Nebraska has added commitments from three defensive backs in the past two days. Here are three observations following the flurry of activity.
1. There’s been a fast infusion of talent and competition into the Husker secondary this week.
First, Nebraska landed a verbal commitment from Arizona State transfer Tommi Hill, a 2021 target of the Huskers who played on special teams and some at corner for the Sun Devils as a true freshman this fall. Then on Tuesday, NU landed both junior college safety DeShon Singleton and four-star corner Jaeden Gould (Oradell, New Jersey).
Factor in that the Huskers already have Gage Stenger (Millard South), Jalil Martin (Chicago) and Malcolm Hartzog (Prentiss, Mississippi) in the class, and suddenly it looks like a pretty substantial personnel overhaul for secondary coach Travis Fisher.
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That wasn’t unexpected, either, considering NU is losing three starters in Cam Taylor-Britt and the safety pair of Marquel Dismuke and Deontai Williams.
The Huskers have a mix of youth and experience in corners Quinton Newsome, Braxton Clark and Marques Buford plus safeties Myles Farmer and Noa Pola-Gates, but Newsome and Farmer were the only two from that group to see extensive playing time in 2021.
The Huskers have also lost three young defensive backs to the portal in 18 months and have received little on-field contribution from transfers Tyreke Johnson and Nadab Joseph.
It’s easy to figure that the returning group of Newsome and Clark at corner, Farmer and Pola-Gates at safety and Buford at either is the starting point for the group in 2022. For losing three standout seniors, that’s not a bad beginning point. The past two days should, if nothing else, immediately help alleviate depth concerns after that. Spring ball is going to be quite the battle.
2. The newly committed trio gives you a window into what recruiting is like in 2021.
The Huskers landed a Power Five transfer whose high school recruitment was affected by the pandemic, a junior college transfer who went under the radar out of high school in Louisiana last year and a high school standout who decommitted from USC after the coaching change there a couple of weeks ago.
Even in October, when the Huskers landed a verbal pledge from Martin — who, by the way, has outstanding length and potential positional flexibility depending on how he fills out in college — in October, none of the three players who committed this week would have been identified as candidates for the Huskers. Hill was playing for the Sun Devils, Singleton was just starting to emerge at Hutchinson (Kansas) Community College and Gould was solidly committed to the Trojans.
3. Fisher typically operates with a low profile this time of year, but seems to produce results.
The wild coaching carousel and Fisher’s accomplishments as a coach always tend to drum up a little anxiety from Husker fans this time of year. Remember a couple of years ago, Fisher, a Florida native and Central Florida grad, got a raise on National Signing Day after Mississippi made a strong run at him.
Fisher, though, was hard at work over the past week, even if he didn’t show up in a bunch of tweets from recruits’ living rooms.
The weekend of Dec. 3-5, he was in Lincoln to host Gould as an official visitor and Gould raved about watching film with his future position coach and building their relationship. Then he has Singleton on campus Tuesday through Thursday this week and Hill on the weekend. With Hill, the visit was set and executed quickly as he just entered the portal on Dec. 9.
And the Huskers went three-for-three.