Midwest Mail: Possible flips

As the high school and college football seasons reach their midpoints, some players who made early commitments may be having second thoughts. Josh Helmholdt discusses a few potential flips plus Nebraska's recruiting strategies in this week's mailbag. To reach out to Josh for next week's mailbag, contact him on Twitter.

@JoshHelmholdt will Ohio state flip Mike Weber? #askrivals- Mike Turner (@miketurner_1) October 15, 2014

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Four-star Detroit Cass Tech running back Mike Weber has stated he will take his official visits and that Ohio State is one of the teams he is still in contact with. The Michigan commit has taken a more open stance to his recruitment in recent weeks in part due to the uncertainty of the future in Ann Arbor.

Weber also mentioned Michigan State and Tennessee as schools he was in contact with, and those programs, along with Ohio State stand the best shot at flipping the Rivals250 running back. This late in the game, though, the question becomes which teams pursue him the hardest and push for an official visit? Running back is not an in-demand position, and while Weber is one of the country's best backs in this class, those schools do have commitments at the position already in 2015.

How hard Ohio State pushes for Weber depends on what five-star Damien Harris does. The Berea (Ky.) Madison Southern running back plans to announce his decision in December. If he does not choose Ohio State, then I expect the temperature on Weber is going to be turned up very high, but I do not expect an official visit before then unless landing Harris starts looking less likely.

@JoshHelmholdt who do you think iowa picks up for there last few commits?? #AskRivals- Larry Eqoupin (@larry_koress) October 15, 2014

There are a couple of Midwest defensive linemen with whom Iowa sits in very good position, but the player I am going to discuss first is Rivals100 linebacker Justin Hilliard, who just came off an official visit to Iowa City this past weekend. Expectations before this visit were that the Ohio State commit was getting a free trip to go visit his brother, Iowa freshman running back C.J. Hilliard, and there was probably some truth to that. However, the satisfaction that C.J. has with being a Hawkeye has his younger brother's attention.

It sounds like Ohio State did not exactly sign-off on this official visit for Hilliard, and the Buckeyes are still recruiting Rivals100 linebacker Jerome Baker and have a strong shot to flip him from Florida. Baker is a WILL linebacker and Ohio State is bringing Hilliard in for that same position. They would certainly love to have both, so I'm not saying they would choose one over the other, but it is one more dynamic in this recruitment that is worth watching and I see the door still open a crack for Iowa to come in and steal Hilliard.

Beyond Hilliard, defensive ends Raequan Williams of Chicago and Rashod Berry of Ohio are still strongly considering Iowa. Williams will make his official visit to Iowa City the weekend of Oct. 31 and it will be his second time on campus this season. At last check, Berry had not scheduled an official visit with Iowa, but it topped his list of likely official visit destinations.

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@JoshHelmholdt Why is it so hard for Nebraska to pull top talent? We are in better position program wise than Michigan- ChadHollenbeck (@Chad_Hollenbeck) October 2, 2014

Not only is Nebraska in a stable situation as a program, but they are also one of the most tradition-rich programs in college football, let alone the Big Ten. Those are not the issues for the Cornhuskers. Location is.

While many homegrown prospects have gone on to star at Nebraska, the state does not produce near enough talent to sustain a program that can compete year in and year out for national or even Big Ten championships. And, while surrounding states like Missouri and Kansas do produce a few more prospects than Nebraska does, they are far from major talent producing states and have in-state programs of their own.

Nebraska's recruiting success has always been dependent on luring recruits from talent-dense states like Texas and California. Their move to the Big Ten has hampered those efforts and Bo Pelini's staff has toyed with several different strategies since changing conferences. The transition period has definitely taken a toll on Cornhusker recruiting the last few classes, but eventually the right strategy will be unearthed and a higher number of elite prospects should be flowing into Lincoln in the future.

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