It’s been two or three weeks since D.J. Woods has heard from Husker coaches.

Woods doesn’t blame them for it.

With all that commotion in Nebraska, the Husker oral commit said Tuesday night he’s trying to just “let them do their own thing.”

And in the meantime, the prep wide receiver from Ohio is doing his own thing — visiting and planning visits to West Virginia, Penn State, North Carolina.

Sounds reasonable.

After all, the last time he talked to Husker coaches, “they said they don’t know what’s going on.

“Their voices just sound depressed, like they know they’re going to get fired,” Woods said. “In the back of my head,  I kind of know the coaching staff is going to be gone. I’m just trying to figure out who the next coach is going to be.”

No, it’s not easy to keep recruits when you’re being asked if you’ll resign, a question put before Husker coach Bill Callahan on Tuesday.

The answer was “no,” for the curious.

“No, I’m committed. I said I want to be here. I want to be here. I signed an extension to be here,” Callahan said. “No, it’s not an option.”

Callahan’s committed, but Jonas Gray isn’t.

The gifted running back from suburban Detroit — a four-star player, if you give a fig about that sort of thing — this week de-committed from Nebraska, passing his verbal blessing on to Notre Dame instead.

Later came news that Parkway West High School (Mo.) quarterback Blaine Gabbert — five stars come next to his name — has cancelled his official campus visit to Nebraska on Nov. 9-10.

Gabbert’s dad told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Nebraska coaches were informed of this on Tuesday. 

The Husker oral commit visited Missouri’s campus on Oct. 20. Though his dad said he is not yet de-committed, news of such a move would hardly come as a shock.

Then there’s Husker commits like offensive lineman Bryce Givens. He’s looking at Texas and Missouri. And linebacker Shaun Mohler. He’s looking at Colorado and a few Pac-10 schools.

Bad news seemingly everywhere. Yet amid all the turmoil, the Huskers actually picked up an oral commit on Tuesday, a big one at that.

Nebraska landed Simi Kuli, a 6-foot-4, 270-pound defensive end from El Camino Community College in Torrance, Calif. He is arguably the best JUCO player in the country and was being courted by the likes of LSU, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee.

He visited Lincoln on Saturday, met Tom Osborne, picked Nebraska.

NU currently has 24 known oral commits.

Husker senior receiver Maurice Purify was asked if he’d feel concerned about committing to Nebraska right now.

Husker senior receiver Maurice Purify was asked if he’d feel concerned about committing to Nebraska right now.

“Yeah, I would,” he said. “I mean, the athletic director got fired and all this happened with the coaches. You never know if they’re going to be here or not, and this and that. Yeah, that would happen to any player, because people that are coming here, it’s because they want to be with Coach Callahan.”

Yeah, about that Coach Callahan. What’s he think about all this?

With criticism of his coaching rising in decibels, Callahan came out firing at Tuesday’s weekly football press conference.

Here was obviously a man ready to make his case as to why he should continue to be the football coach at Nebraska.

“It’s a lot of work to climb up to that seven hole in the country in recruiting. That’s the disappointment when you don’t have success, you see some of that slipping,” Callahan said, referring to Nebraska’s recruiting ranking by Rivals.com, which actually has slipped to No. 10.

The coach said there have been a few de-commitments, that parents are expressing a lot of uncertainty to him.

“When your son’s looking at an institution, they want stability and they want continuity, and I think that’s why, with (my) contract extension in September, that made everyone feel assured that there was going to be those traits for their son.

“And so with everything up in the air, parents are concerned, they’re looking for other options. That’s the tough part, because our coaches have worked exceedingly hard to build that. And let’s be honest, it takes time to build that. It takes years to get into a position where you can have a great class.”

Callahan said his staff has worked tirelessly to bring in the best prep players and JUCO players to a team that did not have a lot of depth when he arrived.

He said when he got here, he was recruiting to just “plug a dike” at certain positions.

“I got to tell you what, this is the hardest recruiting staff you’ve seen, getting kids to camp and getting kids here on campus, and locking up a class the way they did,” Callahan said. “That’s what hurts. That’s what’s disappointing when you’re right at the position you can get a top class of talent like that and then let it slip away, that’s really tough.”

Yeah, says the critic, but what do high-ranking recruiting classes matter if you can’t produce on the field?

Callahan’s answer: “I think it takes time. Those classes take time. We’re playing a lot of young guys. I think it takes time. I really do. I think it’s a circumstance where you just try to keep growing with the players that you have. And I love our kids. They’re trying hard. They’re working hard.”

But the results have been miserable. The Huskers have lost their last three games by a combined 88 points, giving up an average of 40.6 points in each of those games.

During the time, fan criticism has reached a level rarely seen around here.

Surely, one broadcaster questioned — with the season’s results, the firing of Steve Pederson, and a book coming out that alleges Callahan said unkind things about Tom Osborne — the coach must wonder if he’s the right man for the job.

 “I don’t acknowledge that book at all. All I would tell you is … I’ve done an excellent job in every area. It’s hard for the media to know, but what we’ve done off the field, and what we’ve done on the field. I think it’s well-documented,” Callahan said.

“We did some positive things. We have. We haven’t sustained it this year. But you’re in a (Big 12) championship game, in a three-year period of time you come in and implement a whole new offensive system, and in two years time you’re in a championship ballgame.”

Within minutes, his words were being batted around in cyberspace.

Can the words “I’ve done an excellent job in every area”

 be uttered by a man leading a 4-4 football team?

The people wondered.

Callahan continued.

“There’s a lot of work being done, to put together these recruiting classes, I think it bodes well for what we represent and how hard this staff has worked,” he said.

“I got enough confidence in myself and our staff and our players to know we can win. We’re going to win. We’re just going through a tough stretch.”

Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.