Cover Five: Get to know Nebraska football's recruiting targets, including a 2025 quarterback
On a Memorial Stadium surface covered in snow, the red “N” at midfield shone brightly. Head coach Matt Rhule shared a photo of the scene to social media in the midst of a busy recruiting period for him and his coaching staff. Given the large number of 2025 and 2026 recruits on campus for a junior day weekend, a clearly defined path through the snow to midfield was just as symbolic as it was literal.
With Husker coaches hoping those players will follow that path back to Nebraska, the long-term benefits of the recruiting weekend could take several months to fully emerge. Let’s drop into coverage: 1. Nebraska coaches on the road As another open recruiting period runs until Feb.
3, the Nebraska coaching staff spent much of the past week traveling around the country to recruit. NU coaches often post photos of the locations they’ve visited, but this time, Nebraska's social media team shared in-house graphics proclaiming they were “on the road” this week. Simpson, who handles much of Nebraska’s recruiting efforts in Miami, is eligible to go on the road as an analyst so long as another Husker assistant stays home.
Per NCAA guidelines, only 10 coaches may be out recruiting at the same time. Rhule, who traveled to Honolulu early in the week to check on incoming quarterback Dylan Raiola, was also on the recruiting trail this week. He then connected with Satterfield in Colorado to further NU’s efforts within the state.
Offensive line coach Donovan Raiola attended the Polynesian Bowl, while wide receivers coach Garret McGuire and defensive line coach Terrance Knighton made recruiting visits during the week. 2. Nebraska working on 2025 recruiting class Alongside a junior day weekend where Nebraska hosted several key 2025 recruiting targets, the Huskers’ efforts on the road included a major push for other promising players in the upcoming cycle.
A trio of Nebraska coaches — White, McGuire and Dvoracek — visited one of NU’s top 2025 defensive targets, Dallas Skyline linebacker Elijah Barnes, on Thursday. A four-star recruit ranked in the top 100 nationally, Barnes is a dynamic athlete who recorded nearly 200 tackles over his last two seasons of high school football. Also a track and field star whose speed helps him race from sideline to sideline, Barnes will have his pick of the nation’s best schools — and Nebraska is working to forge a strong connection with him.
NU first offered a scholarship to Barnes in May. Also of note is a recent offer extended by Satterfield to Royersford (Pennsylvania) Spring-Ford quarterback Matt Zollers last Monday. While Nebraska had previously been solely focused on Algona’s (Iowa) Alex Manske as their 2025 quarterback target, the Huskers could now be opening the door to Zollers as well.
The ninth-best quarterback recruit in his class according to 247Sports, Zollers has been rapidly rising up recruiting boards this winter. Following the Nebraska offer, Zollers earned eight more FBS opportunities in the last week alone — including offers from Florida, Georgia and Missouri. Another player to watch is Missouri City (Texas) Ridge Point cornerback Bryson Webber, an under-the-radar prospect who earned an offer from defensive backs coach Evan Cooper.
Currently unranked by all major recruiting services, Webber is a 6-foot-3, 185-pound prospect with raw athleticism and speed. His only other FBS opportunity is with Texas Tech, whose head coach Joey McGuire — a former Rhule assistant and father of NU coach Garret — has a similar recruiting strategy of offering untested, promising athletes. 3.
New offers for future recruiting classes Nebraska coaches have been building for the future, building connections with 2026 and 2027 recruits and even extending offers to current eighth-graders. The state of Georgia produces many of the nation’s best prospects, and among them is Loganville (Georgia) Grayson linebacker Tyler Atkinson, a five-star prospect who was named a MaxPreps Freshman All-American in 2022. The 6-2, 190-pound recruit unsurprisingly has a decorated offer list that includes the likes of Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State and Texas — and now the Huskers have offered Atkinson as well.
Nebraska also extended offers to a pair of players from Valdosta (Georgia) who are newer to the recruiting process — cornerback Jalon Copeland and athlete Prince Jean. Both players were offered on Wednesday by Cooper, who may be targeting them as future difference-makers in the secondary. Another currently unranked prospect with a bright future — Country Club Hills (Illinois) Hillcrest defensive lineman McHale Blade — received a Nebraska offer this week.
The 6-5, 230-pound prospect was offered by Barthel and has a tremendous mixture of length, speed and physicality. He could be one to watch for the future. In Colorado, Rhule and Satterfield’s recruiting visit led to new offers for Fort Collins (Colorado) offensive lineman Mason Bandhauer and Littleton (Colorado) Heritage tight end Isaac Jensen.
A high school teammate of 2024 Husker signee Rex Guthrie, Jensen is a four-star recruit who is already among the nation’s best 2026 tight end recruits. In the Class of 2027, Crowley (Texas) wide receiver Antayvious Ellis’ eighth overall FBS offer came from Nebraska’s McGuire on Wednesday. Even further down the line, Nebraska extended a trio of offers to Miami-area eighth-graders earlier this month — Quartavius Lyons Jr.
, Zion Davis and Steven Moore. 4. Glenn Thomas joins Huskers' coaching staff Nebraska made a change to its coaching staff earlier this week when Rhule hired one of his former assistants, Glenn Thomas, as NU’s quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator.
It’s a move that makes plenty of sense considering Thomas' experience coaching both college and NFL quarterbacks will help him immediately work on improving a position group which heavily struggled in 2023. While the finer details of how the offensive coaching duties will be split between Satterfield and Thomas still remain to be seen, no adjustment period nor uncertain transition should occur with Thomas joining the fold. After all, Satterfield and Thomas are two of the only three offensive coordinators Rhule has ever employed at the collegiate level; Satterfield coached the Temple offense from 2013-15, Thomas took over in 2016 and then was a co-coordinator at Baylor with Jeff Nixon for three seasons.
Looking back at the coaching staffs Rhule assembled at Temple and Baylor, many of those assistants are now on the NU coaching staff or have moved on to stellar opportunities elsewhere. Two former Rhule assistants, Joey McGuire (Texas Tech) and Fran Brown (Syracuse), are now head coaches, while Syracuse defensive coordinator Elijah Robinson briefly served as Texas A&M’s interim head coach late in the 2023 season. Other former assistants such as Frisman Jackson, Frank Okam and Mike Siravo also went on to take NFL jobs after leaving a Rhule staff.
5. Former Husker Warner begins coaching While a recent offer to junior college defensive lineman Dylan Christley now appears unlikely to help in time for the spring, a Nebraska connection still exists within the Maricopa junior college football program. Former Nebraska wide receiver Kade Warner, who appeared in 25 games for the Huskers from 2017-2020 before transferring to Kansas State, spent the past season working as Maricopa’s wide receiver and tight ends coach.
Having gone through training camp and the NFL preseason with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Warner was cut prior to the regular season and returned home to help coach Maricopa during the fall. While Warner is still training for another professional opportunity, Maricopa head coach Doug Madoski said the former Husker is fully ready to start a career in coaching if he desires it. “He’s still chasing it, he still wants to play and he’s got those opportunities and the ability to keep trying, but I keep telling him all the time that we’re lucky to have him as part of our program,” Madoski said of Warner.
“He does such a great job of coaching these kids, working with them and always having a great attention to detail. For him, I’m hoping he makes it, but it wouldn’t bother me one bit if he ends up back here with us. ” .