Matt Rhule’s Recruiting Philosophy Was on Display in June

Aggressive camp schedule, in-person evaluations are central to new Nebraska football coach's approach

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Second of three parts.

Nebraska head football coach Matt Rhule went into the month of June with a number of things he wanted to accomplish in recruiting. By any measure, he exceeded expectations.

Yesterday, I touched on the fact this new staff was starting from scratch with not only the 2024 class, but with the accelerated recruiting timeline, they were also several months behind schedule with the 2025 class.

One of the things Rhule needed to do was get his eyes on kids who could help him in 2024, as well as get a jump start on identifying and monitoring kids in future classes. The way he went about doing that was with an aggressive camp schedule.

Nebraska hosted seven days of camps and participated in a handful of satellite camps. Matt Rhule spent two days in Texas in strategic areas where he and his staff have long-standing connections. They were in Belton for a camp at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and in Houston at Houston Christian University. These are areas Rhule knows well and recruited heavily during his time at Baylor. He was joined by coordinators Tony White and Marcus Satterfield, along with assistants Evan Cooper, Terrance Knighton, Garret McGuire, Bob Wager and Donovan Raiola.

Husker coaches also attended satellite camps at Widener University, located in Chester, Pennsylvania, situated just outside Philadelphia. They were also on hand for a camp in Naperville, Illinois, near Chicago. Assistant coaches EJ Barthel and Rob Dvoracek were dispatched to those.

Nebraska has already extended over 20 offers to players they evaluated at camps. It led to several campus visits and eventual commitments, but I'll cover that later.

It reinforces how important it is for Rhule and his staff to get a pulse on the talent that's upcoming in-state and in areas of focus like Texas. His abbreviated time in Lincoln cost him with a pair of talented 2024 in-state kids.

His staff wasn't afforded an early evaluation of Omaha Westside's Teddy Rezac, who committed to Notre Dame after the Fighting Irish came to Omaha in early May for an evaluation. They offered and set up an immediate visit for Teddy and his family. Rhule came through with a Husker offer a few days later, but by then it was too late. Rezac had committed on his visit a few days prior and publicly announced it the day after Nebraska offered.

Nebraska was also late with Papillion-La Vista tight end Eric Ingwerson, who was offered in late March by Pittsburgh and immediately committed to Pat Narduzzi and the Panthers. Rhule tried to get involved in his recruitment, offering Ingwerson in mid-April and hosting him a couple weeks later for the Red-White spring game. Nebraska wanted to set up an official visit, but after visiting Pitt the first weekend of June, Ingwerson reaffirmed his commitment and shut down his recruitment.

Knowing Matt Rhule and the emphasis he is putting on in-state recruiting, these sorts of misses absolutely grate on him. But I don't think these types of situations will be the norm moving forward. Not after what we saw from this staff in June.

Rhule spoke of wanting to put together elite camps that stood out from other programs. June was a reflection of that. Contrary to how most schools conduct their camps, Rhule makes sure that it's his assistant coaches putting players through drills and doing the bulk of the instruction. Rhule is right there with them too. The camps include combine testing like the 40-yard dash, three-cone drill, pro agility drill, broad jump and vertical jump, as well as position specific drills and 1 vs. 1s.

This staff is serious about making in-person evaluations, and their actions reflect that. The number of offers and commitments that came as a result of seeing a kid in camp should reverberate with future classes. It sends a message to prospective recruits that Nebraska's coaches aren't the types to wait for another school to pull the trigger or for a recruiting service to take notice before they come through with an offer.

If Nebraska enjoys the same on-field trajectory as previous Rhule programs, Husker Camps could become a destination event for Midwestern prospects.

Nebraska typically participates in Lindenwood (Mo.) University’s annual mega camp, but Rhule bypassed it this year. If there's one thing I would critique about how he spent June, missing that would be it.

The Lindenwood Camp is the preeminent camp in the Midwest. This year over 2,000 kids attended. The best players from surrounding hotspots like St. Louis, East St. Louis, Chicago and Kansas City show up, as well as other top players from states like Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado, and several others. This year coaches from 76 schools were on hand, including Power Five programs BYU, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kansas State, Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon, Purdue and Stanford. I think it's important for Rhule to maintain a Husker presence there.

A good example is Creighton Prep tight end Michael Burt, who was offered at the camp by Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois after their coaches had a chance to watch his workout. Nebraska offered later that night, but Iowa's coaches were at the event and were able to get Burt on campus two days later for one of their camps and hosted him on an official visit a few days after that. Although Nebraska got a visit the following week, Iowa won out on his recruitment.

In Year 1 of his tenure, I can see why Rhule skipped it initially. He's trying to establish Nebraska as a contender for Texas players again, so that was a priority. Coaches are only allowed 10 total days in June to conduct on-campus or attend off-campus camps, so he prioritized Texas, which isn't a surprise considering it'll be his primary hotbed to pull from. Seeing the results he's already gotten from the state, it's hard to fault his strategy. Even so, I think it would be smart to return next June.

Rhule also held a post-graduate camp for recently graduated high school seniors, junior college players and those still in the portal. Nebraska isn’t the first school to allow post-graduates to attend their offseason camps, but the Huskers are one of the first schools to give post-graduates a camp session all to themselves. This is the sort of forward-thinking approach you like to see.

As a result of the camp, the Huskers were able to grab a pair of junior college players who are joining the program immediately as preferred walk-ons.

The Huskers added Iowa Western C.C. quarterback Luke Longval to their depleted room. As a high school senior at Sioux City (Iowa) East, Longval received recruiting attention from mostly D2 programs. Those opportunities dried up after he tore his ACL late in the year. He spent the 2022 season redshirting with the Reivers while continuing to rehab from the injury. With four years of eligibility, the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Longval will provide depth at a position with only three scholarship players on the roster.

Also joining the team is Iowa Central C.C. edge defender James Williams, who was one of the top freshman junior college defensive ends in the country last season. The 6-foot-5, 245-pound Williams played his high school ball at Park Hill South, in the Kansas City area of Missouri. As a senior, he received several preferred walk-on offers from programs such as Kansas State, Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas, but those went away because of poor grades. Instead, he enrolled at Iowa Central and finished with six sacks last season for the Tritons.

Nebraska's plan for Williams, who has four years to play three seasons, is to work him at both defensive end and outside linebacker until they find his best spot long-term. This is an intriguing addition to the roster. Williams was likely going to receive Power Five offers down the line had he decided to stay at Iowa Central for another year.

Overall, a ton of work was done in June to catch up with the '25 and '26 classes. On-campus and satellite camps are the building blocks for future classes. This staff hadn't had the chance to start those evaluations yet, so June was huge to get that started.

This staff was also able to get the bulk of its '24 class locked up. I'll dive into that tomorrow.