Husker history and rapid-fire recruiting updates
Darius Luff made Husker history on Friday, and Nebraska football camp season is in full swing. Let's dive in.
Darius Luff made Husker history on Friday. The senior from Lincoln — he graduated from Lincoln High — won the 110-meter hurdles at the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championships with a personal best time of 13.19 seconds. He beat Auburn’s Ja’Kobe Tharp by one hundredth of a second.
Pretty incredible, no?
Here’s where the history comes in:
Luff’s time in the 110m race is the best in Nebraska history1 and he is the first Husker to win a national title in the 110m hurdles. Beyond that, he’s also the first Nebraska-born man to win an individual outdoor NCAA track and field title for the Huskers since Howard DeBus in 1943. (Hat tip to Amie Just for that last stat.)
The ESPN analysts called Luff’s race “perfect.” You can watch it here.
Interestingly enough, the 110m race was actually restarted. Luff told ESPN after the win he was glad for that because his first start “was not great” and he was “so happy we got to go a second time.”
And the rest, you could say, was history.2
"I've been here a few times, and people got the best of me,” Luff told ESPN. “And in my fifth year, I was ready to win it this year.”
Next up for Luff? The Olympic Trials, set to take place in Eugene, Oregon, June 21-30.
Speaking of history . . .
The women’s track and field team gained national attention through the NCAA Outdoor Championships for sending the largest group of throwers to the event. The Huskers boasted seven total bids in the women’s throw events, the most in an event group.
Grace Boyles of WOWT had a really nice story about the throwers leading into the championships.
The women finished ninth as a team on Saturday with 25.5 team points.3 As a result, the Huskers were able to claim their first back-to-back top-10 finish at the championships since the 2005-06 seasons. It was also the highest amount of team points for the Huskers since the 2006 meet.
Other Olympics news to know
As Brandon mentioned last week, three former Nebraska volleyball players have been named to the USA Women's Volleyball National Team: Jordan Larson, Kelsey Robinson Cook and Justine Wong-Orantes.
Also heading to the 2024 Olympics is former Nebraska basketball star Keisei Tominaga. He has decided not to participate in the NBA Summer League and will instead focus on representing Japan in Paris. Japan has already qualified for the 2024 games in men’s basketball and has been placed in Group B alongside host France, Germany and another team that has yet to be determined. Tominaga will return to the United States after the games and hope for an NBA offer at that time.
Also not to be forgotten is Husker gymnast Csenge Bácskay, who will represent her home country of Hungary in the Olympics. We’ll have more from her on Counter Read in the weeks to come as we prepare for the 2024 games. Feels like a good time to remind you to subscribe to Counter Read if you haven’t already.
Recruiting recap, rapid-fire style
We mentioned it to start last week, but camp season is in full swing for Nebraska. You can see the full lineup here.
There were four camps over the weekend, which was kicked off by the first of two summer Friday Night Lights Camps. In addition, there was a Matt Rhule Football Camp on Saturday and another on Sunday, as well as a Specialists Camp on Saturday.
Here’s what happened, rapid-fire style:
Nebraska landed a commitment from Millard North 3-star linebacker Pierce Mooberry on Saturday.
The Huskers made a couple of 2025 offers over the weekend: 3-star linebacker Will Hawthorne from Gilbert, Iowa, and cornerback Tyrell Russell from Columbus, Ohio.
Nebraska made two quarterback offers as well: 2028 Las Vegas Bishop Gorman quarterback Ace Amina4 and Maine South (Illinois) Park Ridge 2027 quarterback Jameson Purcell.
Deacon Schmidt, a 2026 offensive lineman from Windsor, Colorado, also received an offer over the weekend, as well as 2026 linebacker Joshua Galbreath from Lawrence, Kansas.
Two 2026 athletes from Brandon Valley (South Dakota) received offers: offensive lineman Hudson Parliament and wide receiver Dveyoun Bonwell-Witte.
We have another big week and weekend ahead of camps, so expect even more to come. We’ll also have an update on what we’re hearing surrounding some of the bigger recruiting storylines later this week for paid subscribers.
His time in the 60-meter race is best in Nebraska history too.
It also feels worth noting that Luff is a two-time Big Ten champion and a three-time first-team All-American. He also holds the NSAA Class A state record in the 110m hurdles with a time of 13.84.
The men tied for 13th in the team standings with 19 points. In addition to Luff’s gold, Tyus Wilson won silver in high jump.
Amina hasn’t even started his freshman year of high school yet, but he already holds offers from Arizona, Arizona State, SMU, Tulane, UNLV, San Jose State and Hawaii (and now Nebraska, of course).
Coming back to say I'm starting to get word of more offers from over the weekend. Offers are always tough to fully track down, because it's not like Nebraska is handing us a list. With that said, I'll have more on some of these offers and the direction of where things are going Thursday.
"2006 linebacker Joshua Galbreath" I'm guessing he's not that old 🤣. Great update, thanks!