Oklahoma Football, Nebraska building momentum on recruiting trail

Oklahoma football has landed another blue-chip in the 2024 class, plus gets another five-star crystal ball, while Nebraska football hosted elite recruits. 

We talked earlier this month about the momentum that Oklahoma football has on the recruiting trail and it continued to build on Saturday with the commitment of four-star cornerback Jeremiah Newcombe.

Newcombe is ranked 209th overall in the 2024 class out of Arizona and is 5-foot-11, 175 pounds. Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, and Cal were some of the other schools interested. Here’s the scouting report via 247 sports:

"“Lanky frame with high upside length. Thin build with plenty of room to add muscle mass. Two-way playmaker and on-field production. Flashes very good top-end speed. Closes quickly on the football and reacts to plays underneath. Shows terrific hand-eye coordination and catch window concentration. Looks comfortable and smooth through his backpedal. Doesn’t panic as he dissects routes. Primarily a finesse player but has some toughness to his game. Could continue to fill out physically and improve in press coverage. Potential multi-year starter at elite Power Five level.”"

Oklahoma football has been building momentum with a key 2025 QB commitment recently and some positive five-star trends, but this is the first pledge in the 2024 class for the Sooners and head coach Brent Venables and getting on the board with a blue chipper is always a positive.

In another positive for Oklahoma football, the Sooners have also been projected with a crystal ball to land 2025 five-star tight end Davon Mitchell. Mitchell is 6-foot-4, 245 pounds out of Los Alamitos, California, and is the No. 1 tight end in 2025.

Nebraska football hosts 27 recruits and a ton of blue-chip recruits

Nebraska football hasn’t landed any commitments yet this weekend but the Huskers and Matt Rhule are putting on a show of strength with a number of elite players on campus headlined by five-star QB Dylan Raiola and five-star DT Williams Nwaneri. Ryan Wingo, Brandon Baker, Nate Frazier, and Gatlin Bair are all players ranked in the top 100 that were on campus.

Carter Nelson, the top-ranked player in the state of Nebraska also visited the Huskers, so just about every top target for Nebraska football was on campus. So far, the only crystal ball projections have been for three-star tight end Ian Flynt and three-star OT Gibson Pyle.

However, I don’t think Nebraska football viewed this as a weekend to get commitments. Raiola is already coming back for the spring game, which should be objective with each elite recruit — get them back to Lincoln — then the Huskers have a real shot.

But getting 16 blue-chip recruits on campus is impressive enough in its own right and we’ll see in the coming days what kind of impact this weekend had on the recruitment of Dylan Raiola.