The early signing period might kick off on December 19th but the Nebraska football staff is focusing on much more than the players they are going to be bringing in this year. Scott Frost and company have been busy getting offers out to members of 2020, 2021 and even 2022 class over the last few weeks.

The end of the regular season has had some positive side effects because it's allowed the staff to focus entirely on recruiting. That seems to be paying off as recruits take more notice of what the Huskers have to offer. One such recruit is 2020 wide receiver, Josh Downs.

Downs announced on Monday night that he had whittled down his list of schools he's considering and the Cornhuskers made the cut.

Nebraska football in the impressive group

Alongside Nebraska, Downs announced he was going to be focusing on Oregon, Ohio State, North Carolina, Michigan, Kentucky, North Carolina State, West Virginia and Georgia Tech. That made quite the eclectic group of teams he's going to be giving his attention to but it makes some sense. Downs hails from Suwanee, Georgia so he's had a decent amount of access to ACC schools. West Virginia might be the school on the list that really stands out as not matching up with the others.

Familiar foes to beat out for Josh Downs

At the moment, 247Sports has the wide receiver leaning towards either Michigan or North Carolina State.

Both teams appear to have about a 50/50 shot at landing the wide receiver. The Nebraska football team certainly has its work cut out for it as it is also going to have to overcome one of the only Big Ten schools that has been better at recruiting than the Huskers in recent years in Ohio State. It's possible the change in head coach there could give the Cornhuskers a bit of an edge when all is said and done.

One thing is clear in Josh Downs' announcement and that is the Huskers should count themselves lucky to be included in this pairing down. The 4-star receiver has more than 20 total offers.

Schools like Ole Miss, Iowa and Kentucky were all apparently left out in the cold. This announcement is also good news for a program that has been paying special attention to wide receiver in the last few weeks.

They recently went out and offered Brenden Rice, who is not only one of the best receivers in the 2020 class but also a high school teammate of Nebraska football commit Javin Wright. There is also still talk Scott Frost and company could look into bringing former Miami Hurricanes receiver Jeff Thomas is the 2019 recruiting class doesn't shake out how they like.
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