2022 Recruiting Numbers Game & Other Updates; Part 6: Potential Silver Lining To NU's Small Class Numbers in 2022

[Frank The Tank]

So Benhart was a bad frosh O lineman, as was Corcoran?Piper?
Henrich? Newsome? Clark?
Last year was their frosh year.
Ooops, not Clark

Who said they are bad? Look, if you want to have a discussion then I'm open. You lose me when you lie about what I said. I said they haven't produced a lot yet. They haven't. Last year's offense was one of the worst offenses in modern NU football history. I also said outside of the defense.

 

[NorthwoodHusker]

Who said they are bad? Look, if you want to have a discussion then I'm open. You lose me when you lie about what I said. I said they haven't produced a lot yet. They haven't. Last year's offense was one of the worst offenses in modern NU football history. I also said outside of the defense.

I asked a question in response to your not seeing much.
My reponse was,and still is, how much are we to expect out of freshmen?
And limiting it to offense, ok, I mentioned Gabe, Morrison looks good,Scott looks decent,Betts you mentioned, Nixon looks good.
I predict Fidone will play well. I think guys like Conn and Lynn and Fritzsche will start some games.
But all these guys were Frosh last year,thusmy question, who dont you like?
Theres others as well

 

[HuskerNash]

Okay, but you can either be positive here, or negative.
Ive seen what a 84 rated kid by 247 looks like in a spring game, watched his tape, he looks good.
Others like what they see.
I have confidence in the staffs ability to find talent.
Gabe Ervin does NOT look like a very low 3 star

The recruiting gurus get it right more often than not and there’s nothing wrong with optimism but there’s no way to describe our current trend line other than concerning at best. If it was Wisconsin with these numbers we’d be pointing it out. Eight recruits, worst ranking in the big 10, and none of the eight are higher than three star. If you’re Northwestern and have proven you can develop lower rated classes, that’s one thing. Nebraska hasn’t been able to turn four star kids into all conference type players so that should concern us.

 

[NorthwoodHusker]

Forming an opinion on freshmen without counting how that effects team play?
It goes hand in hand.
We are older, more experienced, deeper and have better talent, on paper.
Thats reality.
The 2022 class is looking better than some think, the numbers may be slightly down in number of players, but we wont know until later

 

[Frank The Tank]

I asked a question in response to your not seeing much.
My reponse was,and still is, how much are we to expect out of freshmen?
And limiting it to offense, ok, I mentioned Gabe, Morrison looks good,Scott looks decent,Betts you mentioned, Nixon looks good.
I predict Fidone will play well. I think guys like Conn and Lynn and Fritzsche will start some games.
But all these guys were Frosh last year,thusmy question, who dont you like?
Theres others as well

I've already answered this. I don't not like any of them. I'm also not going to repeat the recruiting thread praise as a given that these kids are going to succeed. We need to see it.

 

[NorthwoodHusker]

The recruiting gurus get it right more often than not and there’s nothing wrong with optimism but there’s no way to describe our current trend line other than concerning at best. If it was Wisconsin with these numbers we’d be pointing it out. Eight recruits, worst ranking in the big 10, and none of the eight are higher than three star. If you’re Northwestern and have proven you can develop lower rated classes, that’s one thing. Nebraska hasn’t been able to turn four star kids into all conference type players so that should concern us.

I get that, someone pointed out blaming our poor recruiting on covid.
What I think is, this will be the absolute worse year for recruiting sites in evals.
So I trust our staff, I would over sites anyways, but with all the dead periods, on again off again, no playing, partial season etc etc its a tough call.
I like who they have thus far, maybe we have 3 really good players, or 4

 

[NorthwoodHusker]

I've already answered this. I don't not like any of them. I'm also not going to repeat the recruiting thread praise as a given that these kids are going to succeed. We need to see it.

Now youre talking reality

 

[Skerfan]

The part of the equation that continually gets missed here is the kid.
This class isnt done, and we dont know its outcome, other than its going to be freakishly small.
I'll take 4 out if state kids that want to be here than 4 instaters who dont, bottom line, and this isnt some snake oil, magic dust type of svengali act for those Omaha kids, they play the ultimate part in their decision making, now its up to the staff for them to regret their decisions

Its obvious that we want kids that want to be here. The point is that the 4 best kids in Omaha, all of which have a large number of P5 offers and we would take if we could have 0 interest in our program. We didnt even make their final 5, 8, 10, or whatever they listed. That is a very big problem.

 

[NorthwoodHusker]

Its obvious that we want kids that want to be here. The point is that the 4 best kids in Omaha, all of which have a large number of P5 offers and we would take if we could have 0 interest in our program. We didnt even make their final 5, 8, 10, or whatever they listed. That is a very big problem.

Yes it is, and if we start winning alot and it doesnt change, were still going to have it, or we may not and thats been the problem, not winning.
We need to win to find out

 

[TFrazier]

This, ultimately, is the answer.

Improved play calling and game management would have resulted in more wins and possibly better recruiting in Omaha heading into year 4.

Sorry…possibly wrong thread.

 

[goodnterribles]

The recruiting gurus get it right more often than not and there’s nothing wrong with optimism but there’s no way to describe our current trend line other than concerning at best. If it was Wisconsin with these numbers we’d be pointing it out. Eight recruits, worst ranking in the big 10, and none of the eight are higher than three star. If you’re Northwestern and have proven you can develop lower rated classes, that’s one thing. Nebraska hasn’t been able to turn four star kids into all conference type players so that should concern us.

It's not a trend line, it's this class. Last year's class was good.

 

[BasilLongfellow]

We look at recruiting differently then.

Sure, stars are great. Buzz is great. Give me a solid class of kids who want to be in the program and I’ll take that over a higher star and conference recruiting ranking.

That's the fallacy, though. Higher star players don't want to be here right now. Higher star players are generally better players. If we were 20-12 and had a bunch of four and five stars that wanted to be here, we'd be in great shape. But now we have a solid class of average rated players that want to be here; not high rated players that want to be here. When we go 12-20 with four star rated players, I sure hope we can turn it around with 3 star players.

 

[NorthwoodHusker]

That's the fallacy, though. Higher star players don't want to be here right now. Higher star players are generally better players. If we were 20-12 and had a bunch of four and five stars that wanted to be here, we'd be in great shape. But now we have a solid class of average rated players that want to be here; not high rated players that want to be here. When we go 12-20 with four star rated players, I sure hope we can turn it around with 3 star players.

Last year,we had 4 4 stars

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[NorthwoodHusker]

If this class finishes with 3 or 4 4 stars after final eval, its a good class

 

[CrabHusker]

That's the fallacy, though. Higher star players don't want to be here right now. Higher star players are generally better players. If we were 20-12 and had a bunch of four and five stars that wanted to be here, we'd be in great shape. But now we have a solid class of average rated players that want to be here; not high rated players that want to be here. When we go 12-20 with four star rated players, I sure hope we can turn it around with 3 star players.

What's the fallacy? We're not attracting higher star players so we're talking whatever we can get? I'll agree we're not attracting five star kids at all right now, but we've got company and five stars coming to Lincoln are rare as it is. That's always been the case.

We know 5 star kids are likely better as high school seniors. Usually dramatically so. They're also fairly rare. Let's just take those off the table right now and look at three's and four's. If a three star player has a higher ceiling than a four star in terms of fit in a system, growth potential, frame, etc., why not take the guy you think has more potential and works better in your system? Would it be better to have a group of 4 stars signed up that want to be here? Sure. For the star gazers, but not necessarily in realty. Let's be honest, recruiting star rankings, other than the top 20-25 players in the country every year, is a lot of blue sky. They're not real, highly subjective and rely on a lot of opinions. I want to win and I want as good a group of kids as we can get in Lincoln every year. You're right in that if we win, the recruiting game gets easier. I disagree that the end all be all is about stars.