A thought on the biggest improvement the Huskers could make to fix the program **Immediately**

One of the things that jumped out to me in this last game, is how undersized Nebraska looked against Minnesota’s bacIups. They only had a single starting offensive linemen left (due to injuries and Covid quarantines). Nebraska has looked undersized all year, but it especially is bad when you realize that’s not even a teams best and biggest guys.

I always love the Urban Meyer quote (that I think he took from someone else), about the things they measured in their program.

Recruiting and **Development**. If you’re bringing in great recruiting classes, and those guys aren’t getting drafted into the NFL, then you have to examine your player development. Nebraska has had top 25 recruiting classes (and again even this season is on pace to be the top recruiting class in the B1G West), but those guys aren’t converting into NFL draft picks. Urban made sure that wherever he went, that he also brought in his strength and conditioning coach. It was a *requirement* in his contract negotiations. Saban has said the strength and conditioning coach might be the most underrated position in all of college football. NCAA limits practice time, so these guys literally end up spending more time with the athletes than the coaches do.

Nebraska is recruiting well, but not developing guys well. Not just that, but we can see it with the drop off in second half performance and missed tackles in the second half (again, a sign of conditioning).

Even better, [is we have actual stats showing recently how important the position is today. Brian Kelly hired Balis from UConn on the heels of a 4-8 season in 2016. While wins and losses are far from an ideal metric for judging strength and conditioning coaches, it’s probably worth noting the Fighting Irish are 43-6 since Balis arrived in South Bend](https://247sports.com/college/penn-state/Article/College-football-best-strength-and-conditioning-coaches-NFL-Combine-Dwight-Galt-Chris-Doyle-144582852/)

This article uses metrics from the combine to examine who the best strength and conditioning guys in NCAA are (Urban’s guy from Ohio St is on the list). Even better though, is that one of the guys from that article is jobless right now. One of the best strength and conditioning coaches in the nation is jobless right now and a car ride away from Lincoln. The best stat from that article is that Iowa didn’t recruit well, but was able to convert these guys into top performers at the combine. Only one of their top NFL draftees was a four star recruit, the rest were three star, two star, and WALK ONS. He was just fired from Iowa, which means one of the best Strength and Conditioning coaches is available. He wasn’t fired for performance reasons, but for behavioral reasons, which means that can be negotiated into his contract as a safety net.

I would love to hear other people’s thoughts on this. Brian Kelly has turned around his tenure at Notre Dame when they hired their new strength and conditioning coach. He was another good coach on the hot seat because his team was underperforming. I know there are a lot of issues with the husker team, but the strength and conditioning coach is one of the most important rolls in college football and probably the best bang-for-buck that a program can spend.

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