While the Nebraska football team expects to come out of July looking quite a bit better than it did when it entered June, the Huskers have suffered some recruiting setbacks in the last two days. On Thursday, 4-star DB Devin Jackson committed to Big Ten rival Oregon. On Friday afternoon, Omaha defensive back Darion Jones also joined a B1G rival of the Cornhuskers in the Iowa Hawkeyes.
While neither recruiting loss was totally unforeseen, that doesn’t make the defeats sting any less. Especially Jones, whose brother Donovan was a freshman at Nebraska this past season and played in five games while keeping his redshirt intact.
The Nebraska football team knew it had a fight on its hands in landing the Omaha North prospect. His family is deeply divided along the lines of the Huskers and Hawkeyes. Jones previously said he grew up rooting for Iowa. When Kirk Ferentz and company made him a priority this spring, that was enough to convince him to leave his home state.
Nebraska football reels after Omaha DB Darion Jones commits to Iowa
Hawkeye Nation let’s ride!!! @HawkeyeFootballpic.twitter.com/s4ITFEmmCy
— Darion jones (@dar11on) July 4, 2025
Another of Jones’ older brothers, Dallas, graduated from Iowa and had worked there as a student reporter covering various sports, including football. His dad’s side of the family are big Iowa fans — his mom’s side backs Nebraska — with multiple other relatives who are Hawkeyes alums…