Homegrown Huskers

The significant decline in legit D1 talent out of the Metro has definitely not helped the Huskers


 
I have a buddy that coaches at one of the Dakotas and he said Frost hurt them this year with guys that had schollie offers and walked on at Nebraska instead.  I think these numbers will change moving forward.  He wont be able to get them all, but they will keep some of those kids from leaving the state.  

 




I wonder why the OWH graph only includes tuition?  Tuition is less than 40% of the total.  It costs over $25k per year to attend UNL.  So the decision is whether to accept a full ride at, say, North Dakota State or pay $25k per year to walk on at Nebraska.  It's basically a $100,000 decision for a four year degree.    

 
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Finally getting around to reading this.  

The fist part is pretty interesting.  It starts out talking about some of the in-state guys that got away.  And there's something to that.

But then it really gets into the bigger issue - Nebraska just flat isn't producing football players like it did 20-ish years ago.  I've noted the extreme drop in talent coming out of Class A for awhile.  Here are Dirk's numbers on it:

From 1999 through 2008, Nebraska signed 29 players from the Omaha metro area. The past 10 years? Five.

Niles Paul, Ricky Henry, Alex Henery and D.J. Jones played their last Husker games in 2010. All were OPS grads. All went to the NFL.

Since then, NU has received little help from the metro area. Over the past five years, 12 lettermen have combined for 12 total starts. Only C.J. Zimmerer (six), Michael Decker (five) and Ron Kellogg (one) started a game.

This is the place that once produced Johnny Rodgers, Dave Rimington, Ahman Green, Crouch and seven other first-team All-Americans since 1962. Elkhorn and Gretna, two growing suburbs, have mitigated the damage, but it’s still severe.
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Here are mine from another thread:

Crazy how down Class A in Nebraska has been for several years now when it comes to producing legit Power 5 prospects.

Here are the top five prospects from the state according to the 247 Composite and which class they played in high school.  Players the Husker got are highlighted red.  Players are crossed out if they didn't go to a Power 5 school (Marsh originally walked-on at NU then transferred).

2019 - Henrich (A), Hickman (A), Nelson (B), Snodgrass (B), Piper (C)

2018 - Jurgens (B), Mapieu (B), Williams (A), Schlager (B), Stai (B)

2017 - Allen (B), Walker (A), Bradley (A), Strom (A), Kitrell (B)

2016 - Fant (A), Bubak (C), Stille (B), Manchigiah (A), Cromer (B)

2015 - Neal (A), Decker (A), Holtorf (B), Johnson (A), Strong (A)

2014 - Foster (A), Phillips (A), Stoltenberg (B), Gifford (A), Rose (A)

2013 - Banderas (A), LaCouture (A), Minter (A), Bazata (D), Sayles (A)

2012 - Bender (A), Ott (D), Cotton (A), Rahmings (C), Grigsby (A)

2011 - Reeves (B), Sterup (C), Davie (B), Fisher (A), Lampkin (A)

2010 - Rodriguez (B), Evans (B), Dietz (A), Cotton (A), Marsh (A)

2009 - Lechner (A), Sellers (B), Zimmerer (B), Pensick (A), Davis (A)

So in the last 11 classes, only 12 class A players have signed with the Huskers and two of them (I believe) were walk-ons.  Six from Class A went to other Power 5 schools though LaCouture shouldn't really count.  

Over that same time frame, Class B has produced 11 Huskers (two walk-ons).  So Class A has only produced one more scholarship Husker over the last 11 years than Class B has.  Hickman is still pending.

For perspective, using current enrollment numbers but adjusting for how many schools have been in Classes A and B during the time frame above (it was changed this year), Class A has approximately 238% of the number of boys enrolled in school as Class B has.
 
I was just looking at the 247 in-state history a few days ago. One other thing I noticed is that if we get Chris Hickman and everybody committed signs, this will be the first year where we signed all five of the top in-state players, as far back as 247's records go (2002). Since Callahan's first class, there's only been two years where we even signed 4 of their top 5 in-state prospects: 2014 (#2-rated Harrison Phillips went to Stanford, and then to the Buffalo Bills) and 2010 (Solich snagged #3 Bryce Dietz for Ohio).

 
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What are the reasons for the lack of and drop off of D1 talent in the Omaha area and the state?  Lack of development?  Top athletes playing soccer or other sports instead of football?  Is the talent there but just not getting recognized?  Is school consolidation contributing to less football players?  It seems like a problem that correlates with less success for the program but the numbers don't provide any information that would help determine if there is a solution.  Is it possible we haven't had a coach that HS players were motivated to play for?  Just a theory hoping that there could be a Frost effect to turn the trend around.  It seems like this subject has come up before and nobody really had a good reason for the numbers.  I don't live in Nebraska so I don't have a feel for the general attitude of HS kids towards DONU football.  I would think if there is still a lot of pride in the Nebraska football program HS players would want to be a part of it and contribute to its success (and have school paid for).

 
These numbers are crazy.  I'm from Indiana and its typically thought of as a basketball state.  I think every year more kids decide to focus on basketball.  That being said they still had 20 kids go to DIV 1 schools from the 2018 clasa.  Only eight stayed in sate and that is divided up between IU, Nortre Dame, Purdue and Ball state.  Had 3 go to Iowa boo. One to Mich and Wisconsin.  Had two leave the midwest for Alabama and Cal

 
MyBloodIsRed16 said:
These numbers are crazy.  I'm from Indiana and its typically thought of as a basketball state.  I think every year more kids decide to focus on basketball.  That being said they still had 20 kids go to DIV 1 schools from the 2018 clasa.  Only eight stayed in sate and that is divided up between IU, Nortre Dame, Purdue and Ball state.  Had 3 go to Iowa boo. One to Mich and Wisconsin.  Had two leave the midwest for Alabama and Cal
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#of Indiana D1 20 / Population of Indiana 6.7M * Population of Nebraska 1.9 M = 5.7 D1 players from Nebraska.  Ball state isn't P5 but we had 2 P5 in 2018 so I'd guess we fell short.

 
4skers89 said:
#of Indiana D1 20 / Population of Indiana 6.7M * Population of Nebraska 1.9 M = 5.7 D1 players from Nebraska.  Ball state isn't P5 but we had 2 P5 in 2018 so I'd guess we fell short.
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Never thought the difference in population was that great.  Most of the state is farmland.  I guess Indianapolis is bigger than I think of it.  Most of those kids are out of Indy or nearby 

 
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