MaxPreps 2017 Nebraska Football National Signing Day recap

Video: Austin Allen's highlights vs. Elkhorn South High
The Aurora receiver/tight end will play next season for Nebraksa.

The activity and suspense from the day has just about wrapped up and Nebraska can lay claim to eight recruits who signed National Letters of intent. There are also four more who are still committed, but have not signed binding Letters of Intent.

Bradley ready to hit the holes at Nebraska

Now that the pen has been put to paper, and he can breathe a big sigh of relief, Bellevue West (Bellevue) running back Jaylin Bradley looked back on when he first received his offer from Nebraska.

When you're a Nebraska kid and you receive that ultimate compliment of being asked to play for Big Red, well, it gets a little nutty at times.

"When I first received the phone call, it was super-crazy," he said by phone Wednesday afternoon. "People were blowing up my phone. I had to put my phone on night mode just so my phone would stop buzzing when I was trying to sleep. It was crazy."

Bradley, who ran for a 2,915 yards and 50 touchdowns last fall, nearly eclipsed the 500-yard mark in one game when he gained a state record 496 yards and scored seven touchdowns in a 63-42 playoff win over Millard West.

"I think they (Nebraska) like my vision and my ability to hit the hole," Bradley continued. "You can't be afraid to hit the hole and make people miss." Allen signs on with one of the nation's top future receiving corps at Nebraska

Much has been said about the new set of receivers Mike Riley's staff has signed on at Nebraska in 2017, and Aurora's Austin Allen is set to join the corps, which includes three of the top receivers in the nation as well as fellow tight end Kurt Rafdal from Carmel, Indiana.

"Yeah, we have all of these new receivers coming in," Allen said by phone Wednesday. "It's kind of crazy with all of the different receiving styles that we're getting. But we're getting to know each other real well and I guess you could say we're going to be pretty good in the coming years.

"I just want to go out there and make all of the people around me better because that's ultimately the whole goal in a team. If I get on the field that's great. But if my role is to be that guy (to make people better), then hopefully I'll be that guy."

For Allen the recruiting process went smoothly except for a knee injury he suffered last summer forcing the 6-foot-8, 3-star athlete to miss much of the season. After receiving a reassuring phone call from Coach Riley, Allen stopped questioning himself and prepared for a future at Nebraska.

"It's a pretty big thing we have here in the state," Allen said in reference to Husker Nation. "I mean, it's crazy to be a part of this now. You always dream about it being a kid – being a part of this franchise if you will. It's crazy to think about now that we're here, but we're ready to get rolling at Nebraska."

Visit our Nebraska National Signing Day page to see the names, rankings and high schools of all the Virginia players who signed or did not sign Wednesday. You can sort by division as well, breaking things down to even smaller levels.

Four Cornhusker State athletes set to play at the Air Force Academy

DT Peter Gehrls Creighton Prep (Omaha), MLB/G Stephen Hillis Cedar Catholic (Hartington, Neb.), RB/OLB Lane McCallum Norfolk and Ath Rhett Harms Crete are all committed to the Air Force Academy to play football next fall. Their names, however, have not been released as officially signed.

According to an "Air Force National Letter of Intent (NLI) Signing Day Release" posted on the Academy's website, names of recruited student-athletes will not be released until they arrive on campus next summer.

The release went on to say that, "many high school student-athletes will participate in signing days and appear to sign a National Letter of Intent (NLI) with the Air Force Academy, but they are actually signing a Certificate of Intent which is a non-binding agreement that signifies an athlete's commitment to follow through with the appointment process and allows them to participate in signing day for publicity purposes."

Here are some fun facts from what went down on National Signing Day in Nebraska:

• Nebraska and the University of Wyoming were the big winners in Nebraska's latest crop of prep football players, both signing three athletes from the Cornhusker State. Should all four of the Air Force Academy's commits sign on, then Troy Calhoun's program would be the big winner.
• With 12 Nebraska athletes set to don FBS uniforms next fall, the Cornhusker State finished Signing Day with the 37th highest number of athletes moving on nationally.
• As of Monday, Allen was the highest rated Nebraska prep football player according to 247sports.com at 806th out of nearly 3,500 ranked athletes. Lincoln East (Lincoln) defensive tackle/tackle Chris Walker (1,367th), the third of Nebraska's three home grown recruits, Bradley (1,552nd) and Bishop Neumann (Wahoo) quarterback/free safety Noah Vedral (1,844th) all made the top 2,000.
• Of the Cornhusker State's five 3-star athletes, Ashland-Greenwood (Ashland) defensive tackle/guard Brett Kitrell and Vedral were the only ones to go some place other than Nebraska. Vedral opted to play for former Husker national championship quarterback Scott Frost at UCF and Kitrell signed with former Husker head coach Frank Solich at Ohio University.
• Gretna guard/defensive tackle Patrick Arnold, Kearney defensive tackle/guard Rudy Stofer and Omaha North (Omaha) outside linebacker Davon Wells-Ross are all set to hit the gridiron for former Husker assistant coach, and player, Craig Bohl at Wyoming.
• Seven Nebraska athletes have spurned scholarship offers from other schools to play for a spot on Mike Riley's roster as walk-ons. They are: Ethan Cox (Blair), Cole Frahm Burke (Omaha), Trent Hixson Skutt Catholic (Omaha), Cody Liske Bennington, Hunter Miller Cross County (Stromsburg), Jordan Paup Central City and Dylan Reynolds Broken Bow. Lincoln Northeast's Cody Gronewold will compete for Northwestern next fall as a walk-on.
• Six of the scholarship recipients from Nebraska came out of the Class A ranks. Three athletes resided in Class B, Nebraska's second largest classification, while Class C1 and C2 produced two and one scholarship recipients respectively.