NIL opportunities may play large role in the future of recruiting at Nebraska

Recent NIL announcements surrounding Nebraska athletics may play a huge role in Husker recruiting moving forward

Saturday afternoon’s Red and White Spring Game for the Nebraska Cornhuskers is a great, early opportunity to see how the team will look for the upcoming 2022 season. Still, it’s also a chance to show the program in greater detail to recruits considering the Huskers for the next step in their football career. Nebraska will host over 80 visitors this weekend from either the 2022 class, 2023 class, or the 2024 class.

On defense, significant questions continue to persist about the depth and skill level of the defensive line. For a unit that has questions surrounding their athleticism, what could be a better way to improve than with the addition of a proven collegiate defensive end in TCU transfer Ochaun Mathis. In 36 games for the Horned Frogs, he recorded 133 total tacks, 26 tackles for a loss, and 12.5 sacks. Considered to be one of the impact players still in the transfer portal, Mathis has options. His top five schools, which he released back in February, feature USC, Texas, Ole Miss, Penn State, and Nebraska as the finalists.

Mathis’ visit comes days after some significant NIL announcements surrounding Nebraska athletics were made public. Earlier this week, Athlete Branding & Marketing LLC announced a new program designed to place Husker athletes with interested businesses and individuals for NIL opportunities. Since the company’s partnership with the University began in August of 2021, more than 90 Husker athletes in five different sports have received a combined $850,000. Also, don’t forget that Texas transfer Casey Thompson made headlines last month when talking about NIL. He told Barstool Sport’s “Busssin the Boys” that NIL opportunities in Lincoln are much better than anything he experienced in his time in Texas.

Will NIL make or break Ochaun Mathis’s decision? Only he knows what he’s looking for in a new school. But, it appears Nebraska will not be afraid to talk about Name, Image, and Likeness in its recruiting pitch. It also seems like the school wants the athletes to talk up the program and give those outside the athletic department an idea of what opportunities will be available in Lincoln.

If Mathis’s visit is the one everyone is following on the defensive side of the ball, who will be the recruit that everyone will be following on the offensive side. 2024 Quarterback Dylan Raiola of Chandler, Arizona, is quickly becoming one of the prized recruits of the entire 2024 class. Raiola is the son of former Husker offensive lineman Dominic Raiola. Dominic played in Lincoln from 1998-to 2000, was a consensus All-American in 2000, and has had his Number 54 jersey retired by the school. And the family connections continue as Dylan Raiola’s uncle Donavan is the new Nebraska Offensive Line coach. Even the team’s social media page welcomed the Raiola family to Lincoln by remembering Dominic Raiola’s award-winning career in Lincoln.

Dylan Raiola is staying busy on the recruiting trail, having visited multiple schools last month, such as Clemson, Georgia, and USC. He also announced that he will be visiting Austin and the Texas football program on Easter weekend.

Husker Coach Scott Frost talked about having recruits on campus for the spring game while speaking to media earlier this week. “Any chance we get to get recruits on campus is a win for us, I think we are scheduled to have quite a few good ones here Saturday so we are looking forward to it. It turns it into almost a fall game day where we have to host some guys on unofficial visits and some visitors and that makes it exciting. We love our fans and the enthusiasm around Husker football and we want recruits to get to see that as many times as possible.”

That is a look at just two of the over 80 visitors who will be in Memorial Stadium at 1:00 pm on Saturday for the Red and White Spring Game. The game will also be broadcast live on the Big Ten Network.

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