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Valor Christian’s Luke Mccaffrey slated to play QB for Nebraska, Coach Frost says.
The buzz about Luke Mccaffrey jumping on the fast track once he arrived at Nebraska? Straight money. The whispers that he might be on track for a position switch? Um, not so much.
“Yeah, I kept hearing rumors that people thought we’d move him,” Cornhuskers football coach Scott Frost told The Post when asked about the former Valor quarterback and son of Broncos legend and Valor coach Ed McCaffrey. “We see him at quarterback. So there was never any talk on our end of doing anything else with him. And he’s already shown the type of leadership that we’re looking for at that position.”
Mccaffrey, who led Valor to a 5A title under center and was ranked by 247Sports.com as the top recruit in Colorado, was one of eight Big Red signees from the Class of 2019 to enroll in January for the start of the second semester. To hear Frost tell it, the kid isn’t just knocking on the door of the Nebraska football offices. He’s already kicked that bad boy down.
“He’s doing great; I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anybody pick up our stuff as quickly as he’s picked it up,” said Frost, who along with defensive coordinator Erik Chinander and athletic director Bill Moos, attended a Huskers donor function at the Hilton Denver Inverness in Englewood on Friday night. “He’s in the office all the time. We can’t get him out of there.
“Obviously, he’s still really young for his grade, still 17 years old. And (has) a ton of upside, athletically. Everybody in his family was that way. So we’re excited about him. We’re going to let him rip it at quarterback this year, and we’re excited about what he can do.”
Frost is excited the next wave of prospects bubbling up along the Front Range, too. According to 247Sports, the Big Red has offers out to at least four of the site’s top seven Colorado prospects in the Class of 2020. Frost’s second recruiting class featured two of 247Sports’ top 10 in-state gets in Mccaffrey (No. 1) and former Cherry Creek lineman Michael Lynn (No. 5); his first, in 2018, included Parker native Tate Wildeman (No. 2). The Huskers landed two of the state’s top 5, in Pine Creek’s Jojo Domann (No. 2) and Regis’ Jack Stoll (No. 4), from the Class of 2016.
“Stoll is going to be a really good player for us,” Frost said of the Nebraska receiver, who led the squad in catches by a tight end (21) last fall. “He’s a Nebraska type of guy. He’s tough and has a great attitude about him, and he should continue to get even better the next couple of years.
“Jojo was battling minor injuries last year, (which) kind of kept him out of camp. I think he would’ve had a bigger role if he hadn’t missed camp. … When he got his chances, he did some good things. He’s good now, ready to go for sure.”
Heading into spring ball, Frost projects to have at least 11 Huskers on the 2019 roster who played their high school ball in Colorado; the 2018 roster featured seven.
Wildeman, a 6-foot-5 defensive end, took an injury redshirt last fall but Frost stressed that he was “real close to being ready … he’s going to have a chance to compete for some time at defensive line this year.
“Michael Lynn, from Cherry Creek, he’s a really interesting kid. He’s going to be an inside offensive lineman for us — guard or center, a big, physical kid. Our whole (2019) recruiting class came from great programs. McCaffrey and Michael playing in the (5A) state championship game made for some Huskers flavor in that game. So that was kind of consistent across our recruiting class, that most of the guys were in state finals or state semifinals, and on really good teams. And I want them to stay used to winning.”