Taking stock of Nebraska football’s early signees for 2024. Matt Rhule wants to re-establish Nebraska as the premier developmental program in college football. He’s going about it the right way and not cutting corners.
He always intended on signing two large classes of predominantly high school players with his first two recruiting classes, with the goal in mind of them being the foundation of his program moving forward. The updated roster shows 60 scholarship underclassmen, with 48 being true or redshirt freshmen.
He signed a class of 28 last year, with 27 being high schools players. The only junior college addition was Kai Wallin, who strategically played just four games this fall and will be a redshirt sophomore next season.
Last week during the early signing period, Rhule and his staff inked a 29-member class – all coming from the high school ranks – in his second go-round.
Nebraska’s class is currently ranked No. 19 nationally according to the 247Sports composite. Eleven of its members are rated a four-star prospect by at least one of the four prominent recruiting services, not including five-star quarterback Dylan Raiola.
The list is fluid, but by my count, Nebraska could have upwards of 16 on campus in January as midyear enrollees able to take part in winter conditioning and participate in spring ball.
Rhule’s first class was put together under chaotic conditions that are the hallmark of every transition class. Nineteen of the 28 signees were added after Rhule got to Lincoln in late November. Twenty if you include Malachi Coleman, which I’m inclined to do since Coleman decommitted five days after Rhule was hired and initially intended on flipping to Georgia before Rhule got the Huskers back in it.
Rhule grabbed seven more players after the early signing period and also added 11 players from the transfer portal in his first 9½ weeks on the job.
Luckily, this time around the hay is in the barn. When the contact period opens up between Jan. 12 and Feb. 3, I expect Husker coaches to dedicate all of their time on the 2025, 2026 and 2027 classes. I wouldn’t be surprised if they put together a Junior Day event during the last weekend of the contact period too.
January will also be spent targeting priority transfers. The staff will be bringing in Oregon running back Dante Dowdell and Wake Forest wide receiver Jahmal Banks for official visits Jan. 5-7. These would likely be your RB1 and WR1 if Nebraska can close on them, so expect the staff to roll out the red carpet.
With the coaches turning their focus toward next year’s class, let’s take a look at the work they did this cycle and the talent they brought in last week. Keep in mind I will dive much, much deeper into this class when I do my individual player write-ups in February.
First things first. I continue to be impressed by Rhule’s recruiting operation. I wrote about his impressive early hit rate with the 2023 class and also about the way he deftly handled an ambitious month of June.
One thing that impressed me that isn’t talked about is despite putting together a huge class, Nebraska suffered only two decommitments that stung (RB Kewan Lacy and DL Carlon Jones). Others like Callen Barta, JD Crisp and Jaxon Lee were situations the staff was okay with.
I’d be remiss, however, if I didn’t mention that I think Rhule took a couple of reaches early this summer, but that’s probably a case where he’s still getting accustomed to the caliber of player he can attract to Nebraska compared to Temple and Baylor.
All in all, I think Nebraska did a great job of adding versatile, athletic talent across the entire roster. Every position group has a large contingency coming in to replenish the ranks. Only RB and D-line aren’t being addressed the way the staff had planned and that’s due to Lacy and Jones.