Earlier this morning, the Nebraska Football team won its first real fight for the services of one of its recruits in the form of Guy Thomas. Unfortunately, shortly after Thomas announced his school, a running back that the Huskers were going hard after announced that he would be attending the University of Oregon.
Huskers were a long shot
While it's always frustrating to lose out to another team when you feel like you're in a better situation, it appears that the Huskers were a bit of a long shot to win the services of CJ Verdell. The young runner from Chula Vista had been considered an Oregon lean for a little while now.
Talk is that the Nebraska football team had been putting on the full court press.
Verdell had some people talking about how he had a level of talent that went beyond his three-star rating in 247Sports, and Husker fans had begun to drool. It's always going to be hard to get West Coast guys to come here when Pac 12 schools are going all-in, but it's a good sign that the Huskers were able to come down to the final two schools.
Nebraska has a backup plan
While Verdell's loss stings only because we always want the Huskers to get all the good players, the Nebraska football team already has a backup plan in place in the form of Omaha running back Jaylin Bradley. While Bradley has been under the radar for basically the entire season, he put up numbers that will not only make your eyes pop, but they might just jump out of your skull.
It seems likely the school is done taking running backs in this class with the loss to Verdell, though we might see another walk-on or two before the dust officially settles. The good news is that only Terrell Newby is leaving when talking about the backs that got carries in the previous season, and the odds-on favorite to be the starter, Tre Bryant will only be a sophomore.
All of those things can serve as a kind of salve to get over the burn of the Nebraska football team losing an athlete to a school that's in a state of flux -- with a brand new head coach at the helm, and an uncertain future in the conference.
