About everywhere, it seems. Nebraska high school football has always been a fertile ground for producing top notch college prospects and it is clear that fact is more widely recognized just about every year.

We have nine Power Five recruits in the Class of 2023, with five of them committed to Nebraska, including Maverick Noonan (Elkhorn South), Sam Sledge (Creighton Prep), Gunnar Gottula (Lincoln Southeast), Brock Knutson (Scottsbluff) and Ben Brahmer (Pierce). When the Huskers have been at their best the offensive line has almost always been heavily populated by Nebraska kids, and we have some really good ones in that group.

The big fish in the pond is Lincoln East’s Malachi Coleman, a consensus four-star prospect at wide receiver who most recruiting experts have going to Nebraska, though that is still TBD. He’s a special talent who has overcome a lot of hardship in his life, the kind of kid you pull for.

That leaves three in-state recruits who have elected to take their talents elsewhere, including Lincoln High wide receiver Beni Ngoyi, who last Friday committed to Iowa State. While it is hard losing such a talented kid to another program, he will be great fit at Iowa State. Kid reminds me of Burke’s Xavier Watts, who decided to attend Notre Dame (can’t argue with that, not too much anyway) and is making a name for himself as a safety.

Before Beni’s signing the big news was having Gretna QB Zane Flores choose Oklahoma State and later having Archbishop Bergan receiver Kade McIntyre choose Oklahoma, after the Huskers slow rolled his offer. Flores has a real decent chance to leave the game as the most prolific passer in Nebraska Class A history and it is a mystery to me why Nebraska paid him little or no recruiting attention. I do know this, I saw Zane in person the other day and he’s gotten bigger and I have always liked his quiet confidence. He is poised for a huge senior season, and beyond.

As for Kade, who will play linebacker at OU, that’s another recruiting approach from Nebraska I don’t really get. The kid is what he is, an impactful player who’s game stretches far beyond small school football, and apparently a number of Power Five programs saw that, and offered. And if you get a call from Oklahoma, doesn’t matter what state you’re from, saying yes isn’t crazy talk.

And there is also more on the way. Juniors-to-be Dae’Vonn Hall and Daniel Kaelin at Bellevue West, and Caleb Benning at Westside are all going big time, and sophomores Tyson Terry (Omaha North) and Christian Jones (Westside) might prove to be the most highly recruited of them all. So much talent in that group but I am really looking forward to watching Terry terrorize opposing offenses again this fall and for Kaelin, he of the big arm and intense competitive fire, to get the quarterback position to himself and see what happens. Good stuff, I’d imagine.

* As an aside to all the recruiting talk on Sunday we got six of the Power Fives together in Gretna to shoot the cover for this year’s Huskerland Prep Report magazine. It was a fun hour or so we spent together, they are all good kids, you can tell, even if they were pretty quiet while we were shooting.

It was also interesting to see their chemistry, which comes from being the same big fish in the same ponds, camps and such, where they run into one another. Here real soon many of them will be running into one another, for real.

The kids who made it to Gretna High on Sunday included Flores, Ngoyi, Coleman, Sledge, Gottula and McIntyre, with Noonan a late scratch and both Knutson and Brahmer gone on family vacations. Their absence was noted, and they were missed.

We shot several photos during the course of our time together but the one the kids liked the most, naturally, is the one above. As I turned the camera to them for their review, they all nodded with approval and basically agreed they looked bad, in a really good way.

Gotta admit, it’s a pretty great photo.

Thanks kids, and those parents who were able to attend, as well as thanks to Gretna head coach Mike Kayl and GHS administration for allowing us use of the school, and for Mike taking time out of his weekend to get us into the building.

* A reminder, now would be a great time for you to call and order your 2022 Huskerland Prep Report football print edition subscription. Just give us a buzz at 531-375-2784 and we will hook you up for all 13 issues, including our 192-page preview magazine, all for just $36.00. And please don’t be afraid to tell your friends to do the same thing...