't happen after that until Mar. 5. Will we see any more notable in-state or regional offers made this weekend?

I'll also be curious to see how things go with Ankey (Iowa) four-star quarterback JJ Kohl on Saturday.


Sean Callahan can be reached at sean@huskeronline.com and he can be heard each day at 6:45 am and 5:05 pm on Big Red Radio 1110 KFAB in Omaha during the football season. He can also be seen on KETV Channel 7 in Omaha during the fall and each week he appears on NET's Big Red Wrap-Tuesday's at 7 pm.

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