Crete's Levorson accepts dream offer from NU
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BY BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star
John Levorson had fair warning. A football scholarship offer from Nebraska, his high school coach alerted him, was coming any minute Saturday.
Not that Levorson, a standout athlete from Crete, needed time to mull his decision.
“I’ve always said during my recruitment that if I got an offer from Nebraska,” Levorson said, “I’d probably accept it on the spot.”
And that’s what Levorson did Saturday around 2:15 p.m., when Nebraska assistant coach Dennis Wagner phoned him with the offer.
Levorson was in Lincoln on Saturday, playing in a basketball tournament, when he got a voicemail around noon from his high school football coach, Chuck McGinnis. The message said Nebraska would be calling him shortly.
“I was excited, obviously,” Levorson said.
The 6-foot-3, 185-pound Levorson becomes the 10th player to orally commit to Nebraska’s 2008 class. He’s the second in-state recruit to commit this week, joining Millard North’s Sean Fisher, and the fifth Nebraskan overall.
“It’s a dream come true for me,” Levorson said. “Everybody in Nebraska says that, but. … It really hasn’t sunk in yet that I’m actually going to be playing for Nebraska.”
Levorson also had offers from Wyoming and Ohio. Nebraska was aware of Levorson but wanted an up-close look at him before offering. That look came earlier this week at the Big Red Football School, where Levorson performed well. He ran a 4.55-second 40-yard dash and a :04.33 pro-agility run with a vertical leap of 32 inches.
Possible positions for Levorson include safety or receiver, and perhaps linebacker later in his career. NU did not recruit him for a specific position, but as an athlete.
“It’s just wherever I fit best,” he said.
Levorson played quarterback and defensive back in leading Crete to last year’s Class B state championship. He was named honorary co-captain of the Journal Star’s Class B all-state team, along with lineman Trevor Robinson of Elkhorn, another Husker recruit in the 2008 class.
As a junior, Levorson threw for 1,316 yards and ran for 734 more, and finished with 34 tackles, including seven solo stops in the state championship game. On the season, he intercepted two passes and recovered five fumbles. He was a second-team Super-Stater as a defensive back and Class B all-state as a quarterback.
“Levorson is a real threat to go any time he touches the ball,” McGinnis told the Journal Star following the 2006 season. “He made plays when he had to. John is invaluable. He had pressure, and he’d make the defense play harder.”
Levorson was also a second-team Super-State and first-team Class B all-state basketball player, averaging 15.6 points and 4.4 rebounds. In track, he ran the anchor leg on the Class B champion 1,600-meter relay team and led off the second-place 400 relay team.
Levorson also attended football camps at Iowa and Kansas, and said he’ll cancel a scheduled trip to Kansas State’s camp. He’s a member of the Bison Nebraska Red basketball team and will be traveling most of July.
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.
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