Notre Dame has historically been more of a passing offense. They have produced major NFL prospects like Golden Tate in recent years and are just known as more of a passing team, recruiting mostly Pro Style, NFL style QB's. Whereas Nebraska, like it or not, is known everywhere as a running team. Recruits will tell you "Nebraska runs the ball a lot". Part of that has to do with the quarterbacks we recruit. Beck & Pelini have and are continuing to recruit and play athletes or athletic run first guys at quarterback. Guys who have 4.4-4.5 speed and who hand off or run before they pass... usually because they struggle with consistency and accuracy in passing (i.e. Taylor Martinez, Cody Green, etc.) If you're Jordan then you look at NU and say... they are stacked at running back and their offensive line pulls to the run more. BUT let's break it down:
In 2011, Nebraska averaged:
29.2 ppg
2824 yds rushing with 611 rushing attempts
2115 yds passing with 293 passing attempts of which were 55.9% completed.
In 2011, Notre Dame averaged:
29.2 ppg
2085 yds rushing with 433 rushing attempts
3284 yds passing with 473 passing attempts of which were 63.8% completed.
Based on those statistics... we run the ball 2x as much as we pass it and when we pass it we complete many fewer passes than Notre Dame. Whereas Notre Dame passes more than they run and have close to an 8% higher completion rate. Jordan is also looking at their NFL guys... Golden Tate - Sehawks, Arnaz Battle - Steelers, Maurice Stovall - Lions. And Michael Floyd is going to be a top guy going into the NFL. Whereas Nebraska has Niles Paul on an active roster and that's it... and he has been playing special teams with few looks at WR.
So all that to say... Notre Dame passes more, they put more WR's into the NFL, they bring in more pro style aspects. We have 5 national championships, they have 8. Jordan is Catholic and we all know what Notre Dame means in that regard.
Now let's break down WR recruiting of who will be where next year:
Notre Dame - Deonte Greenberry 5.9 :star :star :star :star - HS Fr
Justin Ferguson 5.7 :star :star :star - HS Fr
Chris Brown 5.7 :star :star :star - HS Fr
Davarius Daniels 5.8 :star :star :star :star - RS Fr
Matthias Farley 5.5 :star :star :star - RS Fr
TJ Jones NR - JR
Daniel Smith 5.6 :star :star :star - JR
Luke Massa 5.7 :star :star :star - JR
Theo Riddick NR - SR
Robby Toma NR - SR
Nebraska - Taariq Allen 5.5 :star :star :star - RS Fr
Sam Burtch NR - RS Fr
Kenny Bell 5.7 :star :star :star - So
Tyler Evans 5.4 :star :star - So
Jamal Turner 5.8 :star :star :star :star - So
Tyler Wullenwaber NR - So
Quincy Enunwa 5.7 :star :star :star - Jr
Khiry Cooper 5.5 :star :star :star - Sr
Taylor Dixon NR - Sr
KC Hyland NR - Sr
Tim Marlowe 5.1 :star :star - Sr
Steven Osborne 5.5 :star :star :star - Sr
Jordan will actually have less competition for playing time at Nebraska. He has more of a chance to start here early than he does at ND. We have also proven that we do put really good WR in the NFL.
Now let's look at future QB play:
Taylor Martinez
874 yds rushing with 188 attempts
2089 yds passing with a 56.3% completion and 8 INT
Tommy Armstrong
1282 yds rushing with 152 attempts
1945 yds passing with a 58.6% completion and 2 INT
Tommy Rees (has 2 years left)
-56 yds rushing with 31 attempts
2871 yds passing with a 65.5% completion and 14 INT
No Current ND QB commits for this year.
Nebraska is closer to a championship right now than ND is. Our win record has been consistently higher than ND over the past few years despite the fact that ND has had higher ranked recruiting classes each year. Eventhough Taylor struggles with the passing game, we do have some much better passers coming up in Carnes and Armstrong. Martinez has 2 years left, if Jordan took a RS then he would only have to play 1 year with Taylor and would have 3 years with a new, hopefully better passing QB.