Okay, folks... it was a busy day for me as I made several stops in the state of Kansas. The first stop was Blue Valley High, where I checked in with Dawson Merritt.
A couple things to note here right off the top:
1) Missouri is no longer in contention, and Merritt has cancelled his official visit to Columbia.
2) Merritt's visit to Alabama on the weekend of April 20 was not an OV, but an unofficial. He'll be back in Tuscaloosa on June 7 for his official with the Tide.
Now for the meat and potatoes of this update. The only predictions across the industry favor the Crimson Tide right now, but I'd actually put Alabama third in the race as of this moment. After a nearly hour-long conversation with Merritt, I'm comfortable asserting that Oklahoma is running second... and it's actually Nebraska that is best positioned to land the blue-chipper's commitment. As Merritt explained to me, the Cornhuskers have made him feel like a need more than a want, and that's meant a lot to him. The entire Nebraska staff has been actively engaged in his recruitment, and so too has one Dylan Raiola. Make no mistake: the Blackshirts' prized freshman quarterback is putting the program on his shoulders in every way. He's essentially taken it upon himself to run point on Nebraska's pursuit of several top 2025 targets, including Merritt, Cortez Mills and David Sanders. And plenty of those top targets are biting on the proverbial lure that Raiola has cast. The Huskers may land a few big fish in this recruiting cycle, and if that comes to pass, it'll be due in large part to Raiola's relentless efforts. Merritt acknowledged that his best peer-to-peer relationship at any of his final three schools is his relationship with Raiola, and he likens the Huskers' ballyhooed QB to Patrick Mahomes.
As far as the Sooners are concerned, Merritt has strong bonds with a number of folks in the OU camp. Miguel Chavis has effectively served as Merritt's primary recruiter throughout the process, even though the Sooners see him as an off-ball linebacker. Chavis has obviously spent a lot of time in the Kansas City area over the last couple of cycles, so it was he who first evaluated and offered Merritt on the Sooners' behalf. However, Zac Alley, Brent Venables and Jay Valai have all been substantially involved in recruiting Merritt. Valai has a particularly interesting angle here, as he very briefly overlapped with Merritt's father Dave on the Chiefs staff. The Merritt family also has a great relationship with Dasan McCullough's family, as Deland McCullough (Dasan's father) and Dave Merritt were also colleagues in Kansas City at one point. In fact, Merritt told me that Dasan's mother Darnell will often stay at the Merritts' house when she shuttles back and forth between Oklahoma and Notre Dame (Deland is currently the running backs coach for the Fighting Irish). Obviously, Oklahoma will get the last official visit from Merritt on June 21, and the elite defender told me that he was on FaceTime with the OU staff for over an hour yesterday. There's a lot of trust there, as well as an outstanding alignment of values between Merritt and Oklahoma.
Alabama is in the race because of the fact that while at Washington, Kalen DeBoer and his staff gave Merritt one of his very first scholarship offers. Moreover, Merritt noted that DeBoer has done nothing but win no matter where he's coached, and explained that he enjoys the campus environment and strong program culture at Alabama. That said, he also admitted that he hasn't really clicked with the players in Tuscaloosa to the extent that he's clicked with the players in Lincoln and Norman. That's a big deal, as Merritt is looking for a true brotherhood wherever he ends up. The Crimson Tide shouldn't be discounted, though, as Merritt said he has the strongest individual player-to-coach relationship with Alabama outside linebackers coach Christian Robinson.
It's too early to call this race, but if I were to enter a prediction today, it would favor Nebraska. This is a battle that Oklahoma will have to win in the bottom of the ninth, as it were. They'll get the last swing at Merritt one way or another, and there's plenty of reason to believe that Oklahoma's current commits can help sway the head-hunting linebacker come the ChampU BBQ. Merritt admitted that Alabama had the juice in his recruitment until his most recent visit to Nebraska, at which point the Cornhuskers surged in a major way. So this is absolutely a recruitment in which securing the last visit matters. OU is pitching Merritt on a future as the next Isaiah Simmons. He's also got an opportunity to be part of a resurrection at Nebraska, and an opportunity to play for the most decorated program of the 21st century down in Tuscaloosa. Will he be willing to lay aside those opportunities to be a Sooner? It's more than plausible, but it all hinges on what happens from the 21st through the 23rd of June.
