Nebraska Football: Pair Of Bellevue West Prospects Getting Attention From Outside Power 5’s
The Nebraska football team is busy attempting to lure players from all over the country to Lincoln. Meanwhile, the talent in the state is seeing quite the uptick over the last few years.
In fact, there’s been such an uptick that more and more prospects are getting calls from other Power 5 programs from all over the country. That’s witnessed most recently when talking about Keagan Johnson and Micah Riley.
Both players call Bellevue West home and have helped shape that high school into a powerhouse. Now they are both getting attention from some powerful college football programs who are hoping they can pull them away from Nebraska.
Meanwhile, the Huskers are hoping the pull of home will keep both in the state and playing in Lincoln in the coming years.
Riley, a tight end in the 2022 class has seen interest increase over the last few weeks. Most recently the prospect got an offer from Arizona State. The Sun Devils are the first team outside of Nebraska’s home region to give the big-bodied player an official offer.
Extremely happy to announce I received a scholarship offer from Arizona State University! ? pic.twitter.com/ugaNyVM2S8
— ????? ?????-?????? (@micah_r_d) March 28, 2020
In all, Riley has five total offers. In addition to ASU, Nebraska football, Iowa State, Kansas State, and Northern Illinois have come calling. It’s early enough in the process that Riley hasn’t been ranked by recruiting services like 247Sports or Rivals, but analysts believe he will eventually be at or near the top of Nebraska’s state listings. He’ll likely be able to thank a frame that already stands 6-foot-5 as one big contributing factor.
Keagan Johnson is part of the 2021 class and could sign with Nebraska or another school this coming December, assuming the college football world returns to normal over the next few months.
247Sports has Johnson rated as a three-star prospect and the No. 2 ranked player in the state for his class. While he’s spent most of his time as a wide receiver for Bellevue West, the site’s composite rankings list him as an athlete. He’s actually the 32nd ranked athlete in the entire class.
Johnson has gotten less attention from outside the area, but there’s a rather big showdown potentially brewing between the Nebraska and Iowa football programs. Hawkeye Nation writer Rob Howe believes Iowa is well-positioned to steal the receiver away. Howe points to Johnson’s comments about how well he could fit in their offense as the reason he believes the Hawkeyes could get him. For their part, 247Sports believes he is still a heavy lean toward Nebraska. At the moment, the recruiting site doesn’t have an official read on Micah Riley’s leanings.
