Perhaps we should've known which way Charles Jackson was leaning with his recruiting decision based on the scene before Saturday's Nebraska-Missouri game.
There was Jackson, one of the most highly rated prep cornerbacks in the country, having a footrace with Husker linebackers coach Mike Ekeler before kickoff.
"I dared him," Jackson said. "I heard he loved to run. I said, ‘You like to run? I like to run as well.'"
And?
"I won."
Probably not the guy you want to recruit if he had lost, right?
But Jackson won the race and Nebraska won the recruiting battle, beating out Arkansas.
It's no small recruiting win. It also might go a long way in putting an end to any discussion that Nebraska's upcoming move to the Big Ten is going to hurt Husker recruiting in the state of Texas.
Jackson is from Klein, Texas.
And with his commitment, Nebraska now has received pledges from arguably the two best high school cornerbacks in the Lone Star State.
At 5-feet-11 and 180 pounds, Jackson is rated a four-star talent and the eighth-best cornerback nationally by Rivals.com and 15th-best by Scout.com.
Consider that back in June, Nebraska also received a commitment from another talented corner -- Tevin Mitchel of Mansfield, Texas. Mitchel is ranked sixth nationally at his position, according to Rivals.
Nebraska now has 16 recruits in the 2011 class, and five are from Texas.
One of those five is Jackson's high school teammate, linebacker David Santos, who committed to NU at the end of July.
After visiting Lincoln for the first time to see Nebraska play Missouri, Jackson said he told Husker secondary coach Marvin Sanders on Sunday morning that he planned to commit. He later called Bo Pelini.
"They were fired up, both of them," Jackson said. "They've been wanting me to come here. It feels like it's home."
Jackson said he weighed a lot of factors in his decision. But among other things, he liked how down-to-earth Pelini seemed.
The Husker tradition also caught his attention.
"I'd love to be part of the Blackshirts," Jackson said. "I'm grateful. Thankful for it. Not a lot of people get this opportunity
