Recruit of the Week: Kansas State running back target Nygel Osborne
NAME: Nygel Osborne
RANKING: ***
CLASS: 2023
POSITION: Running Back
HOMETOWN: Bellflower, California
HIGH SCHOOL: Los Alamitos
POWER FIVE OFFERS: Kansas State, Arizona State, Colorado
COMMITTED: N/A
RECRUITING SUMMARY
The Kansas State offer for California-based running Nygel Osborne is barely a month old. His recruitment, from a K-State viewpoint, has not been a long one. But it could turn into a sprint if he were to make a college choice soon after this weekend’s official visit.
Obviously, the Wildcats already have a back committed in Joe Jackson. They have also chased in-state targets Dylan Edwards and John Randle, Jr. too and had Jamal Roberts of St. Louis in their crosshairs before electing to go a different route and seeing him pivot to Missouri.
However, a lot has changed. Jackson has remained loyal and knew he wanted to be at Kansas State from the jump. But Edwards has flipped to Notre Dame, the possibility of Randle has become a lot less likely and they still need another running back.
In fact, they really don’t have enough on the roster as it is, between just Deuce Vaughn, DJ Giddens and Anthony Frias. And there’s a chance that Vaughn departs after this season and tries his shot in the NFL. He will have that option at his disposal.
It needs to be a healthy running back class. Because of how it has all materialized, that motivated Brian Anderson and K-State to make a play for Osborne in the last month. Closing on him would give them a bit more security at the position for the 2023 season in terms of numbers.
EVALUATION
Osborne runs just like Kansas State running back DJ Giddens.
He runs downhill and hard and either tries to win with speed or with physicality by running through defenders. I watched multiple minutes of his highlights and the only time he attempted to make a cut was in the backfield when searching for the right hole or gap.
That isn’t a bad thing by any means, but it shows what his role will likely be or what he has to work on at the next level. I doubt that it’s a sign of poor vision, but that’s just something we can’t discern by just watching highlights.
All of that is a reason and another example of why an in-person and live evaluation is always going to be much better than a person sitting on their butt, opening up a computer and clicking a button to watch highlights on a screen.
What we can take away is that he can be a weapon in the passing game and he has some burst with the ball in his hands. But in terms of a running style, he is much closer to DJ Giddens and Jacardia Wright than he is Deuce Vaughn or former K-State back Joe Ervin, for instance.
PREDICTION
I’m of the belief that the best option and perhaps only Power Five option he has on the table is the opportunity given to him recently by Kansas State. After all, his other two came a long time ago and are from institutions (Arizona State and Colorado) that fired their head coach already this season.
It would not shock me if he committed to K-State soon after this weekend’s trip to Manhattan.
