To the Nebraska fans on the board

Volbound1700 said:
How did Tennessee's current roster of recruits stack up against Alabama's roster this Saturday?
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Probably not close. But would they have won without those two top 15 classes? Also probably not even close. The reason Tennessee is succeeding is because Tennessee had success recruiting, and followed it up with a seemingly good coaching hire. Nebraska has flat out bad recruiting, the only thing they have going for them is playing in the B10 west...but even that's probably going to change very soon.
 
MAIZEandBLUE09 said:
Probably not close. But would they have won without those two top 15 classes? Also probably not even close. The reason Tennessee is succeeding is because Tennessee had success recruiting, and followed it up with a seemingly good coaching hire. Nebraska has flat out bad recruiting, the only thing they have going for them is playing in the B10 west...but even that's probably going to change very soon.
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You do know we lost 60 players from Pruitt's classes.

That gave Heupel two recruiting classes (one collected in 2 months over summer that was a Pruitt class that had fallen apart). Granted, we have gotten a lot of transfers (Hendon Hooker being notable). In many ways, Tennessee's roster might be even worse than Nebraska's on paper. The transfers may push us ahead as some of these transfers were 4 to 5 star contributors such as Bru McCoy.

Cool tidbit that @trojanfan12 might appreciate. The last two plays of the game Saturday were totally the result of Southern Cal Transfers. Bru McCoy with that final catch at the 20 and then Chase McGrath (the kicker) was a transfer from USC.

If you don't have the recruits, you definitely have to do something to distinguish yourself. Tennessee's trump card has been their offensive play. We may get hammered by Georgia in 3 weeks or upset by Kentucky but I think a lot of teams would take what programs like Tennessee and USC (even with their loss) are doing right now.

You are never going to beat the Alabama and Ohio States of the world as long as you keep hosting them on a pedestal or talk about recruiting rankings, etc.

Michigan, this year, has a team that can beat Ohio State. Harbaugh got trolled a lot, especially in his early years, but he is doing exactly what Michigan wanted and has made Michigan a year-in and year-out contender with Ohio State for the B1G.
 
Honestly, it sucks.
But, Tennessee only had to get back to being pretty good. Nebraska has to get back to being great.
:LOL:
 
Volbound1700 said:
You do know we lost 60 players from Pruitt's classes.

That gave Heupel two recruiting classes (one collected in 2 months over summer that was a Pruitt class that had fallen apart). Granted, we have gotten a lot of transfers (Hendon Hooker being notable). In many ways, Tennessee's roster might be even worse than Nebraska's on paper. The transfers may push us ahead as some of these transfers were 4 to 5 star contributors such as Bru McCoy.

Cool tidbit that @trojanfan12 might appreciate. The last two plays of the game Saturday were totally the result of Southern Cal Transfers. Bru McCoy with that final catch at the 20 and then Chase McGrath (the kicker) was a transfer from USC.

If you don't have the recruits, you definitely have to do something to distinguish yourself. Tennessee's trump card has been their offensive play. We may get hammered by Georgia in 3 weeks or upset by Kentucky but I think a lot of teams would take what programs like Tennessee and USC (even with their loss) are doing right now.

You are never going to beat the Alabama and Ohio States of the world as long as you keep hosting them on a pedestal or talk about recruiting rankings, etc.

Michigan, this year, has a team that can beat Ohio State. Harbaugh got trolled a lot, especially in his early years, but he is doing exactly what Michigan wanted and has made Michigan a year-in and year-out contender with Ohio State for the B1G.
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Recruiting rankings matter though. Talent matters. It's what separates most of the elite schools from the non-elite schools, or schools that might have a decent year here or there. And you have to have talent + coaching to do what Tennessee did (and very few teams have done) against Alabama.

Tennessee had 4 four star kids, and two five star kids, on their starting offense against Alabama. There aren't many schools with two five star players starting on one side of the ball. Nebraska doesn't have the roster to even put that kind of lineup together. That's why Tennessee's offense is good.

Michigan has a team that can beat Ohio State because of talent. Our QB is a five star. One of our running backs is a 5 star. Our line is loaded with upper-class 4 star kids. And because they've had time with coaches to finally come together.

To put that in context, there are only 19 total schools right now that could have two five star players starting at all. There's some variability when you get into the top 20, up until like the top 5 or so in terms of recruiting, and then the top 5 are hyper-elite teams. But it's pretty damn hard to win in football when you don't have average classes inside the top 20. Very few schools have done it and done it consistently for any period of time.
 
Is this Tennessee's Ehlinger moment?
 
MAIZEandBLUE09 said:
Recruiting rankings matter though. Talent matters. It's what separates most of the elite schools from the non-elite schools, or schools that might have a decent year here or there. And you have to have talent + coaching to do what Tennessee did (and very few teams have done) against Alabama.

Tennessee had 4 four star kids, and two five star kids, on their starting offense against Alabama. There aren't many schools with two five star players starting on one side of the ball. Nebraska doesn't have the roster to even put that kind of lineup together. That's why Tennessee's offense is good.

Michigan has a team that can beat Ohio State because of talent. Our QB is a five star. One of our running backs is a 5 star. Our line is loaded with upper-class 4 star kids. And because they've had time with coaches to finally come together.

To put that in context, there are only 19 total schools right now that could have two five star players starting at all. There's some variability when you get into the top 20, up until like the top 5 or so in terms of recruiting, and then the top 5 are hyper-elite teams. But it's pretty damn hard to win in football when you don't have average classes inside the top 20. Very few schools have done it and done it consistently for any period of time.
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I agree. I think Nebraska can get that talent with the right coach that brings in a mental toughness and winning attitude.
 
Another great example that I left out in this thread is UCLA. I mean, can anyone in this thread remember when UCLA was even good? Or know the fact that UCLA is a top 3 all-time Pac12 program.

They have come back under Chip Kelly because they got the right coach and system.
 
Volbound1700 said:
I agree. I think Nebraska can get that talent with the right coach that brings in a mental toughness and winning attitude.
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Maybe, but like I said earlier. They're starting basically at nothing. They've got to get a coach who can put two very good classes together and then maybe in a year or two after that they can win. But I don't see them hiring a coach and flipping a switch, the talent isn't on the roster. MSU did it for 1 year because they got a Heisman level RB in an extremely lucky transfer but once he left, they're back to poop.
 
MAIZEandBLUE09 said:
Maybe, but like I said earlier. They're starting basically at nothing. They've got to get a coach who can put two very good classes together and then maybe in a year or two after that they can win. But I don't see them hiring a coach and flipping a switch, the talent isn't on the roster. MSU did it for 1 year because they got a Heisman level RB in an extremely lucky transfer but once he left, they're back to poop.
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You can copy and paste this paragraph and it would 100% apply to Tennessee about this time last year and UCLA as well. Nebraska still has a big name.

Heck, Miami continues to pull in tons of talent and are in a rich recruiting ground but yet they get blown out at home by MTSU.
 
Volbound1700 said:
You can copy and paste this paragraph and it would 100% apply to Tennessee about this time last year and UCLA as well. Nebraska still has a big name.

Heck, Miami continues to pull in tons of talent and are in a rich recruiting ground but yet they get blown out at home by MTSU.
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Not sure that's true. Isn't your QB a 4 star senior who's been there for 4 years?
 
MAIZEandBLUE09 said:
Not sure that's true. Isn't your QB a 4 star senior who's been there for 4 years?
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I mean you can pick and choose certain players on Tennessee's roster that may not be available at Nebraska but keep in mind we play far harder competition than Nebraska from a recruiting rankings perspective (you can debate whether teams are actually stronger).

Nebraska doesn't play in the same division as Michigan, Ohio State, or Penn State which are the other three premier programs in the B1G. Their competition is Iowa and Wisconsin who are both down right now and frankly neither one of those programs have been recruiting titans. Neither is Purdue who is the other decent program in B1G West.

Nebraska just needs to start out recruiting and out playing their B1G West opponents. Pull out a few 9-3 or 10-2 type seasons and finish in top 15 and recruits will start going to Lincoln. In truth, that shouldn't be that hard for Nebraska.

I just don't think Nebraska is as far off from relevancy as people on this board think.
 
Volbound1700 said:
I mean you can pick and choose certain players on Tennessee's roster that may not be available at Nebraska but keep in mind we play far harder competition than Nebraska from a recruiting rankings perspective (you can debate whether teams are actually stronger).

Nebraska doesn't play in the same division as Michigan, Ohio State, or Penn State which are the other three premier programs in the B1G. Their competition is Iowa and Wisconsin who are both down right now and frankly neither one of those programs have been recruiting titans. Neither is Purdue who is the other decent program in B1G West.

Nebraska just needs to start out recruiting and out playing their B1G West opponents. Pull out a few 9-3 or 10-2 type seasons and finish in top 15 and recruits will start going to Lincoln. In truth, that shouldn't be that hard for Nebraska.
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Keep in mind as well, there are 13 four star recruits in the state of Tennessee for 2023 and 1 in Nebraska.
 
fishinabarrel said:
Hebdon Hooker is a transfer from Virginia Tech
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Yeah...I see that now. But it was in Jan 2021, not this year. He entered the transfer portal in 2020 and landed at Tennessee in 2021.
 
The transfer portal makes it so any team with sufficient buzz can turnover a roster fairly quickly. Shouldn't take 3 years of buzz to stop being a doormat.
 
Wizardhawk said:
The transfer portal makes it so any team with sufficient buzz can turnover a roster fairly quickly. Shouldn't take 3 years of buzz to stop being a doormat.
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It can certainly help but it can also hurt because it can go the reverse as well. If Nebraska could pull a coach from a big name school with talent AND grab someo f that talent, that would be a good start. But unlike USC, I still think it's harder to get kids to come to Nebraska.
 
MAIZEandBLUE09 said:
The difference between Tennessee, USC and others that came back from mediocrity is that all those schools maintained at least decent recruiting. Nebraska hasn’t had but like 1 top 15 recruiting class in 20 years, and it came like 15 years ago. They need a new coach and like 2-3 years of really good recruiting at this point. They don’t have talent on their roster. Tennessee got back to back top 12 classes in 2019 and 2020…and it is showing up. USC nabbed a top 10 class in 2021 and then got some key transfers this year with their new coach. I guess Nebraska could try that route but it’s far less likely.
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Recruiting, schmecruiting. Transfer portal. Let those others recruit ‘em, develop ‘em a year, then pick ‘em off while they pout that year because they ain’t getting to play.
 
Deep Creek said:
Recruiting, schmecruiting. Transfer portal. Let those others recruit ‘em, develop ‘em a year, then pick ‘em off while they pout that year because they ain’t getting to play.
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I don't think that's a good way to win consistently. It's a good way to have a single good year or two. Often times the kids on the transfer block are there for a reason.
 
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