Exclusive Tunnel Talk: 6/28/2024
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Welcome to the latest edition of HuskerOnline.com’s most popular member feature, Tunnel Talk. Our staff gives you the latest inside information on Nebraska football, basketball, volleyball, and recruiting.
Now, on to the scoop…
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Callahan’s weekly nuggets
***I still expect USC defensive back Ceyair Wright to end up in Lincoln. It’s more of a matter of when he decides to announce, and his graduate program is figured out.
***Millard South tight end Chase Loftin could decide in the coming days. Nebraska’s main competition is Missouri and Texas A&M. Talking to a source that covers Mizzou, the Tiger staff feels like the Aggies are the main competition. I have not heard a lot about Loftin following his visit to Lincoln.
He also did not have a full weekend in Lincoln because he played in a seven-on-seven event and had the funeral for his recruiting mentor and close family friend, Yano Jones.
***There are a lot of new faces on campus. One walk-on who has already opened eyes is Wahoo Bishop Neumann athlete Connor Schutt. The 6-foot-6, 195-pound Schutt looks to be a steal of a walk-on. He high jumps 6-4 and has gone nearly 45 feet in the triple jump.
***Nebraska’s summer off-season program is seven weeks long. This will be the end of Week 4, and there will be a little downtime for the July 4 holiday.
***Don’t sleep on the addition of Iowa Western C.C. kicker John Hohl. After redshirting last season, Hohl was going to start for the Reivers in 2024.
Once Coastal Carolina saw him kick live, they offered him a roster spot. Nebraska was intrigued. IWCC head coach Scott Strohmeier told me this week that he knew somebody would snatch him once Hohl began kicking live for different college teams.
It makes you wonder about NU’s confidence in Tristan Alvano, as Hohl looks like a guy who could make some noise and push him in camp. Also, don’t be fooled by Hohl’s lack of stats in high school. He has really begun to develop his game over the last year.
***We hear so much about the running backs in the program but very little about Kwinten Ives. I can tell you the staff remains very high on his ability.
***The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman said earlier this week that he thought Nebraska could be the surprise team of the Big Ten in 2024. Feldman weighed in on NU during a guest spot on The Herd.
He also had high praise for defensive tackles Nash Hutmacher and Ty Robinson.
“They had two great defensive tackles,” Feldman said. “Nebraska actually has, potentially, the best interior defensive tackle combination in the country. I mean, they have two studs in the middle of the defense. They’re gonna be physical.
“I don’t think they have a ton of firepower, but I think they’ll be much better. A bunch of games that’ll (be) close. I feel like they’re a team that has a chance to sneak into the top 25.”
***This wouldn’t be so bad: Athlon predicted Nebraska would play Tennessee in the Reliquest Bowl in Tampa on New Year’s Eve. That’s the best bowl prediction I’ve seen in several years in a preseason magazine for the Huskers.
-Sean Callahan
As Sipple sees (and hears) it
***Veteran sportswriter Scott Schrader, publisher and head analyst for WeAreSC.com, remarked recently about how thoroughly the Trojans struck out in their offseason attempts to land interior defensive linemen out of the transfer portal.
“They really haven’t added anybody from the interior part,” he said.
It’s a significant challenge to land quality big men, even for well-heeled and tradition-rich USC.
“That’s why guys (interior d-linemen) like that were getting paid $1.5 million in this offseason,” Schrader said.
Sign of the times.
***There are coaches in Texas who told me to watch for a trend in the college game. That is, Power 4 programs are putting an increasingly stronger emphasis on recruiting big linemen because they’re at such a high premium.
That means there are many good skill position players falling to Group of 5 and FCS programs.
“I think there’s something to that,” said Jason Bachtel, head coach of FCS Houston Christian. HCU played host to a recent satellite camp that included eight Nebraska coaches. “I think you’re seeing it through the transfer portal. You’re seeing quality high school players starting to drop levels.”
Bachtel noted something else that caught my attention.
“Garret (McGuire) and I were just talking about this,” said Bachtel, referring to Nebraska’s second-year receivers coach. “You can’t just rely on your high school class (of recruits); you’re going to have to live in the portal a bit because of that mindset. We’re seeing guys who might’ve been a Power 4 player, or a G-5 guy, drop a little bit.
“It’s great for us. But I think it’s great for Division II and Division III, too.”
“Those bigs,” he added, “they’re hard to get at all levels.”
***Matt Rhule made an impression on Bachtel from 2017 to 2019 as Baylor’s head coach.
“Obviously, he took over a very tricky situation with everything that was going on,” said the 44-year-old Bachtel. He was referring to Rhule taking over the program in the wake of the school’s sexual assault scandal under Art Briles.
“I think the thing you see with Matt is he just continues to trust his process and trust his culture of doing things the right way. You saw it early on at Baylor. He struggled (1-11 in his first season), but he did it the right way.
“The thing is, his background speaks for itself. That’s who we kind of want to model ourselves after around here – guys who are culture guys, guys who see it from a long-term standpoint but know in the short term, you’ve got to do something fast.
“He’s in a tough market now because the Husker mindset is, ‘We want to win right now, and we want to win big.’ But like every (college) program he’s taken over, you’re going to see the process play out. I think you’re already seeing that.
“Now that he’s been there 18 months, if you look at the locker room now compared to what it was, I think you’ll see a difference.”
That’s a pretty good read from someone near the Gulf of Mexico.
***Back to Schrader. He said USC’s NIL budget for football is “around the $15 million mark.” In other words, comparable to Nebraska’s budget.
***Film study: Mekhi Nelson appears to be a bit more physical a runner than Jamarion Parker. Although, Parker is no slouch in that regard. They both share that wonderful trait of being decisive as far as hitting holes. Parker is more of a glider. A very smooth runner. I like them both.
***To say Rhule cares deeply about the quality of Nebraska’s summer camps is a bit of an understatement. Or so it appears.
“Let me tell you this: we take the camps unbelievably seriously,” the second-year Nebraska head coach said. “If you ask Susan (Dr. Susan Elza, his chief of staff), running that camp – there’s a lot of pressure on the person who’s in charge of it. The camp meetings at 7 o’clock on a Saturday morning are as intense as the postgame meeting after we play our first game.”
The way Rhule sees it, “How you do anything is how you do everything. If I want people to trust their son with us someday, there must be an intentionality behind it.”
Makes perfect sense, right?
-Steven Sipple
Munson’s musings
***Something about the TJ Lateef interview was always off to me. He’s been painfully honest with me, telling me from the beginning about how he’s looking for a home with his college decision. When I caught up with him on Wednesday, he was again open and unafraid about anything I had to ask him.
When we discussed the specific interview, Lateef mentioned that he had just finished his “pro day,” which was a long, intense workout. He wasn’t focused on conversing or doing an interview right afterward. If you watch the interview really carefully, something seems off.
Sean pointed out something, and you can see it: a change in demeanor and posture and how Lateef was answering questions up to that point. Lateef said that the question caught him off guard and didn’t answer properly. You could hear in his voice on Wednesday that the fallout of his response was overwhelming.
He and his family chose Nebraska. They are all in. He’s recruiting for the Huskers. Mom and Dad are excited about TJ’s decision to buy Husker merch and wear it around. They couldn’t be more in.
***Initially, there was more “bad news” this week with what happened with Brian Tapu. I am sure that took its toll on the NU staff as much as anything. Suddenly, they seemingly missed on what they likely felt was a slam-dunk commitment from Tapu, and their quarterback commitment didn’t seem very solid.
I am sure the earlier part of this week was full of emotion for them.
The good news on Thursday night was that Tapu jumped in the class and gives Nebraska a little momentum. Nebraska could be in a good spot to go on a little run of commits in the 2025 class.
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***A couple more commitments should be falling soon. The Huskers should feel good about a pair of defensive back targets with Jeremiah Jones from Murray (Ken.) and Bryson Webber from Missouri City (Texas) Ridge Point.
Jones and Webber are likely the finishing touches in the secondary, along with safety targets Caden VerMaas and Tanner Terch (who could also play receiver). Jones will announce on Monday, July 1, at 3 p.m. CT. I think Webber will go public with a decision next week, on Saturday at the latest.
From there, though, things get a little tricky. I caught up with both Shawn Hammerbeck and Houston Kaahaaina-Torres. Nebraska is in the picture with both offensive line targets. However, Kansas State is pushing hard for Hammerbeck, and he had a very good trip to Lubbock last weekend. Hammerbeck told me he was considering all the schools he had officially visited and that he could decide in the next week or two.
After making his final four, Nebraska is also in a good spot with Kaahaaina-Torres. He will announce his commitment on June 30. The Husker staff sees Kaahaaina-Torres playing center, which he says he’s completely comfortable doing.
He’s down to the four schools he officially visited, but I feel like Nebraska is at the top of his list with one other school. Expect his decision on Sunday around 4 p.m. CT. I like NU here. Waiting on some more information.
Maybe the player Nebraska has made the biggest move for is linebacker Will Hawthorne. The Huskers had a lot of ground to make up with Hawthorne. From not planning to even camp at NU to getting an offer, taking an official visit, and now being in his top two.
Hawthorne hasn’t narrowed his timeline beyond stating it will be in early July. I will work on getting a better date range for him and Hammerbeck in the coming days. I know Sean has put in a prediction for Hawthorne, and I am getting closer to adding my prediction to NU, too.
***I finally heard back from Chase Loftin following his official visit last weekend. He told me that things have been crazy since the visit ended. I have heard that Loftin was very close to Yano Jones. I’ve tried to be mindful of the personal situation he is going through and get him on the phone when he’s ready to chat. He’s also been good to get back with me.
***Five-star tight end Linkon Cure from Goodland (Kans.) announced his top four on Thursday. I was always interested why Nebraska was never much of a factor with Cure. According to a source who trained with Cure this summer, it wasn’t that he didn’t like Nebraska. Cure liked his visit that he took to Lincoln. It was because of Brook Berringer and what is there already between Nebraska and Goodland and the memory of Brook.
***One final thought: Nebraska doesn’t want to chase 2025 recruits in the fall. I said as much a couple of weeks ago. Recruits that want to play the game, focus on a little more NIL money, and still plan to jump back into the mix with Nebraska might have some difficulty. The Huskers really want to get focused on the 2026 and 2027 classes.
As we have chatted about in Three & Out, Nebraska is already behind on next year’s class. It’s just the way that this new calendar is working. The Huskers need recruits ready to come and visit this fall.
Go and see them in October. Host them for junior day in late January and early February, and then another round of evaluation time. Then, spring practice to game visits and official visits. In the middle of all of that for the 2026 class, they don’t want also to be putting on the finishing touches of the 2025 class.
-Bryan Munson
Heavy on the grind. pic.twitter.com/qGrWuFERIH— Nebraska Men's Basketball (@HuskerMBB) June 27, 2024
Washut’s Nebrasketball news & notes
***We got an answer to one of the last unknowns on Nebraska’s 2024-25 non-conference schedule this week. North Florida was already a known opponent, and now we finally have a date for the game.
The Huskers will host UNF on Sunday, Dec. 1.
Here is NU’s known non-con schedule thus far:
Monday, Nov. 4 – UT-Rio Grande Valley
Saturday, Nov. 9 – Bethune-Cookman
Wednesday, Nov. 13 – Fairleigh Dickinson
Sunday, Nov. 17 – St. Mary’s (in Sioux Falls, S.D.)
Friday, Nov. 22 – at Creighton
Wednesday, Nov. 27 – South Dakota
Sunday. Dec. 1 – North Florida
Sunday, Dec. 22 – Diamond Head Classic (TBA)
Monday, Dec. 23 – Diamond Head Classic (TBA)
Wednesday, Dec. 25 – Diamond Head Classic (TBA)
Monday, Dec. 30 – Southern
***As you can see, the final missing pieces to the non-conference schedule are Nebraska’s three opponents in Hawaii for the Diamond Head Classic.
Still no word on who NU might face there, and that’s because the tournament has yet to announce its full eight-team field. We’re still waiting on the eighth team.
Charlotte, Charleston, Loyola-Chicago, Oakland, Oregon State, and Hawai’i (host) have been confirmed for the event. As I mentioned in our previous Tunnel Talk, I expect Nebraska to be the “biggest” name in the tournament.
***In other scheduling news, look for Nebraska to hold its annual “Opening Night” event on Friday, Oct. 4, before the football home game vs. Rutgers.
Nothing yet on potential musical acts or the event’s format. Still, mark that date down (in pencil) on your calendars.
No surprise to see 2026 SG Jacob Webber making a good case for purest shooter at Crossroads Elite. Looks like it’s going in just about every time he shoots. Quick release and has a developing in-between game. @Jdub3webb @ETGmidwest @CREI_Adam @drake_beranek https://t.co/tp2pzNzvip pic.twitter.com/IsAjtFUTO1— Trent Markwith (@TMarkwith14) May 30, 2024
***Nebraska’s 2026 recruiting picked up some serious steam with the recent start of the contact period for the class. As far as in-state players are concerned, the name in ’26 to watch is Kearney guard Jacob Webber.
After transferring to KHS from Scottsdale (Arizona) Christian last year, the 6-foot-5 Webber has quickly emerged as one of the state’s top D1 prospects.
NU’s staff called him on the first day of the contact period. Assistant coach Nate Loenser was down in Kansas City, Missouri, to watch him at the Midwest Basketball Showcase on Sunday.
Webber dropped 35 points and was 9-of-14 on 3-pointers in that game. He also picked up his first high-major offer on Monday from Iowa.
***It’s good to get opinions from beyond the Husker bubble when trying to gauge how Nebraska will stack up with the rest of the Big Ten and beyond.
I recently came across an episode of the “Game Theory Podcast” with Sam Vecenie, a Senior NBA Writer at The Athletic. While Sam mainly focuses on professional ball and the NBA draft, he’s also pretty in tune with the college landscape.
Toward the end of the episode, a listener asked about Nebraska’s potential 2025 NBA Draft prospects. Notably Brice Williams and Berke Buyuktuncel.
“The Nebraska Cornhuskers, I think, I pretty well positioned to have a good year next year because of Brice Williams,” Vecenie said. “And then they went out and they get – really, with Berke, what you’re doing is you’re taking a flier on a guy that you couldn’t have necessarily gotten otherwise pre-portal, right?
“A 6-8 guy with a real feel for the game who can shoot and was one of the most impressive players at the U20 last summer playing for Turkey. I thought he was awesome, and I thought it was a potential one-and-done this year; it just didn’t work out.
“Brice Williams had a great year. Great, great year for Nebraska this past season. A guard that’s quite creative at 6-foot-7 and can really score the basketball… He really, really shot it well and has shot it well going back to his career at Charlotte. Being that big and that level of shooter, I think you have a shot (to be drafted) any time that’s the case.”
***Vecenie’s evaluation of Nebraska didn’t stop there, either. He followed up with unprompted praise for new transfer additions Gavin Griffiths and Connor Essegian.
On Essegian, Vecenie’s co-host, Bryce Simon, said Nebraska would be “a really good fit for him” to flourish in Hoiberg’s system.
“I think Connor Essegian is a real floor spacer,” Simon said. “He’s a little bit undersized, but he can really, really shoot it. I think he is very competitive. I think he’s intense with the way he plays. He might go to Nebraska and flourish in a system that really knows how to get guys shots. I’m excited to see what Connor Essegian can be for them.”
Vecenie was especially high on Griffiths’ potential as a Husker.
“The same things can be said for Gavin Griffiths, except he’s 6-foot-8 and is a real shooter at 6-foot-8,” Vecenie said. “I think he’s fantastic. I’m a big fan. I don’t know what happened at Rutgers. That whole situation seemed like a total mess.”
***To wrap up the Nebraska talk, Vecenie said the Huskers could have been a potential top-25 team if Rienk Mast (knee) were healthy. Even so, he still thinks that NU might surprise some folks in 2024-25.
“I’ll be interested,” he said. “This is a good team. Them not having Mast makes me think they might not be a top-25 team at some point, but this is a better team than what I think a lot of people are going to give them credit for in the preseason.”
-Robin Washut
Red, White & Blue Huskers Five Huskers are repping Big Red on the official rosters for the NORCECA Final 6 & U21 Jr. National Team. #GBR • @usavolleyball pic.twitter.com/OQk5AYojVS— Nebraska Volleyball (@HuskerVB) June 25, 2024
Abby’s assists
***Nebraska Volleyball is still searching for the final member of its class of 2026. The Huskers have two outside hitters in the class and need a middle blocker for its 2026 roster.
6-foot-1 outside hitter Gabby DiVita was NU’s first commit. She is from Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and averaged 5.6 kills per set as a sophomore at Grosse Pointe South. The pin hitter is the No. 9 prospect in PrepVolleyball.com’s 2026 rankings.
Nebraska added pin hitter Jayden Robinson from Missouri City, Texas on Saturday. The 6-foot-3 hitter is comfortable playing on either pin, an important criterion for one of the pin hitters in this class. NU will have opposite hitter Ryan Hunter, a sophomore on the 2026 roster, as their only specified opposite hitter.
The Huskers currently have two middle blockers on their 2026 roster, senior Andi Jackson and sophomore Manaia Ogbechie.
Of the six 2026 middle blockers that Nebraska’s staff follows on social media, two are uncommitted.
6-foot-2 middle Kayla Nwabueze plays club volleyball at Legacy with DiVita. She is the No. 3 overall 2026 middle according to PrepVolleyball.com. As a sophomore at Bloomfield Hills in Michigan, Nwabueze averaged 4.4 kills per set and hit .336. She also had 130 total blocks in 2023 and 155 blocks as a freshman in 2022. The middle averaged 3.2 blocks per match over her high school career.
Nebraska’s staff also follows 6-foot-4 middle blocker Keoni Williams. She’s the No. 6 prospect in her class. Williams attends Boswell High School in Fort Worth, Texas, and plays club for Houston Skyline. She averaged 1.8 kills per set, 1.0 blocks per set, and hit .335 in 2023 in 98 sets. As a freshman in 2022, she recorded 185 blocks in 145 sets, according to MaxPreps.
Williams attended Nebraska’s Dream Team Camp in 2023, so she is familiar with NU’s facilities.
Some may have been worried about the speed with which Nebraska’s 2026 class is coming together. However, they could pick up one of the top classes in the country.
***Husker pitcher Jordy Bahl appeared on the Husker Women’s Wednesday show with Jessica Coody, presented by the Huskers Radio Network. Bahl said she is getting back into pitching and focusing on building back the strength in her knee. The Oklahoma transfer tore her ACL in her first game as a Husker on Feb. 8 against Washington.
The two-time national champion said she pushes off on about 50 percent of her pitches. She has a strict pitch count set by an athletic trainer.
Bahl said she is on track to be fully cleared by mid-October. She is unlikely to participate in NU’s fall games. However, the Papillion native should be back to full strength by the start of the 2025 season.
***Nebraska volleyball’s representatives on the USA U21 Team and the Women’s Collegiate National Team have been huge contributors on their respective teams. Setter Bergen Reilly looks as sharp as ever against the Dominican Republic. 2025 setter commit Campbell Flynn ran the U21 offense very well in the US’s sweep over Suriname.
I will dive into more details in Monday’s Nebraska Women’s Roundup. However, I can not describe how important playing for Team USA is for the Huskers. Current Huskers are getting to know and bond with their future teams. They are playing with some of the best players in the country and against some of the best in their age group in the world.
It’s an incredible experience.
-Abby Barmore
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