Early 2017 Top 25

[broganreynik]

I'm always more impressed with a team that finishes strong rather than a team that finishes poorly. USC didn't lose to Bama in November. Injuries happen to nearly every team. The teams mostly affected by injuries are those who haven't done a great job recruiting depth. It's okay to admit that we didn't have quality depth. It's also okay to admit that we weren't a great team in 2016. It's also okay to admit that USC was a better team than we were in 2016. The staff took a calculated risk/gamble by redshirting as many as possible. It more than likely will pay dividends in the next couple of years. We are positioning ourselves to get closer to the top teams such as USC.

I respectfully disagree with your last point, we are closing no gaps with the likes of USC and the other top 5-7 teams--usual suspects--that are amassing/hoarding the best talent like it's 2 Americas--which it is, in real life and CFB.
NU is at about a 10+ year holding pattern in recruiting, ave ranking being ~25th, and low and behold, that's usually where we start and finish each season, on average. USC. for e.g., '17 class as per 247 sports gathered 2 five stars, 12 four stars, and 10 3 stars to finish 4th and they are back finishing top 5 or 10 consistently, in recruiting. Well, if you check out the top 6 teams on 247, for e.g., the wealth of talent is off the charts. Bama and tOSU each quite possibly have more 5 star guys than we have 4 star guys. I don't see NU closing many gaps. Our '17 RB is a 3 star kid from Bellevue, NE, for god's sake!!!

2 Americas.

Wow, he is one of the most productive running back in Nebraska history. He had 496 yards in a single game. Ran for 2511 yards and 50 TDs this season. FIFTY f'ing TDS and you crush him because he is from Nebraska? Go away.
We have done pretty well with those Nebraska guys and another one comes to mind that went to Kansas and another who is still in the league from North Platte

Ahman Green

Damon Benning

Clinton Childs

Gale Sayers

Calvin Jones

Jeff Kinney

Danny Woodhead

(There are more, but I am not going to look all of them up)

Bradley scored more TD this season than any of those All-Americans and NFL RB ever did in High School.

Admittedly, I haven't seen him play. If he's so great, why only 3*s and are you implying we turned other guys away to take the kid from Bellevue? Actually, the last IB from NE to start for NE was Ahman Green, if I recall.

Tierre Green started a few games as a freshman before changing to running back.

Bradley could easily jump into the rotation next year. He's shifty as hell, and could easily bulk up with his frame. Check out the highlights of the Class A state championship game against Omaha North. North was undefeated and the hands down favorite to win that game. Bradley completely decimated their defense that hadn't even allowed any team to score as many TDs as he did.

He just became eligible this January getting the necessary test scores, otherwise his recruitment would have been a lot hotter.

 

[The Big Nebrowski]

Oops, plz refer below vvv

 

[The Big Nebrowski]

Hmmm, that sounds exciting so I will def check out his "film"--and I apologize for perhaps being prematurely dismissive. It's just, like I said, NE hasn't fielded an IB from NE in this century and I sometimes wonder why that is. Well, most the middle class white kids are playing soccer over football, we know that much, and I can't say as I blame 'em.

Still, he is 3*s(or 2) and this is in NE competition, not TX, not FL, not Cali, not OH, or ATL. So there's that. One other offer from S Dak St, so there's that. Academic issues, there's that.

But my main point here is w Riley and Crew's--and the program in general-- rather underperforming in attracting top IBs when, maybe more than any other position, it should be easy for us/them to do so. Like they(IBs) should be beating down the doors to play here, like in the days of yore. But really, post Oz, our IB recruiting has fallen way off so it's not all on Riley. Ziggy and Tre are solid, servicable, I like 'em, but they don't scare anybody. Well, if and when we get the next Fournette or whoever, Husker Fans will wake up, hopefully, to the fact that we've been settling--with the exception of Ameer, and Rex, and Roy-- for a merely servicable running attack for a very long time.

Which reminds me, one Adam Taylor is still on the roster as a Sr. this year--nvr played a down. Guess he nvr really got over the knee injuries.

 

[Mavric]

Pro Football Focus' Take

3 - Ohio State

7 - Penn State

9 - Michigan

18 - Wisconsin

22 - Oregon

25 - Wyoming

Two teams we beat.

 

[Old Nebraska Guy]

Riley and company don't need a great running back. They can stick a tight end/H-back in there as long a he can pass block, occasionally catch the ball on a wheel route, and smash into the A-gap for two yards. They will be happy with their "running game".

Our running game mirrors most NFL games, unless you have someone named Adrian, Demarco, or "Zeke" that is all the NFL backs are expected to do.

 

[Redux]

I'm always more impressed with a team that finishes strong rather than a team that finishes poorly. USC didn't lose to Bama in November. Injuries happen to nearly every team. The teams mostly affected by injuries are those who haven't done a great job recruiting depth. It's okay to admit that we didn't have quality depth. It's also okay to admit that we weren't a great team in 2016. It's also okay to admit that USC was a better team than we were in 2016. The staff took a calculated risk/gamble by redshirting as many as possible. It more than likely will pay dividends in the next couple of years. We are positioning ourselves to get closer to the top teams such as USC.

I respectfully disagree with your last point, we are closing no gaps with the likes of USC and the other top 5-7 teams--usual suspects--that are amassing/hoarding the best talent like it's 2 Americas--which it is, in real life and CFB.NU is at about a 10+ year holding pattern in recruiting, ave ranking being ~25th, and low and behold, that's usually where we start and finish each season, on average. USC. for e.g., '17 class as per 247 sports gathered 2 five stars, 12 four stars, and 10 3 stars to finish 4th and they are back finishing top 5 or 10 consistently, in recruiting. Well, if you check out the top 6 teams on 247, for e.g., the wealth of talent is off the charts. Bama and tOSU each quite possibly have more 5 star guys than we have 4 star guys. I don't see NU closing many gaps. Our '17 RB is a 3 star kid from Bellevue, NE, for god's sake!!!

2 Americas.

Success doesn't happen over night dude. Year 3 is typically when you see results if the rebuild is paying off. I'm sure you've seen this point mentioned multiple times.

And who cares where our RB is from? Some would be ecstatic that he's a NE kid! And it won't matter if we land a top RB in the 2018 class.

 

[Redux]

Pro Football Focus' Take

3 - Ohio State

7 - Penn State

9 - Michigan

18 - Wisconsin

22 - Oregon

25 - Wyoming

Two teams we beat.

Ohio State: I don't see us beating them in Lincoln this year, we aren't there yet. But we will keep it a hell of a lot more respectable this year. Although, the seeds of skeptecism were planted thanks to Clemson.
Penn St: We have had their number since joining. Alwayd love playing them. They are a tough squad now, it would be hard.

Michiga: Finished about as poorly down the stretch as we did. Play it in Lincoln and we could win.

Wisconsin: We slaughter them this year, mark it.

Oregon: Will be much tougher, but we can do it.

Wyoming: Double Digit win.

 

[NoLongerN]

@ 1995 Redux

I think the bigger point is that even though we are making strides a bit ... even this years recruiting class falls even further away from the likes of OSU, Mich and PSU. We seem to fall a good 5-7 players short in quality to the likes of these teams ... and that was just this year. So, I don't see how we "restore the order" when we get in to actual competing on the field with these teams. I don't think we have a coaching staff that is going to make the deficiency up at all. Thus, although I'm excited for this class and glad to secure it ... I don't see this class "catching us up" to anyone ... I actually think we fell further behind these teams above along with the the big boys.

In past years I've always felt that some of the "over signing" by teams in say the $EC seemed to allow them to get an extra five (5) players every year. But now, it just seems like straight up that these teams, even if all teams sign 20 players ... we seem to fall way behind in star rating alone. Sadly, we don't have a "pipeline" or a coaching staff that has any type of system to keep producing solid football players like we use. Wisconsin and Iowa in our own conference do that far better and teams like OSU can lose 3-5 players to the NFL early every year and seem to out-perform the likes of us. I do realize that this year was hurt by guys like VV going to the NFL early ... but the hit we take from this seems far greater then when it happens to those in the top of the B1G.

I'm not arguing here ... all this is just frustrating to me and as a fan I don't want to complain ... but I just don't see us catching up to anyone anytime soon ... OSU, Mich and PSU seem to have their programs on a whole other sphere at the moment and we don't have the vision, attitude, philosophy, coaches and recruiting classes to make any gains.

 

[Redux]

@ 1995 Redux

I think the bigger point is that even though we are making strides a bit ... even this years recruiting class falls even further away from the likes of OSU, Mich and PSU. We seem to fall a good 5-7 players short in quality to the likes of these teams ... and that was just this year. So, I don't see how we "restore the order" when we get in to actual competing on the field with these teams. I don't think we have a coaching staff that is going to make the deficiency up at all. Thus, although I'm excited for this class and glad to secure it ... I don't see this class "catching us up" to anyone ... I actually think we fell further behind these teams above along with the the big boys.

In past years I've always felt that some of the "over signing" by teams in say the $EC seemed to allow them to get an extra five (5) players every year. But now, it just seems like straight up that these teams, even if all teams sign 20 players ... we seem to fall way behind in star rating alone. Sadly, we don't have a "pipeline" or a coaching staff that has any type of system to keep producing solid football players like we use. Wisconsin and Iowa in our own conference do that far better and teams like OSU can lose 3-5 players to the NFL early every year and seem to out-perform the likes of us. I do realize that this year was hurt by guys like VV going to the NFL early ... but the hit we take from this seems far greater then when it happens to those in the top of the B1G.

I'm not arguing here ... all this is just frustrating to me and as a fan I don't want to complain ... but I just don't see us catching up to anyone anytime soon ... OSU, Mich and PSU seem to have their programs on a whole other sphere at the moment and we don't have the vision, attitude, philosophy, coaches and recruiting classes to make any gains.

If you look beneath the surface of the recruiting class ranking you can see this class is much more talented and important than the handicapped star ratings gave it.

This class is better than last years, and that year was better than the year before. We are recruiting more talent across the board, that's what makes ghe difference. Landing them is the ultimate deciding factor though and we are in the running.

 

[Old Nebraska Guy]

Just make sure that we, (collectively) don't whine about a lack of depth in two or three years.

 

[Nebfanatic]

Recruiting rankings 4 years prior to '16: '12(31) '13(22) '14(36) '15(30) since then we have gone 24 and 23 respectively with another top 25 (probably 20) class imminent. I think we will at least be better off in 2 or 3 years talent wise and depth wise

 

[The Big Nebrowski]

I'm always more impressed with a team that finishes strong rather than a team that finishes poorly. USC didn't lose to Bama in November. Injuries happen to nearly every team. The teams mostly affected by injuries are those who haven't done a great job recruiting depth. It's okay to admit that we didn't have quality depth. It's also okay to admit that we weren't a great team in 2016. It's also okay to admit that USC was a better team than we were in 2016. The staff took a calculated risk/gamble by redshirting as many as possible. It more than likely will pay dividends in the next couple of years. We are positioning ourselves to get closer to the top teams such as USC.

I respectfully disagree with your last point, we are closing no gaps with the likes of USC and the other top 5-7 teams--usual suspects--that are amassing/hoarding the best talent like it's 2 Americas--which it is, in real life and CFB.NU is at about a 10+ year holding pattern in recruiting, ave ranking being ~25th, and low and behold, that's usually where we start and finish each season, on average. USC. for e.g., '17 class as per 247 sports gathered 2 five stars, 12 four stars, and 10 3 stars to finish 4th and they are back finishing top 5 or 10 consistently, in recruiting. Well, if you check out the top 6 teams on 247, for e.g., the wealth of talent is off the charts. Bama and tOSU each quite possibly have more 5 star guys than we have 4 star guys. I don't see NU closing many gaps. Our '17 RB is a 3 star kid from Bellevue, NE, for god's sake!!!

2 Americas.

Success doesn't happen over night dude. Year 3 is typically when you see results if the rebuild is paying off. I'm sure you've seen this point mentioned multiple times.
And who cares where our RB is from? Some would be ecstatic that he's a NE kid! And it won't matter if we land a top RB in the 2018 class.

Helton just finished year 2 @ Troy. Has a few early losses, then rolls of 9 straight, beating WA, CO, PSU, UCLA, etc., finishes #3 in the country. Goes into next year @ #3. Evidently, they don't need patience @ USC.
Personally, I'm plenty patient as long as we keep it in a minimal range of redpectability. Waited 25 yrs for OZ to get the big one, so I can wait another 25, which, the way things are going, is prlly what it will take.

But in today's football milieau, Riley's gotta start making hay here pretty quick or he's out the door. Just the way it is.

As to Bradly, I don't care where he comes from, he could come from Mars. I care who he is: he was a 2* guy with 1 other offer from S Dak St. They bumped him a * when Nebby came calling. He's our only RB recruit. If fans aren't concerned about that they just aren't paying att'n.

 

[Ratt Mhule]

I'm always more impressed with a team that finishes strong rather than a team that finishes poorly. USC didn't lose to Bama in November. Injuries happen to nearly every team. The teams mostly affected by injuries are those who haven't done a great job recruiting depth. It's okay to admit that we didn't have quality depth. It's also okay to admit that we weren't a great team in 2016. It's also okay to admit that USC was a better team than we were in 2016. The staff took a calculated risk/gamble by redshirting as many as possible. It more than likely will pay dividends in the next couple of years. We are positioning ourselves to get closer to the top teams such as USC.

I respectfully disagree with your last point, we are closing no gaps with the likes of USC and the other top 5-7 teams--usual suspects--that are amassing/hoarding the best talent like it's 2 Americas--which it is, in real life and CFB.NU is at about a 10+ year holding pattern in recruiting, ave ranking being ~25th, and low and behold, that's usually where we start and finish each season, on average. USC. for e.g., '17 class as per 247 sports gathered 2 five stars, 12 four stars, and 10 3 stars to finish 4th and they are back finishing top 5 or 10 consistently, in recruiting. Well, if you check out the top 6 teams on 247, for e.g., the wealth of talent is off the charts. Bama and tOSU each quite possibly have more 5 star guys than we have 4 star guys. I don't see NU closing many gaps. Our '17 RB is a 3 star kid from Bellevue, NE, for god's sake!!!

2 Americas.

Success doesn't happen over night dude. Year 3 is typically when you see results if the rebuild is paying off. I'm sure you've seen this point mentioned multiple times.
And who cares where our RB is from? Some would be ecstatic that he's a NE kid! And it won't matter if we land a top RB in the 2018 class.

Helton just finished year 2 @ Troy. Has a few early losses, then rolls of 9 straight, beating WA, CO, PSU, UCLA, etc., finishes #3 in the country. Goes into next year @ #3. Evidently, they don't need patience @ USC.
Personally, I'm plenty patient as long as we keep it in a minimal range of redpectability. Waited 25 yrs for OZ to get the big one, so I can wait another 25, which, the way things are going, is prlly what it will take.

But in today's football milieau, Riley's gotta start making hay here pretty quick or he's out the door. Just the way it is.

As to Bradly, I don't care where he comes from, he could come from Mars. I care who he is: he was a 2* guy with 1 other offer from S Dak St. They bumped him a * when Nebby came calling. He's our only RB recruit. If fans aren't concerned about that they just aren't paying att'n.

Academic issues keep teams away and this was the case here. I also seem to believe one of our best DT of all time was rated a 3* coming out of HS.

By the way, Lee played with a broken hand for part of one year so that might be why his stats aren't up to your high standards at Tulane. Plus he will have better receivers here than he had at Tulane. Makes a big difference.

Who knows what POB will become, but you saying he is a bust because he didn't win the back-up position as a true freshman is a joke. Everyone knew Tommy would be the starter and POB would redshirt unless something drastic happened.

 

[The Big Nebrowski]

@ 1995 Redux

I think the bigger point is that even though we are making strides a bit ... even this years recruiting class falls even further away from the likes of OSU, Mich and PSU. We seem to fall a good 5-7 players short in quality to the likes of these teams ... and that was just this year. So, I don't see how we "restore the order" when we get in to actual competing on the field with these teams. I don't think we have a coaching staff that is going to make the deficiency up at all. Thus, although I'm excited for this class and glad to secure it ... I don't see this class "catching us up" to anyone ... I actually think we fell further behind these teams above along with the the big boys.

In past years I've always felt that some of the "over signing" by teams in say the $EC seemed to allow them to get an extra five (5) players every year. But now, it just seems like straight up that these teams, even if all teams sign 20 players ... we seem to fall way behind in star rating alone. Sadly, we don't have a "pipeline" or a coaching staff that has any type of system to keep producing solid football players like we use. Wisconsin and Iowa in our own conference do that far better and teams like OSU can lose 3-5 players to the NFL early every year and seem to out-perform the likes of us. I do realize that this year was hurt by guys like VV going to the NFL early ... but the hit we take from this seems far greater then when it happens to those in the top of the B1G.

I'm not arguing here ... all this is just frustrating to me and as a fan I don't want to complain ... but I just don't see us catching up to anyone anytime soon ... OSU, Mich and PSU seem to have their programs on a whole other sphere at the moment and we don't have the vision, attitude, philosophy, coaches and recruiting classes to make any gains.

Agree with all this. Bama signed 28: 6 5*, 18 4*(!), and 4 3*. Like I keep saying, "2 Americas".

 

[Redux]

I've heard that this Bradley fellow us going to end up being a steal. Star ratings aren't all they are cracked up to be.

And we are currently recruiting a top ranked RB for 2018. We just landed a 3* Fullback. We have Bryant, Wilbon and Ozigbo on the team all with experience. I'm not worried about the RB position right now.