CB Malik Williams

[84HuskerLaw]

I agree that Nebraska has not shown much heart, outside of the Iowa games at least.

I am concerned, however, that Nebraska is using this class to develop most players. Nebraska hasn't done a good job of developing 4 star players, and hasn't developed any of its 3 star players in years.

I don't know how many Nebraska players have made it on First, Second or Third All-Conference teams, but it's not many. Trying to emulate Iowa and Wisconsin by turning 3 star players into NFL prospects is a big gamble by Frost & Co.

Typically the top three by position make those All Conf teams.  NU has not had many of those for a long time and few since joining Big Ten.  Winning conf games at more than 35% of the time will help as teams who wins titles get more pics by the voters who choose them.   Talent has been middle of the pack mostly.  This is slowly improving but will take years to do broadly.  Winning more will change this in a couple years. 

 

[RedSavage]

I respect your opinion and you could be right. But also typically speaking, the lower level prospects are more likely to be "dead weight" for 4-5yrs never contributing....which is just as damaging. 

I don't disagree with this either.  I'm hopeful this staff does a good job evaluating talent and are aware a lot of these players are projects but can identify their long-term potential.  And hopefully, if they miss on a player, they will recruit over them, as others have mentioned.  We definitely can't abandon trying to go for higher ranked prospects and need players that can come in and play right away but I'm not sure the risk/reward is always greater than a project.

 

[Husker in WI]

If this were a normal year, I'd be concerned with the rankings of this class. But I'm just not that confident in the rankings with how little they've been able to evaluate players for this cycle, and this staff seems to like finding some guys who take off with camps that aren't happening.

A class like this seems reasonable, and would put us in the same 3rd-4th in the B1G, 20-25th nationally. Also leaves room for a surprise or two out of VanDeMark, Allen, Ho'ohuli, Crownover, Keenan, Lewis, etc. Of course we need to do better long term if we want to consistently play for B1G championships. But I'll take that range again for now, and it's probably the most we can hope for until we win more. Barring disaster like not closing on Fidone, this isn't much different than it has been - which I think is good enough to win more than 4-5 games.

• Thomas Fidone
  
  TE 6-5 225
   0.9574 + 25.74
• Teddy Prochazka
  OT 6-8 280
   0.9125 + 21.12
• Randolph Kpai
  OLB 6-3 185
   0.9078 + 20.27
• Tavierre Dunlap
  RB 6-0 196
   0.8881 + 17.80
• Latrell Neville
  WR 6-3 195
   0.8791 + 16.22
• Patrick Payton
  OLB 6-5 205
   0.8788 + 15.33
• Henry Lutovsky
  OG 6-6 320
   0.8742 + 13.95
• Kamonte Grimes
  ATH 6-2 205
   0.8732 + 12.80
• Will Schweitzer
  OLB 6-4 210
   0.8713 + 11.54
• Ru'Quan Buckley
  SDE 6-6 260
   0.8709 + 10.36
• Heinrich Haarberg
  DUAL 6-5 185
   0.8702 + 9.18
• Tobechi Okoli
  SDE 6-5 250
   0.8678 + 7.95
• Shawn Hardy
  WR 6-3 190
   0.8622 + 6.67
• Gabe Ervin
  RB 6-0 200
   0.8588 + 5.60
• AJ Rollins
  TE 6-6 220
   0.8577 + 4.70
• Branson Yager
  OT 6-7 332
   0.8566 + 3.91
• Marques Buford
  ATH 6-0 190
   0.8517 + 3.12
• Seth Malcom
  OLB 6-3 195
   0.8426 + 2.40
• Michael Mokofisi
  DT 6-3 300
   0.8416 + 1.92
• Lardarius Webb Jr.
  CB 5-10 170
   0.8366 + 1.47
• Malik Williams
  CB 6-0 187
   0.8326 

 

[Warrior10]

To that point, unlike LSU's D Coordinator and his staff, I feel this staff will over recruit its roster. Which will force those that are dead weight to move on. Whereas BP allowed kids that didn't contribute stay on scholarship. He also routinely did not fill his classes. This staff is almost always going to take its maximum scholarship allotment every cycle(+3 included).

So far they have done a great job of that, which is encouraging. It's been a break even due to the turnover, hopefully as the program stabilizes it becomes an advantage.

 

[Warrior10]

On a similar note, and from the reports, it seems we have hit on Farmer and Pola-Gates at safety (as much as you can 'hit' on two players who haven't seen any action :B) ). Some speculation but Jones, Gray and Francois may have thought they'd be handed a starting spot after a year on an up-and-coming team but have seen the writing on the wall... just my 2 cents or red colored glasses. 

Two players you named are an example of the ultimate combination. Hit on your eval for the "underrated" prospect in Farmer and land the "star" in NPG. When you do that and you are right, the roster gets dangerous (for other teams).

However, there is no NPG in this DB class to this point. 

 

[LumberJackSker]

I agree that Nebraska has not shown much heart, outside of the Iowa games at least.

I am concerned, however, that Nebraska is using this class to develop most players. Nebraska hasn't done a good job of developing 4 star players, and hasn't developed any of its 3 star players in years.

I don't know how many Nebraska players have made it on First, Second or Third All-Conference teams, but it's not many. Trying to emulate Iowa and Wisconsin by turning 3 star players into NFL prospects is a big gamble by Frost & Co.

I'm sure if Frost could have a class full of 4 star prospects he would. Having a class full of 3 star projects probably isnt by choice its the only option they have. I dont think they stopped recruiting 4 stars or turned down their commits the kids just aren't interested. Nebraska hasn't been to a bowl game since these recruits were in jr high and haven't won a conference or national title since they've been alive. Combine that with the uncertainty of covid and the UCF shine wearing off this is how Nebraska recruiting classes will look if Frost doesn't win.

 

[Treand3]

So far they have done a great job of that, which is encouraging. It's been a break even due to the turnover, hopefully as the program stabilizes it becomes an advantage.

I really think it will. In reality, this program has been unstable since, "If they wanna fire me then fire me." Maybe even a little before that.

 

[Decked]

Two players you named are an example of the ultimate combination. Hit on your eval for the "underrated" prospect in Farmer and land the "star" in NPG. When you do that and you are right, the roster gets dangerous (for other teams).

However, there is no NPG in this DB class to this point. 

Bingo. 
 

Francois & Gray were the stars of the DB room for the 2020 class. Now gone. 2021: Buford is probably your best prospect (IMO a good one but shouldn’t be #1). The average composite ranking for Buford, Webb Jr, & M. Williams will be a .84 range. A lower level three star. 

if we get N. Joseph I will feel some relief. 

 

[suh_fan93]

N
 

 

[Decked]

In Fish we trust 

 

[flatwaterfan]

Excellent!   Welcome Malik!

Starting to get the DB room back in the green range.    

 

[Mavric]

I'm not a total "stars are everything" guy but I think over a large sample size they are generally a pretty good indicator.  So I'm not going to say I'm completely blown away by the class at this point.  But especially Fisher has shown he can recruit against the best so I think he's earned a little lattitude.

But I was a little curious about how the lack of camps and visits has affected ratings this year.  As in, are the rankings a little lower because they're not sure how to rank guys.  So when I saw Williams was currently the #122 rated player in Georgia for this year, I was curious what that mean.  Obviously that seems down the list a ways but Georgia produces a ton of talent.  And Buford produces a lot of D1 guys every year.

So I looked back at the previous years to find out what schools signed guys that were rated by the Composite as the #120 to #150 guy in Georgia for their year.  Here are some of the schools that have signed players in that range:

2020 - Georgia, North Carolina, Florida State, Virginia Tech

2019 - North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia (committed but didn't qualify), Miami

2018 - Notre Dame, Georgia, Miami, Florida

2017 - LSU signed #117

Not sure that really tells you anything because there's a difference between one guy and several.  But he's not in bad company.

 

[Mavric]

Our competition and his bloodlines don't appear to be bad:

 

[Mavric]

Also, Buford routinely cranks out Power 5 talent.  Last year they had three Power 5 signees including two defensive backs.  Two years ago they had seven including two four-stars.  The year before that they had four including a four-star.

Word is he hasn't played as much because of the guys mentioned above.  So that probably has an effect as well.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

Also, Buford routinely cranks out Power 5 talent.  Last year they had three Power 5 signees including two defensive backs.  Two years ago they had seven including two four-stars.  The year before that they had four including a four-star.

Word is he hasn't played as much because of the guys mentioned above.  So that probably has an effect as well.

This fair. His offer list and official rating seem at odds.

As a whole, this recruiting class is not what it should be. We're behind Wisconsin and Minnesota with a similar number of commits and aren't far ahead of Northwestern. 

As others have pointed out, due to necessity the staff has recruited what they can. They really need to land Fidone, at a minimum.