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Who do you think we close the class out with?

The lack of recruiting success since the early signing day is particularly mystifying/concerning because the coaching staff didn't have a bowl game to occupy their time and attention, so they were able to go all-in on recruiting since late November.
With the early signing day now established and the norm, I think the recruits that don’t sign early are, at best, struggling to figure things out and maybe just struggling. For late signers it’s hit and miss for all the schools. We just missed. It’s why you want to be at 25 or more at early signing day.
 
With the early signing day now established and the norm, I think the recruits that don’t sign early are, at best, struggling to figure things out and maybe just struggling. For late signers it’s hit and miss for all the schools. We just missed. It’s why you want to be at 25 or more at early signing day.
And we were!
 
Not an easy decision to 17/18 year olds. Lots of people bending their ears with pressure from peers, family and coaches. Does not surprise me. Manly factors for them to consider; distance, weather, coaching staffs, educational support, ability to play sooner, facilities and the big cherry is most of them have NFL aspirations and who they think can get them there.
 
I think lack of success is a little harsh. Nebraska didn't have a lot of needs and the rest of the people the fan base had been hyping up as potential targets the staff backed off on. Parker and Jordan are the only ones that I consider us losing and both are because they saw better opportunities for PT. If that's why we are losing kids I'm far more comfortable than the old thought of "we're nebraska so we can't compete for those kinds of kids" narrative from way back when.
Frost specifically said he was still looking for help at OLB, WR and CB. It appears we will only get one of those.
On if there are any areas of emphasis to recruit before the February signing period:

“....For the most part, I still think there’s some things we’d like to add. I still think we need to improve our depth at outside linebacker and pass rusher so we will keep our eye out for that. If there’s another receiver that we can add, I think our depth there is not really where we want it to be through this first year. I still think we could use a young corner to try to get in here and develop to see if they can help us. So those are kind of areas that we’re looking so it doesn’t really matter skill player on offense, d-line, if we find a kind of player that can help us win games in the Big Ten, we’re going to take them.”
https://www.3newsnow.com/omahasport...-sign-23-recruits-during-early-signing-period
 



With the movement we are seeing today, among current players, who knows what will transpire. I am thinking Scott will bring on a couple of guys, before next season, that are not on the radar at this time.
 
Frost specifically said he was still looking for help at OLB, WR and CB. It appears we will only get one of those.

https://www.3newsnow.com/omahasport...-sign-23-recruits-during-early-signing-period
From the article the quote reads quite a bit different, most notably the conclusion of "if we find a kind of player that can help us win games in the Big Ten, we’re going to take them.” We definitely for one reason or another cooled on quite a few people and you can tell who the priority people we identified were. Also Frost strategically said recruiting January and beyond which doesn't stop at NSD 2.0 and depth can be provided by the grad transfer market. The staff was slow playing Asante and Fanua (misspelled probably) and weren't sure of their fit. Starks and Mayo we had cooled on(backed off a little with attention/love)awhile back, and we backed off MPM along with his top other schools which should be a flag. Additionally, we started backing off Bivens. The ones we pedal to the metaled were Jordan, Parker, and Houston (I'll count Njoku but I honestly believe he and Houston were 1a, 1b kind of guys and they felt better about houston so they made their move but that's just my assessment).

From that we only lost the two I mentioned and clearly shifted our efforts to 2020 or the 2 OLB'ers and Houston. Going 1 for 3 at key positions all being 4 star talents is very good, especially when the shot at early/immediate PT was a deciding factor for the two we missed out on. NPG is a big pickup for the secondary (which wasn't mentioned and could arguably be the young secondary help he was addressing) and if we get Houston that's 2/3 for assigned needs with the staff hitting the grad transfer market for OLB'er depth. Notice that frost specified Youth for the secondary and merely depth for OLB and WR (I could be looking too much into it) but I feel like this staff sets up contingency plans extremely well and the only spot we are aw shucksing is at OLB. To call any of that a "lack of success" is a little misguided I feel but to each their own. I'm still incredibly excited to see these young men grow and develop on and off the field!
 
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I would think Bivens would be a great addition at this point. I would be shocked if he isn't in.

Get ready to be shocked. I think the more likely scenario is the staff tries to place him at a juco where they can see if his knee holds up. As a full qualifier, he could go the D1 route after one year.
 






The lack of recruiting success since the early signing day is particularly mystifying/concerning because the coaching staff didn't have a bowl game to occupy their time and attention, so they were able to go all-in on recruiting since late November.
I think lack of success is a little harsh. Nebraska didn't have a lot of needs and the rest of the people the fan base had been hyping up as potential targets the staff backed off on. Parker and Jordan are the only ones that I consider us losing and both are because they saw better opportunities for PT. If that's why we are losing kids I'm far more comfortable than the old thought of "we're nebraska so we can't compete for those kinds of kids" narrative from way back when.
If you had asked our staff a month ago--prior to Bivens on Njoku coming on an OV--who were their top candidates for the last 4 spots on NSD, I think that they would have said (not necessarily in this order) something very close to this:
  • OLB = Parker or Jordan, possibly Fonua or Asante
  • CB = Starks or Mayo
  • WR = Njoku or Houston
  • RB = Mills or Bivens (if his knee is healthy)
  • NG Palo-Mao
Frost alluded in his press conference to the fact that there weren't very many players available this year after the early signing day. It seems like we (the fans) knew about all of the people listed above that they were going after, and there just weren't many (if any) other options on the table worth locking in a scholarship for what would be a marginal player with a limited upside. Bivens took an official visit, so I assume that they were pretty serious about him, but nothing came out of it, even though those close to him said that he was waiting for a commit-able offer. It's possible that Bivens' knee didn't medically check out, which would explain all of the above. It's also possible that he was a backup for if Mills couldn't demonstrate that he was on track. It doesn't seem like that they were that high on Fonua based on the relative lack of attention he got, and his film wasn't at the same level as the other OLBs. They obviously wanted Njoku at one point, but didn't it also seem like both sides lost interest after he took his official visit? Perhaps he said or did or asked about some things during his OV that made the staff have second thoughts?

We all know the two positions of need where we most clearly came up short: OLB and CB. Other than Starks and Mayo, there doesn't seem to have been any more CBs in play. As for OLB, I think that everything went off the tracks for that spot with Summerall. I'm not sure why Frost and staff went all-in on him if they didn't think that there was a reasonably good chance that they'd land him, but they did go all in, and they did not land him. If they expected to get him, it makes sense that there weren't a lot of other options lined up, but I also think that there just aren't a ton of guys available who can play that position at a near-elite level. They got on Parker and Jordan relatively late, but sooner than most others who went after them, and they seemed to do all that they could to get them, but didn't. It happens. I don't know that they were seriously pursuing Fonua or Asante, but they had Fonua on campus for an OV and Asante scheduled for one, so there must have been some interest. Neither seemed like a great fit though.

Pola-Mao seems to have had academic issues, but it also seemed like the coaching staff lost a little interest in him after Darrion Daniels decided to transfer in. If Pola-Mao isn't as good of a prospect as some of the 2020 prospects that we're pursuing, it would also make sense to take Daniels, pass on Pola-Mao, and plan for next year's class. We did get Mills to work through his academic issues, apparently, which is a big deal. We also got Houston against what could have been some very stiff competition at the end except that the Huskers staff somehow impressed him enough that he decided to not even take his OVs to Penn State or CU.

Looking just at what happened since the first NSD, Frost and staff still did pretty well in getting Mills and Houston. It seems like the odds were better than a coin-flip that we'd get either Jordan or Parker, and that would have made an excellent haul. Even then we would be whining because we didn't have a CB, too, but you can't spontaneously cause one to come into being if he's not there.

Now I want to see who we get as transfers. If we can pick up an OLB and a Safety to at least provide depth for a year, it would help a lot. Beyond that, save as many scholarships as possible for the 2020 class, but also give out as many to upper class walk-ons as possible after others wash out after spring ball.

I like where we're at, overall.
 
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