The Weekly Rundown: Nebraska adds four more players over the past week

The Nebraska football team added four more players to its roster over the past week.

We hit on that and more as we start your Monday with The Weekly Rundown column.

RELATED – Steven Sipple: Growing Polynesian presence in Nebraska’s program gets O-line legend Toniu Fonoti’s warrior blood flowing

Sure bets

You have to feel good about these things right now:

The importance of winning in 2024: We’ve seen Nebraska host some of the top prospects in the nation this recruiting cycle over the spring and summer.

The reports are usually pretty similar. The recruits are blown away with Lincoln and the facilities and see what NU could become. The problem is they still have gotten over that hump.

It will be hard to land these top-level recruits until the Huskers can consistently sell winning. I feel like we’ve seen it more than ever this year. Matt Rhule’s staff has identified some of the top players in the country and gotten them to Lincoln very early in the process, but the missing piece is still winning. That has to happen in 2024.

Nebraska revival of the Polynesian Pipeline: It was a heck of a week for the Huskers’ efforts to rebuild a Polynesian pipeline in Lincoln. Over the last few days, NU has added commits from offensive linemen Brian Tapu and Houston Kaahaaina-Torres .

With the entire Raiola family now involved in recruiting, you have to think this is just the start.

A much different December in recruiting: With the new rules passed for the NCAA recruiting calendar, we are going to see a much different month of December in 2024.

Signing day will be moved up two weeks earlier, and coaches will no longer be on the road and will conduct in-home visits in December. Only prospects can come to campus now in December and take official visits.

The month of January will then be expanded, and it will give coaches an opportunity to have in-home visits with their December signees and other possible targets.

These new calendar changes will also ramp up the importance of bye week recruiting and possible in-season official visits to attempt to flip prospects who may have made early commitments in the summer.

Surprises

These were my surprises of the week:

Brian Tapu’s commitment path to Nebraska: I expected Tapu to be a Husker, but I did not think it would play out in the fashion it did. Tapu more or less left Lincoln as a silent commitment and then shocked everyone with his commitment to Oregon State.

That commitment only lasted a few days before he ultimately became a Husker. Credit Rhule and his staff for not backing off Tapu and securing his commitment.

Chase Loftin’s commitment to Florida State: I’m not necessarily surprised Millard South tight end Chase Loftin didn’t pick Nebraska. I get it. The Huskers have two tight ends in Thomas Fidone and Carter Nelson who are higher profile players than Loftin, and they’ve loaded up on tight ends under Rhule.

What surprised me was his pick of FSU over Texas A&M and Missouri. Both programs felt they were in a good position to land Loftin. I would love to know the last time a Nebraka high school football player committed to Florida State. I sure can’t recall one.

I can’t recall an offer the Noles made in Nebraska before 2020. There are six players on record now from Nebraska with FSU offers since 2020.

The jury is still out

Questions still surround these things:

Can CB Ceyair Wright win a starting job in camp?: Nebraska landed a big-time addition from the portal in former USC starting cornerback Ceyair Wright .

The question now is whether Wright will come in physically ready to compete for a starting job in fall camp. The opportunity will certainly be there.

Can Nebraska beat out Iowa State for Will Hawthorne?: The Huskers are in a battle with Iowa State for Gilbert (Iowa) linebacker Will Hawthorne .

Hawthorne’s skill set is probably a better fit for the Big Ten, but he lives just minutes from the ISU campus. A few days ago, he told me he hopes to decide “sometime in July.”

Omaha Westside LB Christian Jones’s timeline: Another mystery is where things stand with Omaha Westside linebacker Christian Jones .

Things have been very quiet from Jones since his visit to Oklahoma. Will he truly try to extend his process into the season or make a summer decision if teams begin to squeeze him?

This has my attention

Moving forward, this has my attention :

The combination of Mooberry and VerMaas: I saw Millard North 2025 Husker commits Caden VerMaas and Pierce Mooberry in action at the Norris 7-on-7 event on Friday. The Mustangs fell in the semifinals to Seward, who won the tournament.

They took out Lincoln Southeast in the quarterfinals, and both players were big-time presences on the field. VerMaas had multiple pass breakups and an interception return for a touchdown. He really jumped out on the back end of the defense.

2025 In-state numbers: 2025 has become another strong year for Division I in-state recruiting numbers. Today, at least 11 in-state prospects will sign with Power Four programs, and there are already 12 players in the state committed to FBS programs for the class of 2025.

The biggest surprise is seeing Texas Tech and Oregon State recruit Nebraska pretty heavily in the class of 2025. The Red Raiders have two commitments from the state in Papillion La Visita offensive lineman Garin Maley and Stanton offensive lineman Ren Brown . The Beavers also offered both players.

How Nebraska manages the new coach rule: The long-awaited unlimited paid assistant coach rule is now official.

So far, we haven’t seen any teams make big announcements or add staff. How will Rhule handle this new rule in terms of titles and duties?

Sean Callahan can be reached at sean@huskeronline.com and is heard daily 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 Nebraska Public Media’s Big Red Wrap-Up Tuesdays at 7 pm .

Never miss breaking news or another HuskerOnline article again. Click HERE to sign up for HuskerOnline’s Daily and Breaking News Newsletters.

The post The Weekly Rundown: Nebraska adds four more players over the past week appeared first on On3 .