Nebraska lost a tough battle on Black Friday, falling to the Iowa Hawkeyes 28-20 on a cold and windy day in Lincoln, Nebraska. The loss, combined with the dreary weather, made most Husker fans less than optimistic about Nebraska’s recruiting efforts that weekend; but they awoke to a nice surprise on Saturday morning. Nebraska secured two commitments from the Iowa game, as safety Brandon Drayton and punter Caleb Lightbourn both joined the 2016 Nebraska recruiting class.
Brandon Drayton hails from Largo, Florida, the same town that produced Ole Miss and Kansas City Chiefs star Dexter McCluster. Drayton committed to the Huskers over 15 other FBS offers which included Miami (FL) and Iowa. At 6’2″ 175 pounds, Drayton appears to fit Nebraska’s new mold of safeties. He and fellow Husker commit Marquel Dismukes are both tall, rangy safeties as opposed to the bigger, stouter safeties Nebraska recruited under Bo Pelini. Drayton has indicated that he will be taking one more visit to make sure that Nebraska is the place for him. He has scheduled his visit for next weekend at the University of Indiana. Indiana’s main selling point to Drayton is that two members of their 2015 class were high school teammates of Drayton at Largo High School.
While Drayton is from the recruiting hot bed of central Florida, Lightbourn is from Camas, Washington, a town that has not produced an FBS recruit in over 14 years. While many Husker fans weren’t aware of Lightbourn prior to his visit, the Nebraska coaching staff has been scouting him for the better part of three seasons. Nebraska special teams coach Bruce Read has been in contact with Lightbourn since his time at Oregon State; and that connection put the Huskers over the top. While Lightbourn punts and kicks in high school, it appears that his future is at the punter position. Kicking guru Chris Sailer rates Lightbourn as a 5 star punter prospect and one of the top punters in the 2016 recruiting class. Lightbourn has already stated that he plans to redshirt his first year on campus before taking over the starting punter job in 2017 after current starter Sam Foltz graduates.
This pair of commitments brings Nebraska’s 2016 class up to 16 heading into the offseason, leaving Nebraska in good position with two thirds of their class full, and plenty of room to take in more commitments. Mike Riley and his staff have lived up to their promise to recruit the whole country. Nebraska has garnered commitments from all over the United States. Nebraska has brought in commitments from nine different states and has done well in the recruiting hotbeds of California and Florida, where they have secured three commitments from both states. Keep an eye on the state of Michigan as well. Nebraska is in very good position with three prospects in the Mitten State. Wide receiver Desmond Fitzpatrick, middle linebacker David Reese, and offensive tackle Alaric Jackson all have very serious interest in Nebraska at this point in time.
Main Photo
