Nebraska Football Breaking News: Recruiting Surge, More "Amicable 12" Drama

My, what wonders an important conference win over a Top 10, undefeated team can work.

For the third week in a row, the Huskers picked up a top recruiting target high on their list of importance, this time in the form of four-star (according to Rivals.com) cornerback Charles Jackson from Klein Collins High School in Houston, Texas.

Just as a side note, before deciding to attend the University of Nebraska, I lived just an hour away from Klein, Texas and frequently played sports, and lost, against their teams.  To be fair, I did beat one of their wrestlers.  Once.  After he had already beaten me once before.

This area of Texas, just like most other areas, is huge on sports, especially football.  Joining Jackson in committing to Nebraska is fellow teammate David Santos, a three-star linebacker.

The 5'11", 180-pound Jackson brings a decent amount of size and speed to the table, and according to Rivals, his best attributes are his size, speed, fluid hips and nose for the ball.

After picking up touted San Antonio running back Aaron Green last week, the Huskers are now up to 16 commitments, 10 of them four-star talents according to Rivals. That ranks the Huskers 10th in the nation in recruiting.

The biggest surprise about the strength of this class has been the way in which the Huskers picked these talented players up.  Many of these players had big offers and/or close ties to other prestigious schools, yet still decided to become Huskers.

Jackson, the latest of these, was also high on another scholarship offer from Arkansas.  Still, he came up to Lincoln for the Missouri game, and evidently the big win was enough to push the Huskers ahead. 

While there were most likely many other factors involved, I'm sure the dominant performance didn't hurt.

Other players who Nebraska nabbed from other top programs include Aaron Green, Tevin Mitchel, Tyler Moore, Bubba Starling and Zach Sterup.

Green was one of the most heavily hyped players in the nation and had offers from every major Division I football program you can think of, including home state powerhouse Texas who had already nabbed a commitment from one of Green's good friends, five-star running back Malcolm Brown.

Green has strong ties with the Huskers as well, as his brother is a defensive back on the team, but it was hard to know whether or not he would be able to resist the Longhorns.  He eventually committed to Nebraska, citing that he wanted to go to a place where he could grow in his faith as well as his football.  I'm sure it was helpful that Ron Brown, Nebraska's tight end coach, who is a Christian, was Green's lead recruiter.

Maybe the most surprising commitment has been another four-star Texas cornerback, Tevin Mitchel. Mitchel had breakout football camps and was rated the top corner in Texas, right ahead of Jackson.  Mitchel was also very interested in Arkansas and has family ties to Oklahoma, both of which had offered him a scholarship. 

Still, Mitchel felt as though he was best suited to Nebraska.  No surprise, considering the Huskers boast the top secondary in the nation.  I wouldn't be surprised to see this kid lining up across from Jackson at the corner spots in a few years.

Four-star offensive tackle Tyler Moore was an early Husker commit and had strong ties to Nebraska. But as a top Florida prospect with offers from all three big Florida schools, it had to take some thinking to pick the Huskers over the in-state Gators, Seminoles and Hurricanes.

Bubba Starling is a four-star quarterback who most thought was a lock at Notre Dame.  He surprised everyone by taking the Huskers over the Irish, but considering Starling's skill set as a predominantly running quarterback, it's no surprise to me. 

Starling is one of two four-star, dual threat quarterbacks to commit to the Huskers, the other being Texas native Jamal Turner who is having himself a monster season.  I would expect Turner to be the better college quarterback, but Starling was an impressive pick up nonetheless.

Zach Sterup is a four-star lineman who was also thought to be going to Notre Dame but decided the Huskers were the right fit.

Overall, this recruiting class is really rounding out nicely, and once these players get into the system, the Huskers could really be something else.

Now, is everyone ready for a continuation of the "Amicable 12" soap opera?

Just a week after Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe suspended Husker linebacker Eric Martin for a supposedly flagrant hit on an Oklahoma State player, the Big 12 is now investigating another hit, this time by Nebraska sophomore safety Courtney Osborne on Missouri quarterback Blaine Gabbert.

While the hit was hard, and the helmets did come into contact, Osborne was not at fault—Gabbert was the one who lowered his head as Osborne hit him.  Everyone should know that, because of physics, a football player must run with a forward lean.  That means, inevitably, the player must have his head out in front of his body.

Therefore, it would have been very difficult for Osborne to avoid a helmet-to-helmet collision in that instance while still making the play.

While I don't expect Osborne to be suspended, the thing that was the most bothersome was that, while Gabbert clearly fumbled on the play, all the talk is about the hit—not the completely moronic call made by the officials that Gabbert's forward momentum had been stopped, and therefore the play was dead.

First of all, Gabbert was standing in the pocket looking for a receiver when Osborne sacked him.  How does forward momentum get stopped when it hasn't even started?  Another law of physics seemingly disregarded by the Big 12.

Second, the first official to arrive at the play signaled that the ball was down!  How do you go from saying the ball was down to saying his forward momentum had stopped?

This wasn't the only call the refs missed.  There were several plays in which holding penalties could have been called against the Tigers, including one where a Tiger lineman blatantly tripped a Husker defender in pursuit of Gabbert.  There was also that offsides call against Nebraska on the goal line that should have been called a false start against Missouri.

And I don't buy that these refs are just blind.  It's beginning to become apparent, whether you want to admit it or not, that the Big 12 does not like Nebraska, and they won't be doing us any favors this year.

Everyone saw adversity coming the moment Nebraska bailed—I just didn't expect it to be from the Big 12 itself.  I thought this conference was classier than that.

And we still have four regular season games and a possible Big 12 Championship game left in which the Big 12 will likely find more reasons not to do Nebraska any favors.

Better get used to it, Husker fans.