The Nebraska football team is still going strong on the recruiting front. That was shown once again when the Huskers were able to make it into the Top 5 for Texas lineman Paula Vaipulu.

The 3-star prospect just announced his favorite schools on Friday, and the Huskers appear to be in pretty good standing when you consider that the other schools on the list aren't being talked about as possibly being in the running to finish in the Top 10 at the end of the season.

Now the Huskers just need to close the deal. It does sound as though it's going to be harder than they first thought as he is leaning towards another Power 5 school.

Or at least he was earlier this summer.

Nebraska football has a steep hill to climb

Alongside the Huskers, Vaipulu named Georgia Tech, Houston, Missouri, and Boston College as the schools that are still in the running. That's good news. The bad news is that the Cornhuskers appear to be running second to the Yellow Jackets at the moment.

The 3-star offensive lineman reportedly came very close to committing to Georgia Tech earlier this summer. Last month he almost pulled the trigger. He ended up deciding to slow things down so he could make sure he made the right decision.

That might end up working out in Nebraska football's favor.

It's rather clear that he's a big grinder that can clear quite a bit of ground thanks to his 6-3, 303-pound frame.

Vaipulu is a big boy. He's got the kind of build the Huskers would love to land and simply don't have enough of. That's why they are going after a player that isn't all that highly ranked in the overall class, but he is one of the better offensive tackles in the class.

Vaipulu fills a need

247Sports has Paula Vaipulu as the 16 ranked offensive tackle in the 2020 class. That only ranks him as the 876th best player in the entire class and the 120th best player in Texas.

At first glance, it doesn't appear that's the kind of player Nebraska football fans are going to get excited about all that much.

That's only if you don't want to look beyond that first glance.

One of the reasons the player isn't rating that high is because he's not coming from one of the major schools in Texas. It's pretty clear that Power 5 schools aren't overlooking his talents.

In addition to the Top 5 schools he named, he's got another eight schools that have come calling. It's clear that his frame is something that has impressed more than a few of the best schools in the country.

Now it's up to the Nebraska football team to close the deal. He's already taken one visit to Lincoln back in March. It might be worth their while to get him to town again, at the end of next month. That might be the thing that finally gets him to pull the trigger and choose the Cornhuskers.
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