Roster Building

Mavric

Mavric

Yoda
I've seen this brought up for years.  But it was mentioned in a recruit thread this week.  So I thought I'd sketch it out to see how we are doing.

One theory is you should be able to fill out the depth chart every two recruiting classes.  Kind of a nice rule-of-thumb to make sure you don't come up short somewhere a few years down the road.  

So how are we doing?  First, I put the 2019 and 2020 classes together to see how Frost's first two full classes fared.  Then the 2020 & 2021 classes (so far) to see where we're currently at.  One caveat is I don't think JUCOs are traditionally included in this calculation because they'll be gone before the rest are upperclassmen.  But that might skew this a bit, especially with a class like last year where we took several JUCOs.  So I just listed them below the rest.  And we might be a bit skewed early on in Frost's tenure as he tries to fill out roster holes left by the previous staff.

But here's what we have:

2019-2020:

QB - Luke McCaffrey, Logan Smothers

RB - Rahmir Johnson, Ronald Thompkins, Sevion Morrison, Marvin Scott

WR - Wan'Dale Robinson, Jamie Nance, Darien Chase, Demariyon Houston, Marcus Fleming, Zavier Betts, William Nixon, Alante Brown

TE - Chris Hickman

OT - Matthew Anderson, Bryce Benhart, Jimmy Fritsche, Turner Corcoran, Alex Conn

OG/C - Michael Lynn, Ethan Piper, Brant Banks

DL - Ty Robinson, Mosai Newsom, Nash Hutmacher, Marquis Black

ILB - Jackson Hannah, Nich Henrich, Garrett Snodgrass, Keyshawn Greene

OLB - Garrett Nelson, Jamin Graham, Blaise Gunnerson, Jimari Butler

CB - Quinton Newsome, Javin Wright, Tamon Lynum, Ronald Delancy

 S - Myles Farmer, Noa Pola-Gates, Henry Gray, Jaiden Francois, Isaac Gifford

JUCOs - Dedrick Mills, Jakeem Green

2020-2021:

QB - Logan Smothers

RB - Sevion Morrison, Marvin Scott

WR - Marcus Fleming, Zavier Betts, William Nixon, Alante Brown

TE - 

OT - Turner Corcoran, Alex Conn, Teddy Prochazka, Branson Yager

OG/C - Henry Lutovsky

DL - Nash Hutmacher, Marquis Black

ILB - Keyshawn Greene, Randolph Kpai, Christopher Paul

OLB - Blaise Gunnerson, Jimari Butler, Patrick Payton

CB - Tamon Lynum, Ronald Delancy

 S - Henry Gray, Jaiden Francois, Isaac Gifford

JUCOs - Omar Manning, Jordon Riley, Pheldarius Payne, Eteva Mauga, Niko Cooper

 
Observations:

19-20 was a bit heavy at WR and light at TE but that was pretty much filling in from the existing roster

Maybe one guy light on the DL and IOL but other than that it looks really good.

Still pretty early in the 21 cycle but the defense is filling out nicely.  

 
Wright & Hannah are gonna work at OLB in fall camp according to HOL. Feels like we have some natural OLB like Mauga & Greene trying to play ILB due to lack of depth/talent. Chase has also left the team. Hope we get something out of Thompkins. One of the most talented of all the backs we’ve recruited under Frost...just plagued by injuries. 

 
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Decked said:
Wright & Hannah are gonna work at OLB in fall camp according to HOL. Feels like we have some natural OLB like Mauga & Greene trying to play ILB due to lack of depth/talent. Chase has also left the team. Hope we get something out of Thompkins. One of the most talented of all the backs we’ve recruited under Frost...just plagued by injuries. 
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Yeah, there are a couple guys who are kind of in between positions.  I went with (mostly) where they were recruited.  Pretty well-rounded either way.

BigRedBuster said:
Isn't 19-20 light two O linemen?  There's 5 positions and only 8 players.
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Yes and no.  Technically, you'd need 10.  But you could also argue 8 is a pretty full two-deep as one guy is probably a backup at two spots (RG and LG, for example).  I split the difference and said we could have probably used one more.  Same with the DL.

 
Let me strart by saying that the biggest key to NU returning to successful will be and is the front 7 on D and the front 6 on O.  However SF and company truely believe in the walk on program and are looking for depth and starters out of it.  It is easier to take a walk on trench player and create something tghen it is with a skilled player and make them faster / couple that with the fact that we take thinner skilled players which will get injured easier.

Long story short - SF will always over recruit skill players and under recruit the trenches by 1 or 2 each class.

 
Mavric said:
I've seen this brought up for years.  But it was mentioned in a recruit thread this week.  So I thought I'd sketch it out to see how we are doing.

One theory is you should be able to fill out the depth chart every two recruiting classes.  Kind of a nice rule-of-thumb to make sure you don't come up short somewhere a few years down the road.  

So how are we doing?  First, I put the 2019 and 2020 classes together to see how Frost's first two full classes fared.  Then the 2020 & 2021 classes (so far) to see where we're currently at.  One caveat is I don't think JUCOs are traditionally included in this calculation because they'll be gone before the rest are upperclassmen.  But that might skew this a bit, especially with a class like last year where we took several JUCOs.  So I just listed them below the rest.  And we might be a bit skewed early on in Frost's tenure as he tries to fill out roster holes left by the previous staff.

But here's what we have:

2019-2020:

QB - Luke McCaffrey, Logan Smothers

RB - Rahmir Johnson, Ronald Thompkins, Sevion Morrison, Marvin Scott

WR - Wan'Dale Robinson, Jamie Nance, Darien Chase, Demariyon Houston, Marcus Fleming, Zavier Betts, William Nixon, Alante Brown

TE - Chris Hickman

OT - Matthew Anderson, Bryce Benhart, Jimmy Fritsche, Turner Corcoran, Alex Conn

OG/C - Michael Lynn, Ethan Piper, Brant Banks

DL - Ty Robinson, Mosai Newsom, Nash Hutmacher, Marquis Black

ILB - Jackson Hannah, Nich Henrich, Garrett Snodgrass, Keyshawn Greene

OLB - Garrett Nelson, Jamin Graham, Blaise Gunnerson, Jimari Butler

CB - Quinton Newsome, Javin Wright, Tamon Lynum, Ronald Delancy

 S - Myles Farmer, Noa Pola-Gates, Henry Gray, Jaiden Francois, Isaac Gifford

JUCOs - Dedrick Mills, Jakeem Green

2020-2021:

QB - Logan Smothers

RB - Sevion Morrison, Marvin Scott

WR - Marcus Fleming, Zavier Betts, William Nixon, Alante Brown

TE - 

OT - Turner Corcoran, Alex Conn, Teddy Prochazka, Branson Yager

OG/C - Henry Lutovsky

DL - Nash Hutmacher, Marquis Black

ILB - Keyshawn Greene, Randolph Kpai, Christopher Paul

OLB - Blaise Gunnerson, Jimari Butler, Patrick Payton

CB - Tamon Lynum, Ronald Delancy

 S - Henry Gray, Jaiden Francois, Isaac Gifford

JUCOs - Omar Manning, Jordon Riley, Pheldarius Payne, Eteva Mauga, Niko Cooper
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Id slot Conn in at OG and Banks at OT. On defense, Wright and Hannah to OLB and probably start Francois at CB

 
GBRFAN said:
Let me strart by saying that the biggest key to NU returning to successful will be and is the front 7 on D and the front 6 on O.  However SF and company truely believe in the walk on program and are looking for depth and starters out of it.  It is easier to take a walk on trench player and create something tghen it is with a skilled player and make them faster / couple that with the fact that we take thinner skilled players which will get injured easier.

Long story short - SF will always over recruit skill players and under recruit the trenches by 1 or 2 each class.
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I get your point ... and honestly, this does help me with the frustration in my mind.

So, I want to pose a question for you @GBRFAN, and maybe I can better grasp it all ...

Why do you think then, that we have not over recruited the 7 on D and the 6 on O?  For me, it's been clear that to "restore the order" we have to get back to the trenches.  Yet, we continue to get the additional skill player, rather than another prospect in the trenches.  Why would we trust this important area to "walk-ons" and not put our best foot forward in who we can really select and develop in a real offer.

To me, this is similar to passing on a 6th or 7th round pick in the NFL draft and just trust and hope that a few guys that you sign to your practice squad will rise to the top.  To me ... that just doesn't seem smart ... IF YOUR VIEW REALLY IS THAT YOUR PROBLEM IS IN THE TRENCHES.

So, this part in Frost's strategy has been puzzling to me personally.  FYI, I like some of the guys he's brought into the trenches ... but I don't fully know or believe that they are being developed as well as a place like Wisky or a second tier team like Iowa ... we seem to rank lower than these teams in that area ... as I see it.

Any Input?  Thanks for the time.

 
BigRedN said:
I get your point ... and honestly, this does help me with the frustration in my mind.

So, I want to pose a question for you @GBRFAN, and maybe I can better grasp it all ...

Why do you think then, that we have not over recruited the 7 on D and the 6 on O?  For me, it's been clear that to "restore the order" we have to get back to the trenches.  Yet, we continue to get the additional skill player, rather than another prospect in the trenches.  Why would we trust this important area to "walk-ons" and not put our best foot forward in who we can really select and develop in a real offer.

To me, this is similar to passing on a 6th or 7th round pick in the NFL draft and just trust and hope that a few guys that you sign to your practice squad will rise to the top.  To me ... that just doesn't seem smart ... IF YOUR VIEW REALLY IS THAT YOUR PROBLEM IS IN THE TRENCHES.

So, this part in Frost's strategy has been puzzling to me personally.  FYI, I like some of the guys he's brought into the trenches ... but I don't fully know or believe that they are being developed as well as a place like Wisky or a second tier team like Iowa ... we seem to rank lower than these teams in that area ... as I see it.

Any Input?  Thanks for the time.
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Great post and questions

The 85 limit is always going to make you feel a few players short somewhere.

The difference between NFL and college recruiting is puberty.  There are a lot of potential "kids" that are under the radar (recruits hype ramps up at 16) - this concept effects strength/size positions mostly.

SF has settled in for the long haul - one of the things that a lot of new coaches do is "chase wins in years 2-3" if SF was to do this he may have grabbed a higher ratio of big guys to solve his problem of "other big10 teams looking bigger then us" - however frost has shown that 4/5 year cycle in roster mgt/ratio is important to his 7-20 yr plan.

Development shows up in the trenches somewhere around junior year  - the 2018 class is questionable 19/20 much better 21 seems to be close - a couple more studs would be nice. 

I feel like lineman have about  50/50 hit/miss ratio and I put this back to the kids that "pop" to early are not your best recruits.  Example kid from okl about 5 years ago (jailyn??) Was committed to okl or some bigger school and his numbers fell and he decided to come here - was a total bust...  

Wiscy has been using our approach for 15 years now - give our program time. 

 
@GBRFAN, as a 55 year old, I think I have the maturity to weather the growth pains.  What concerns me is if Frost is truly dialed in to what the core problem/solution and then secondly, is the fan base will be patient. 

Hopeful still here.  Thanks for your interaction.

 
BigRedN said:
@GBRFAN, as a 55 year old, I think I have the maturity to weather the growth pains.  What concerns me is if Frost is truly dialed in to what the core problem/solution and then secondly, is the fan base will be patient. 

Hopeful still here.  Thanks for your interaction.
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I'm right there with you - 52 and graduated in 95 right at the peak. A lot has changed in this world and college sports

3 things SF has going:

- He's very intelligent has been around several successful football leaders

- He has experienced the NU fishbowl at the peak

- college sports are still king and queen in Nebraska 

Our fans only have one choice - they can like it or not like it but there is only one choice.

 
GBRFAN said:
I'm right there with you - 52 and graduated in 95 right at the peak. A lot has changed in this world and college sports

3 things SF has going:

- He's very intelligent has been around several successful football leaders

- He has experienced the NU fishbowl at the peak

- college sports are still king and queen in Nebraska 

Our fans only have one choice - they can like it or not like it but there is only one choice.
Click to expand...
Dude, how long were you in hs or college?  Im 6 yrs older and graduated in 85.   :D

 
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