Robsker, you're putting waaay to much emphasis on stars! They don't mean jack. If they meant something, Missouri and Kansas wouldn't be where they are at right now.
You just seem hellbent to say that we suck and our recruiting sucks. Let it go man.
I see where you are coming from. I am not hellbent on saying we suck --- but I am trying to say that we are not quite top 25 talent (which is far from sucking). My goal is to convey that the problems were more deep than just player development --- it was talent level too. I say this so that if (and likely when) the Huskers this season hit a losing streak of some magnitude, posters here will recognize that it will not be yet another staff that "couldn't maximize out talent" --- my fear is that the fans may run coaches out of town on a rail (or at least attempt to) if they think that our rebuilding process is too slow (predicated on the mistaken notion that we have talent that should hang with the top teams).
I guess as a Husker fan I really hope that if a 6 (or 7) win season is what we end up with that the fans do not melt down. We can only expect so much out of this team at this point. The B12 is a great conference and anything better than 7 wins (and maybe even 7 wins itself this season) will be a great accomplishment. I simply hope that we, collectively, see such a record as a good move in the right direction rather than reason to take Pelini to task.
As for Melscott --- I appreciate your looking up numbers --- your numbers helped a great deal. The average stars were from the mid teens to upper teens. Yes other schools have attrition too. Ours has been high (as you point out that a good subset of 4 stars are gone). It is not unreasonable to say fringe top 25 or so when all is factored in. Much like I said. Not bad, but not great.