Has Riley recruited a future championship squad to Nebraska?

[Enhance]

Seriously, if we can't get to where we are at least dominating jNU, Minny, and IA--not to mention, ILL and Purdue--year in and year out, we are speeding way too much $ on this thing.

As long as we're making $ we may as well spend it

also, Iowa makes a lot of $ even when they suck.

Last time I checked, I didn't make any $ off of Husker football. My point is, we shouldn't be struggling with lower rent teams like jNU. Look what TN did to jNU in the bowl. Our brand should carry us above and beyond the IA's of the world also. If we can't more or less dominate the B1G West, well....it's a case of diminishing returns.

The problem is that the Nebraska brand doesn't really exist like it used to. Another thread is going into detail about this right, wondering how Nebraska gets back to a championship level. A lot of work still has to be put into the program before we're able to dominate bottom-feeders again. A lot of work.

The brand lays fallow. Recruit better, coach better, win games, and the brand will resurrect itself. We actually have enough talent now to dominate the West, with exception of Wiscy, IMO. Just gotta get it done.

Perhaps our definitions of domination are different. I think Nebraska should be able to compete for and potentially win a division title every year, and I think the talent level is capable of doing that. Teams with worse recruiting rankings than Nebraska over the last four years have won this division.

To "dominate" the division, to me, suggests you're saying Nebraska should be able to handily defeat every team in the division by at least a couple of scores and then win the division every single year. I don't think our recruiting over the last 5-6 years is capable of something like that. Our highest ranked class according to ESPN in the last four years was 23. Lowest is 39. Even though that may be better than most of the division, I don't think that translates to domination.

Nebraska is a long ways away from dominating the division, but they're closing to winning it.

 

[cornographic]

Seriously, if we can't get to where we are at least dominating jNU, Minny, and IA--not to mention, ILL and Purdue--year in and year out, we are speeding way too much $ on this thing.

As long as we're making $ we may as well spend it

also, Iowa makes a lot of $ even when they suck.

Last time I checked, I didn't make any $ off of Husker football. My point is, we shouldn't be struggling with lower rent teams like jNU. Look what TN did to jNU in the bowl. Our brand should carry us above and beyond the IA's of the world also. If we can't more or less dominate the B1G West, well....it's a case of diminishing returns.

The problem is that the Nebraska brand doesn't really exist like it used to. Another thread is going into detail about this right, wondering how Nebraska gets back to a championship level. A lot of work still has to be put into the program before we're able to dominate bottom-feeders again. A lot of work.

The brand lays fallow. Recruit better, coach better, win games, and the brand will resurrect itself. We actually have enough talent now to dominate the West, with exception of Wiscy, IMO. Just gotta get it done.

Perhaps our definitions of domination are different. I think Nebraska should be able to compete for and potentially win a division title every year, and I think the talent level is capable of doing that. Teams with worse recruiting rankings than Nebraska over the last four years have won this division.

To "dominate" the division, to me, suggests you're saying Nebraska should be able to handily defeat every team in the division by at least a couple of scores and then win the division every single year. I don't think our recruiting over the last 5-6 years is capable of something like that. Our highest ranked class according to ESPN in the last four years was 23. Lowest is 39. Even though that may be better than most of the division, I don't think that translates to domination.

Nebraska is a long ways away from dominating the division, but they're closing to winning it.

Yeah, maybe I shouldn't have said "dominate" at the present time, but win most of the time. If we can win the thing 3 out of 5 years, I'm good with that. I am not consumed with the idea of "domination".

 

[olddominionhusker]

A conference championship is possible as teams with worse average recruiting rankings (i.e. Wisconsin) have managed to win conference titles.

A national championship however is extremely unlikely with the current team, imho. The last 10 national championship teams have recruited an ESPN Top 10 class in the year prior to winning a title. That does not mean this is an absolute qualifier, but it does show the current trend in college football. I do think if Nebraska wants a legitimate shot at winning a national title again then they will have to have a Top 10 class (or really close to it) on the roster when it happens.

I think if you are just looking at that one thing, that is simply a coincidence that happened. No way does a recruiting class have a major impact on winning an NC the next year in football.
I suspect if recruiting is a major factor in winning those championships, if you look 3-5 years prior, their recruiting was a bigger factor than the year just before winning it.

I don't understand how that could be viewed as merely a 'coincidence.' An event that happens a couple times, sure. But, 10 straight years in a row, applying to several teams from different conferences? That's not a coincidence - that's a trend.
Most of the teams that won titles in the previous 10 years also had Top 10 classes in 2-3 years prior to their title, as well.

Again, that does mean this is a championship requirement. But, the current trend suggests that if you want to win a national title you have to recruit at a Top 10 level.

All I'm saying is the bolded part in this post means more than the bolded part in your original post I first quoted.
I'm looking at reality of what really creates a championship team. A recruiting class really isn't going to have that major of impact until 2-4 years down the road.

Even though a few players might play for Nebraska from this class, it's not going to have the same deciding impact on how next season ends up as the classes from 2-4 years ago.

Probably the real telling factor is that these teams recruited at that level for several years in a row.

I think I see what you are saying and tend to agree. I don't think if we get a top 10 class it's all of a sudden problem solved. I think you have to consistently recruit at that level for multiple years for it to really matter.

And if that is the case, then we really have very little chance to get back to a NC season.

However, Nebraska does have an advantage that plays in our favor. That is our division. Our road to Conf title games and therefore the playoff is a lot easier then it is for many teams. If you play in the SEC west you damn well better recruit top 10. We have a built in easier road to the big dance, and once you get there anything can happen

 

[Enhance]

Just to be clear, the stat I mentioned higher up was not posted to mean that a top 10 class recruited prior to a national championship season is the single greatest reason the last 10 champions have won titles.

The overall point I was making is that recruiting, particularly elite level recruiting, is a very common trend now in college football among champions, perhaps more than it has ever been. And it is suggesting that if you don't recruit a Top 10 class then you will likely not win a national championship in the current college football landscape.