2020 Recruiting Grade

[flatwaterfan]

Recruiting rankings by rivals for coaches in their classes.   Please note that the first class for each coach was one of their worst because it's a transition class.  

Callahan -  27th.     

                       5th

                    20th

                     13th

Classes were a bit uneven.  2005 had some notable players.  He had a staff that could recruit but results on the field were not trending up. 

Pelini  -  30th

               28th

               22nd

               15th

                25th

                17th

                32nd   

Pelini's numbers weren't great to start out but he was improving slowly for awhile.  2012 was a bit of a speed bump and 2014 was meltdown.   

Riley   31st

           24th

           20th

Riley was improving slowly but surely.   His record didn't though.

Frost -  21st

              15th

So Frost did pretty well in the transition class and also posted the 3rd best class in the past 15 years or so.   I think it is important to see some wins on the field next year.   That should help 2021.   I think it's looking good as a positive trend.  Hope they get a top 10 in 2021.

 

[chamrocck]

Here's my bell curve.  Get in the top 15 and you are an A student with chance to win on the big stage.  Get in top 25 and it's second tier, maybe pull an upset, get in a conference championship but never really do much.  If you are out of the top 25 in recruiting your program has no sustained chance at longevity to be relevant.    

1-5 = A+

6-10 = A

11-15 = A-

16-18 = B+

19-21 = B

22-24= B-

25-26 = C+

27-28 = C

29-31 = C-

32-33 = D+

34-35 = D

36 = D-

37 or worse = F

 

[Nebfanatic]

Recruiting rankings by rivals for coaches in their classes.   Please note that the first class for each coach was one of their worst because it's a transition class.  

Callahan -  27th.     

                       5th

                    20th

                     13th

Classes were a bit uneven.  2005 had some notable players.  He had a staff that could recruit but results on the field were not trending up. 

Pelini  -  30th

               28th

               22nd

               15th

                25th

                17th

                32nd   

Pelini's numbers weren't great to start out but he was improving slowly for awhile.  2012 was a bit of a speed bump and 2014 was meltdown.   

Riley   31st

           24th

           20th

Riley was improving slowly but surely.   His record didn't though.

Frost -  21st

              15th

So Frost did pretty well in the transition class and also posted the 3rd best class in the past 15 years or so.   I think it is important to see some wins on the field next year.   That should help 2021.   I think it's looking good as a positive trend.  Hope they get a top 10 in 2021.

That 2nd year by Callahan was boosted by signing 30 players. Average star rating of that class was .86. Right now we are up above .88. 

Here's my bell curve.  Get in the top 15 and you are an A student with chance to win on the big stage.  Get in top 25 and it's second tier, maybe pull an upset, get in a conference championship but never really do much.  If you are out of the top 25 in recruiting your program has no sustained chance at longevity to be relevant.    

1-5 = A+

6-10 = A

11-15 = A-

16-18 = B+

19-21 = B

22-24= B-

25-26 = C+

27-28 = C

29-31 = C-

32-33 = D+

34-35 = D

36 = D-

37 or worse = F

As I said in another post, grading strictly off of class rank can be tricky but I like this 

 

[Mavric]

Got an A- from rivals

 

[husker98]

you only get an A+ if you land the trifecta; kicker, punter and long snapper.

The lack of a long snapper makes this class a complete failure. F grades all around

 

[flatwaterfan]

That 2nd year by Callahan was boosted by signing 30 players. Average star rating of that class was .86. Right now we are up above .88. 

What you are pointing out is true.    The number of players helps  the overall point total but it can hurt your average star rating.   The 2005 class signed  two 5 stars in Bowman and Lucky.  How often does Nebraska do that? They also signed eleven 4 stars which included talents like Suh.   They had some guys like Matt Slausen who weren't graded.    There were quite a few reaches in 2005 but they also had some top end talent.   I think Callahan came in to late in 2004 to remake the roster and that is why they did 30 in 2005.   Frost had a little more time and did most of his roster turnover in his first year.

I think Frost's 2020 class has fewer reaches but also doesn't have as much top end talent.  

 

[NoLongerN]

The class for me was a good B, as it relates to nationally.  For those of us who bleed :bigredn:  , I think a B+ "fits".  
For me, I still wanted more "in the trench" kind of guys that are more ready to contribute earlier, so I wanted one more upgrade at OL and obviously, the DL and DE positions, I'm feeling that we have yet to prove via winning games and being dominant on defense, to be able to attract that bigger stud who comes in to impact.  Had we did better in those areas then this class would move up to a B+ or an A-.

Who wouldn't love what we got at WR or RB, yet, the heart of the program and the "restore the order" aspect won't come until we rebuild the trenches.  We seem to add a piece that looks the part, but as of yet, we can't "stack" or "stock" the OL, DL and DE.  

I love what we did at LB with Green, if we would have landed Johnson as well, it would have been a great A- for that position.  Liked the safety position ... and as others have stated, the CB position was very average.  I was personally really disappointed that we really didn't get much of a sniff from Manning [KC guy] or Green-Warren.  

Still, quite a class to hall in for a 5-7 season ... we can all be grateful.  It's gonna be a rough hall to go 6-6 or 7-5 next year ... but it really better happen as the "everyone sees it's coming crowd" won't float much longer.  Scott really has to get tenacious with a real belief in the "trenches" and truly see defense as the building of a championship caliber team and mindset.  

Pass

 

[BigPeterJ]

The class for me was a good B, as it relates to nationally.  For those of us who bleed :bigredn:  , I think a B+ "fits".  
For me, I still wanted more "in the trench" kind of guys that are more ready to contribute earlier, so I wanted one more upgrade at OL and obviously, the DL and DE positions, I'm feeling that we have yet to prove via winning games and being dominant on defense, to be able to attract that bigger stud who comes in to impact.  Had we did better in those areas then this class would move up to a B+ or an A-.

Who wouldn't love what we got at WR or RB, yet, the heart of the program and the "restore the order" aspect won't come until we rebuild the trenches.  We seem to add a piece that looks the part, but as of yet, we can't "stack" or "stock" the OL, DL and DE.  

I love what we did at LB with Green, if we would have landed Johnson as well, it would have been a great A- for that position.  Liked the safety position ... and as others have stated, the CB position was very average.  I was personally really disappointed that we really didn't get much of a sniff from Manning [KC guy] or Green-Warren.  

Still, quite a class to hall in for a 5-7 season ... we can all be grateful.  It's gonna be a rough hall to go 6-6 or 7-5 next year ... but it really better happen as the "everyone sees it's coming crowd" won't float much longer.  Scott really has to get tenacious with a real belief in the "trenches" and truly see defense as the building of a championship caliber team and mindset.  

Pass

Catch

Typically i would call this an average class(B).  But considering we are coming off of 3 losing seasons, its an A-.  We didnt do ourselves any favors by going 5-7 in a year we should have went 8-4 or so.  

The trenches: We got a deep and quality OL class last year so i like where we are headed there.  We only needed to take a couple this class, and the ones we got are good.  On the defensive side i think it was a little dissapointing that we didnt get a higher end DE or pass rusher.  But we did get Nash and Blaise, so i give the DL a C+.  We got some decent JUCOs here, but yet another year with no stud DE.  

Outside the trenches:  Offensively, our WR class was stout (A+), you cant beat 4 4* WR in one class.  RB was solid (B+) but as far as ratings go not exactly stud level ratings on our RBs.  I mean they could be a bit underrated, but what do we know other than the common thought.  Its not like we got a RB that Bama or LSU wanted, rated 26 and 55 best RB in class.  I just feel Nebraska should be able to get a top 15 RB...i know this isnt the 90's, but we used to get top 5 RBs, is top 10-15 too high to expect?   Didnt need TEs this class, got a solid QB from all accounts but who really knows until they play a year or 2 in college.  Overall offensively we got enough Jimmies and Joes at each position that im not worried.  If our offense isnt good over the next 2 years it will be on the coaching, not the talent.

Defensively outside the trenches, Safety i give an A, cornerback a C, LB a B.    We got 2 highly rated safeties, and another solid safety in Gifford.  Cornerback was just 2 lower end 3 stars...as good as the Safeties are, the Cornerback class was equally underwhelming.  Giving the defensive backfield an overall average grade.  We got 1 very good LB and a JUCO that is no stud, but can help right away and thats what we need.  Not a great LB class, but not bad either.  We also have some good LBs from last years class that should be ready to go next year.  Overall defensively, we have some jimmies and joes at most positions, but Cornerback and DL might be 2 areas we lack talent in for the next 2 years.  The defensive coaches have their work cut out for them as we have a lot of new, unproven guys on defense.  And most of our best defensive players are pretty young.  Given how bad our season went, im very pleased with our class.  At the same time this isnt that much better of a class than Nebraska has typically gotten over the past 18 years.