New Husker OL commit Yager did his research, loved NU and thought, 'Why wait?'

Nebraska's 2021 recruiting class is still in its early stages, but there's a clear trend so far. 

Size. Lots and lots of size. 

On Monday evening, the Huskers landed a verbal commitment from three-star offensive lineman Branson Yager from Grantsville, Utah. 

Yager is listed on his recruiting profile at 6-foot-8 and 325 pounds. He is being recruited as an offensive lineman. Defensive line coach Tony Tuioti, who leads NU's recruiting efforts in Utah, originally made the offer and then handed the recruitment off to offensive line coach Greg Austin. 

Really, Yager was planning until after the coronavirus pandemic had settled down to take some recruiting visits before making his decision. He's not the passive type, though, so he started doing his own research on the schools that had offered him a scholarship. 

"Nebraska has intrigued me since the beginning for multiple reasons," said Yager, who was originally supposed to come to a junior day in March only to have it canceled because of the pandemic. "I was doing research on them and staying in touch with the coaches and I got my parents on the phone with the coaches and everything like that. 

"I got to the point where I was like, 'I know where I want to go. Why wait and risk the chance of losing my spot?'" 

Yager's brother just got engaged -- it's been a big week for the family, obviously -- and so he got his parents both on the phone with Nebraska's coaching staff. Yager and his family discussed it after the talk, he calmed some nerves and called the staff back to tell them he wanted to commit.

"My parents absolutely loved everything they had to say about me, about the program, about how they're going to go about things with me," Yager said. 

He joins fellow linemen Henry Lutovsky (6-6, 330 pounds) and Teddy Prochazka (6-8, 290) to make a trio of big men already in NU's five-man recruiting class so far along with a pair of linebackers. 

More from this section

Fast Five: Quarantine questions with Missouri baseball's Peter Zimmermann

+2

Where are they now: Boise State's Brock Forsey reflects on record-setting career

+3

Packers getting ‘a special talent’ and a ‘wow' factor in Jordan Love, Gary Andersen promises

Yager picked Nebraska over a host of Division I offers including Cal, Virginia, BYU, Vanderbilt and others.

He's a lifelong Utah resident, but he's got some roots in the Midwest because his dad spent some of his youth in Kansas and the family travels back there multiple times per year. He's not actually been to Lincoln, but he figures it's his kind of town. 

"His parents are still there (Kansas) and one of his brothers and one of his sisters are, too, so we go back a lot," Yager said. "I just absolutely love it. I've begged my dad to move to Kansas for years just because I love the flatland and I love the farms and the people are incredible." 

Yager as a junior was picked by Utah high school coaches as a second-team all-state tackle in Class 3A, according to the Deseret News. At Grantsville, a western suburb about 40 minutes outside Salt Lake City, Yager played some right tackle and some left tackle, started on the defensive line and long-snapped, as well.

Nebraska has made a habit under head coach Scott Frost of recruiting tall linemen. In fact, in the 2018 recruiting class, NU signed then-tight end Cameron Jurgens and Will Farniok, both of whom were originally recruited by Mike Riley's staff and both of whom are listed at 6-3. Since then, NU has signed eight offensive linemen and collected three verbal pledges for the 2021 class. Of those 11, only redshirt freshman guard Ethan Piper (6-4, 300 pounds) is shorter than 6-6. 

Of the other 10, five check in at 6-6, two at 6-7, Yager at 6-8 and Prochazka and redshirt freshman tackle Bryce Benhart at 6-9. 

2021 Husker football recruits