The Nebraska football team received some bad news on Friday night, though it wasn't entirely unexpected. New Jersey prospect Charles Njoku announced he was taking his talents to UCLA. The former Missouri commit had announced earlier this week that he was going to be picking between the Huskers and the Bruins and it appears Chip Kelly's squad was the front runner.

Nebraska football moves on

Now that Njoku has decided he will be headed to the Pac 12 instead of the Big Ten, Scott Frost and company can turn their full attention to another receiver target.

Demariyon Houston is one that didn't land on the Huskers' radar until very recently. Despite not being in on the Oklahoma City prospect for very long, it appears they are the leaders in the horse race to determine who will get his commitment.

Houston took an official visit to Lincoln last weekend and it certainly appeared he loved everything he saw. There was even some talk he might be pulling the trigger sooner, rather than later. Now that the smoke has cleared from that visit, it's clear the staff still has some work to do before they are going to convince Houston, Lincoln is absolutely the right place for him.

Demariyon Houston getting the full-court press

The Huskers had thought they were going to have to do battle with Texas for the receiver, but it appears interest fell off for one reason or another.

Another former Big 12 opponent now looks like the school that might be the biggest rival for the Nebraska football team. The race for Houston appears to be down to a two-horse contest, with the Colorado Buffaloes being the other team he has shown quite a bit of interest in the last few weeks.

On paper, the Cornhuskers should be able to rest easy knowing they have a better program than Colorado.

It's been a weird recruiting cycle in that regard. While Frost and company have managed to nab their fair share of very talented players, there has also been some weird near misses. Njoku might actually count as one of those weird near misses if only because until UCLA entered the picture, he seemed to be a shoo-in to be playing his college ball in Memorial stadium.

The coaching staff is doing the best it can to make sure that Demariyon Houston isn't getting scooped out from under them. Just a couple of days after the 3-star wide receiver made an official visit, the coaching staff went and visited him. While he doesn't have the big body that Njoku does, it's clear the Nebraska football team wants to add another receiver to the class and they have been lining up Houston as the replacement to Njoku since before they officially lost that sweepstakes.
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