Being an old Marine recruiter, I wonder what the attrition rates are for top programs. Losing an athlete/recruit is costly in many ways. The expense of bringing that individual in to the program/service, the maintenance period prior to arriving on 7campus/recruit depot, the actual, feeding, housing and guidance through practice/basic training is staggering. The Marine Corps 20 some years ago stated the cost of one lost recruit from basic training was over 150,000 dollars. I would imagine that it is much more for the Nebraska football recruit.
I think Bo has done a better than average job of keeping what he has recruited, he has near an 8% attrition rate. In honesty that would be an acceptable rate for a Marine Recruiter, goal always being less than 1%.
The worst part of attrition, is that every person the lost player/recruit comes in contact with gets the story. Bad or good that news travels and it travels fast. Not only by the individual, but the parents, the friends and people that they had close relationships with, IE coaches.
We seem to lose the 4 star kids more than others. I wonder if their own opinion of themselves is higher than their work ethic, desire to compete and finish. Failure to communicate is a main reason for failure. Knowing the military, everyone is exactly the same, same clothes, same hair cuts, all the same needs (regulated) it is a tough job, to graduate a platoon without losses. I can imagine how hard it is do get a class through to graduation for a football coach.
The military has/had a rule, that if you were dropped from another service during basic training due to attitude/mental or physical performance/moral actions/quitting, refusing to do what ordered, you could not be recrutied by another service. Thinking being that if you can not do it one place, doubtful you could another. In our past departures we have seen that. So in my humble opinion the ones that leave for greener pastures have problems deeper than what we hear or see. It is not looking for another opportunity, it is looking for an easier way out, on the field. I also wonder howmany of these guys that actually transfer, play and make it to the NFL. Penn State players left out of this question.
I think Bo is doing a pretty good job keeping the kids is the bottom line. Next man up!