Why Nebraska Football Must Focus on Development Over Recruiting

Why Matt Rhule Is Nebraska's Head Coach Matt Ru was hired as Nebraska's head football coach to win games to beat big 10 opponents and beat them handily out coach them in September October and November to maybe make an appearance in the Big 10 championship game in December in some Seasons to always at least cross the bull eligibility marker and reach the postseason in December and in some Seasons preferably more so than not the longer the Matt rule tenure goes on reach the college football playoff and potentially win a playoff game or two and be in the postseason in January Nebraska is a blue blood program and Rule was hired so that even Regional relevancy could be brought to Lincoln much less National relevancy it's hard to say that you're a regional program andoss to say that you're a national program when the Corn Huskers have not finished higher than fourth in the trash Abomination that was the Big 10 West since 2016 and since 16 which was the end of the Obama presidency they haven't even made a bowl game appearance and this is all been done with what mostly has amounted to a top 25 recruiting roster Nebraska recruiting has come under scrutiny many of the criticisms have been have been echoed by Nebraska fans carried invented spoken by Nebraska fans and others and they should be recruiting more and perhaps what I'm about to say is redundant but Nebraska needs to focus more on developing players for college performance for the NFL they need to win games they need to coach like the whole state of Nebraska depends on them to win have that Ohio State Michigan mentality of if we don't win we fail our whole state that's what Nebraska needs and that's what I'm going to talk about in this video Nebraska doesn't need to win preseason national championships and get golf claps for recruiting accolades what they need is is a staff that develops a highlevel culture and that develops their players that nurtures them and coaches them and the wins will come from there before I resume this video I encourage you whether you're a Nebraska fan a fan of any of the other 17 big 10 schools or just someone who enjoys college football regardless if you are a DI hard a casual I think die hards are more enjoy but that's just a preference not everyone can be a die harder has that interest please subscribe to the channel and click the notification Bell so that you can get notified when I release more college football content whether it relates to Nebraska the Big 10 whether it's my ACC Big 12 Big 10 SEC predictions whether it's my allamerican predictions any opinion I have it will all relate to college football it will all be put in video content out here for you and you won't want to miss it so click that notification Bell And subscribe to the channel also like this video so that we can get into the algorithm my first video that receives 1,000 likes I will be doing a giveaway for the new college football 25 game and when I reach 20,000 subscribers on this channel I will be doing a giveaway as well so there is at minimum two giveaways that are waiting for you and hitting the like button and sharing this video around will help us get closer to those giveaways and also assist in the growth of the best Big 10 football channel on YouTube I said earlier that Nebraska's recruiting has to improve and here are some reasons why I think that's the case their 2025 recruiting class right now is 10th in the Big 10 36th nationally for 24/7 Sports they don't have many more four stars on on their target board and they Nebraska's 2025 Recruiting Class only have three of them committed right now in defensive lineman Malcolm Simpson running back jamarian Parker and offensive tackle Shawn hammerbeck quarterback TJ Latif who right now is a highle three star could be a four star and likely will be by the end of his high school career as the recruiting rankings are updated fairly often and he's the Highlight skill player of this class as he's a quarterback and a quarterback from the state of California nonetheless but overall when you look at this class Nebraska's not necessarily doing anything impressive Wisconsin is out recruiting them which Wisconsin out recruited them at times when Paul Christ and Scott Frost were coaching in the Big 10 west division that wasn't fairly uncommon although Nebraska typically out recruited Wisconsin there were years in which Wisconsin was the only big 10 west division team that had a more talented roster than the Corn Huskers USC Washington and Oregon and recently UCLA although Nebraska picked up some commitments and surpassed UCLA in the recruiting rankings almost all of the former Pack 12 schools are out recruiting Nebraska that isn't necessarily a huge surprise either because the Pack 12 had better recruiting grounds than the Big 10 West did and then Maryland's probably the biggest surprise but they have five additional commits their average rank per commit is nearly a single point lower ruter has 29 commits their average rank per recruit is only slightly lower than Nebraska though they're really out recruiting Maryland and while per average player rank they're not necessarily at recruiting Nebraska they've brought in a lot more bodies and recruiting classes have increased in size in recent years to make up for outgoing transfers as typically schools lose more transfers than gaining transfers so size and recruiting class is very important and Wisconsin Maryland Washington ruter Penn State and Ohio State all have 20 or more commits and Michigan and Oregon have the same amount or more commits the Nebraska 15 USC who's ahead of Nebraska only has 13 so it's not a terrible class that Nebraska has assembled but there's nothing exceptional about this class and if Nebraska is going to finally reach a bowl game if they're going to be a top 25 team this fall and potentially be a competitor or a contender for the college football playoff if they win 10 or 11 regular season games which is unlikely but Poss possible as in the 10 and two they could reach the college football playoff if these things are achieved which I think eight or nine wins is very likely to occur and this team will therefore get to a bowl game be ranked in the top 25 at some point or through most of the Season then they should begin to recruit better but looking at their current board and the players that they have I don't know how high this recruiting class can finish so the concerns there are understandable but I think there are big your concerns that need to be paid attention to or at least things that deserve higher priority before we get to that though if you have not already please check out my patreon page via the link in the description or down below in the pin comment or in a reply to the pin comment if you want some bonus content sign up as an All-American member for $10 a month if you simply want your name featured in the middle and end of every video with a shout out at the end you can 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white color or a long sleeve t-shirt in a black or white color if that's your thing even if you don't want to purchase anything I would really appreciate it if you still clicked the link and browsed through and maybe you'll change your mind again you can find the links to my patreon page and merchandise store in the description of this video and down below in the pinned comment or a reply to the pinned comment Why Coaching Matters More Than Recruiting Nebraska as we've already discussed has recruited at a high level relative to the former Big 10 West and yet they still couldn't go to a bowl game they couldn't go to Indianapolis when playing in the Big 10 West which was a division that really weighed down the entire perception of what the Big 10 conference was look at last year look at 2022 the Big 10 West was wide and I mean wide open same in 2021 same in 2020 2019 was really the last season and even then Iowa and Minnesota were in the thick of it was with Wisconsin but that Wisconsin team was dominant that was the last year in now the former Big 10 west where there was a team where after a few weeks you just thought this team's going to control the entire division like what Ohio state had on the Big 10 East and then what Michigan had on the Big 10 East for the previous three seasons the West was so weak that it was wide open most of its years and Nebraska the only Blue Blood program in that Division and the school with Wisconsin that was Far and Away the most talented by recruiting rankings in that division they couldn't even get to a bowl game they couldn't finish with a winning Conference record outside of one year 2016 where Nebraska had a soft schedule early much like this coming season's schedule they have recruited better than any of the former Big 10 West schools over the past four cycles and the past four Cycles maybe fifth are basically what makes up the current roster of a team and if you're watching on YouTube look at the graphic that's that's on display this graphic this chart charts average rank of a programs recruiting class over the previous 10 years and then the average number of players drafted in the NFL for the previous 10 years Nebraska is ahead of everyone in terms of recruiting in the former Big 10 West and yet they are behind well behind Wisconsin and Iowa averaging half the amount of players drafted that the Badgers and Hawkeyes produce and in accordance to the rest of the Big 10 they average less than Iowa Wisconsin Washington Michigan State Maryland yeah Maryland Oregon Penn State Michigan Ohio State along with Penn State and and Oregon is is kind of obvious USC even even Minnesota only from what I can tell on the graph ruter Indiana Purdue is about right in line with Nebraska in terms of players per year drafted Nebraska's had horrid development over the previous decade not just the Scot Frost era the Mike Riley era too this has been years upon years of bad development bad coaching bad program building CO coaching is that much more important than recruiting iow was a prime example of this Pittsburgh when they won the ACCC and then went 9 and4 the following year is a classic example Utah is a phenomenal example of this Washington whether it was Chris Peterson or kin dor great example of this as well even Alabama who's at the top of the graph and both recruiting and players drafted is a prime example of this because Georgia and Ohio State are just behind them same with LSU and really similar with Texas A&M especially if you look in re more recent history than the past decade they're right behind Alabama in terms of recruiting they're not too far away if they just stacked some more of those Elite classes and yet Alabama is way ahead of them in terms of players drafted and in terms of the amount of dominant teams that they field year overy year over year the Corn Huskers despite all of their recruiting have no winning seasons none since 2016 and they have not produced much NFL talent and they have no winning seasons in the past four Cycles so this roster that Nebraska has right now has not on an average basis because now transfers have to be factored in experienced a winning season in their program these same truths can be applied to the nearly the past decade decade of Nebraska The Signs Of A Well-Developed Nebraska Team football the Huskers need desperately need great coaching so what are some indicators that this Nebraska football team is developed at a high level and well coached first I want to look at this from more of a scheduling angle than a roster angle and from a scheduling angle I'm going to call these key checkpoints as throughout the season whether you want to do it by month or when the first bi-week hits you can look at this schedule in different sections and assess the team that way obviously the first half of the schedule is pretty charm and soft and then the final five games you have four teams that could all be ranked inside of the top 15 depending on if they play to their ceilings but that's that's extreme that's worst case scenario for the Corn Huskers or maybe best case scenario if they're a really good team and can beat several top 15 or better teams but the more likely reality is that all four of those teams or three out of the four worst two out of the four are going to be top 25 teams which Nebraska has had a really tough time beating by the bye-week on October 12th the week before the Indiana game on the road which is before the game at Ohio State that game in Indiana is the ultimate Trap game but before the bye Nebraska if they're well coached if they're fundamentally sound if they've fixed the turnover problem if they're more physical if they're better if they have better conditioning if they're stronger deeper they should be 5- one or 6-0 and I say not just 6-0 because Colorado could be good and more so ruter could be very good extremely physical team they play sound defense they'll have one of the better rushing attacks in the country and you Al have to look at Illinois who should be better than they were last year with what they've added in the portal and Purdue who similar story to Illinois they added well in the portal and they're just in their second year with Ryan Walters and his staff there are some opponents who could be competent and competent teams have given Nebraska trouble in the past and many of these teams that I just listed honestly have similar levels of roster Talent when you adjust for the development they've received ruter Greg shano's done a great job of developing the team and coaching them they're strong they're well conditioned Colorado's brought in several Blue Chip players through the transfer portal they're fast athletic at quarterback they have one of the better athletes in the country same at corner and wide receiver with Travis Hunter so there has to be some room for error but I'd say with Nebraska's Talent with what they have returning and the fact that they they should break through this year with all they have going for them that margin for ER has to be pretty small in the first part of the schedule I pensil in Ohio state is almost an automatic loss but competing with the Buckeyes just for a few quarters for like a half or three quarters that would show a vast sign of improvement because this Ohio State team like every Ohio State team under Ryan day is going to be one of the better teams in the country and finally the last three game stretch I think is the truest test a well- coached and a team that is developed at a big 10 level will win at least one of those three those games are at USC and then hosting wiconsin and at Iowa which at Iowa that's going to be a night game at USC will likely be a night game for Nebraska time and it's on the road with a time zone change and longdistance traveled and Wisconsin with that passing offense matches up well against the Nebraska defense whose weakness is stopping the pass and shutting down good wide receivers which will Pauling is one of them and Wisconsin might have one of the best o lines in all of college football along with a good defense so those three games USC straight up more talented than Nebraska Wisconsin has a great head coach a similar level of talent they also return a lot and they match up well with the Corn Huskers and Iowa has been a thorn in Nebraska's side and as of now still develop better than the Huskers have a better reputation they're one of the only teams in college football that returns more production than Nebraska does and they have a favorable schedule too so they will likely be rested and healthy when they play the Corn Huskers now let's look at the indicators and check points from more of a roster perspective this team last year was physical both on offense and on defense obviously the defense looked better and performed better the offense was basically physical SL trying to be physical and that was it they had no passing game to speak of their receivers were banged up the quarterback room was awful and while this team was physical and tough on offense just the follow through and the easy mist Stakes like the turnovers the fumbles the fact that the offensive line was still mostly developed by Scott Frost and therefore underwhelming and undersized and just not a true Big 10 offensive line yet really held that unit back if the line of scrimmage on offense especially but even both sides the ball because the defense it wasn't the best in America last year and against Michigan against the better schools they played they their defense was not a near Elite or Elite unit there can be Improvement if both sides the lines of scrimmage improve in 20124 that's a great indicator that this team is becoming more big 10 ready that Matt rule Glenn Thomas Marcus saterfield Donovan Rola and Tony White and the rest of the staffers are doing their jobs well I have said this before and I will say it over and over again trench play especially on the interior is the key to having success in the Big 10 so if those areas look even better defensively and much more improved offensively compared to last season then I think Nebraska is in great shape moving forward on offense outside of the lines of scrimmage if the receivers are healthier more explosive more consistent if the tight end room outside of fedoni someone else emerges and especially at quarterback if Rola is who his talent ratings say he is and some of that showcases in his freshman year at College a much higher level than high school football then I think we know that the offensive staff which had major questions last season especially with Marcus saterfield we know that they're the real deal and on defense I think the staff there is set it's great but if they are taken to an elite level the defense is that would be even more impressive than last year's performance by Tony white and Nash hutmacher and Luke Rymer and Nick Henrich and Isaac gford and Tommy Hill in a defense that I personally last year didn't think was going to be great and they ended up being really really impressive and one of the better defenses in the Big 10 West and finally I want to bring a little bit of corn husker history and say that Nebraska's tradition works and Nebraska The Husker Tradition Of Development as many of you know they have a proud history of developing walk-on players into starters occasionally great college players and some of them were even drafted and while college football has changed the overall formula for winning big and being a program that has respected the national and Regional level and a team that people fear is great coaching think of marked Antonio at Michigan State they never recruited at a high level and yet they won the Big 10 multiple times they beat Ohio State multiple times who at the time was the the giant of the Big 10 and one of the Giants of college football they still are one of the Giants of college football they just don't rule the Big 10 with an iron fist anymore and think about many other teams look at kin dor Washington last year they did not have a roster that was top 15 or top 10 in in raw talent if you consider Raw Talent as a recruiting talent and yet they went 14-1 made it to the national championship game and they diced Oregon twice and Texas teams that were top 10 in team Talent last year or Oregon may have just been outside of the top 10 but they were much more talented than Washington and there are other teams like Clemson in 2015 or some of Jimbo Fishers Florida State teams that wen't top 10 in talent in some cases were even outside of the Blue Chip ratio less than half of their roster was made up of Blue Chip players and yet they still competed at a high level so recruiting is very important but coaching is superior period amen and if Nebraska wants to be a team that is taken seriously in the fall development and coaching has to be prioritized and then I think the recruiting will come with that I think when players see that Nebraska is winning they will want to come to Lincoln thank you guys so much for watching this video remember to like subscribe click the notification Bell and comment your thoughts down below thanks to crash 2488 and brascar Rascal for being Heisman members and sponsoring this video and channel thanks to Chris Lane Conor little o and ismar for being all American members and sponsoring this video and channel and thanks to John Lynn roaming gnome Matthew sale Austin Christmas and Janisha Cockrell for sponsoring this video and channel is all conf conference members have a great day guys and I will see you all soon bye-bye