Nebraska had a relatively drama-free signing day on Wednesday, and that’s probably a good thing.

Everybody likes a little fun and excitement on signing day, but in Nebraska’s case on Wednesday there wasn’t any.

Maybe that’s a good thing. A year ago at this time thousands of us sat around our computers to watch Jaiden Francois walk away from the table for 30 minutes on signing day, to later find out he already faxed in a letter to NU hours earlier.

That made for a good day and some excitement. However, that ceremony and the front page press he got in Nebraska and in the Miami Herald that day was about the extent of what we saw from Francois in 2020. He left Lincoln by July in the middle of the night. Woke his roommate up and went right to the airport.

Drama on signing day is fun, and it’s good for my business at HuskerOnline. However, in the case of Dec. 2020, I think we all can agree we’ve had all the drama we could ever want this year.

Nebraska’s 2020 signing day was essentially over by 10 am on Wednesday – 19 signatures in the bag, along with one transfer. Now yes, there are still things brewing in the coming days/months with Omaha Westside defensive back Avante Dickerson, Mililani (Hawaii) linebacker Wynden Ho’ohuli and Las Vegas (Nev.) Desert Pines defensive lineman Tiaoalii A. Savea.

The heavy lifting though for the most part is done. This staff deserves a lot of credit.

A year ago if you told me Nebraska would be 2-5 right now and wasn’t able to host a recruit for a spring game, home game or summer camp there is no way I would’ve thought the Huskers would have a top 25 national class.

It also tells you these recruits still believe in what’s happening in Lincoln with Frost and his staff. After a rough third year, I think a lot of people were wondering how it might affect recruiting going forward.

The good news is they’ve kept things together for 2021. I think now the bigger challenge will be 2022.

Luckily there is another strong crop of local talent for 2022. That should once again help set a foundation for the recruiting class.

The other thing we don’t know is when will coaches be allowed back on the road? Could we see coaches back out by late April or May?

What about on-campus visitors? Will we see visitors at all in the spring of 2021? At least the 2021 recruiting class had an opportunity to get on campus in both 2019 and the early portion of 2020 before the shutdown.

The 2022 class is going to present a lot of challenges, especially if the Huskers can’t get players to Lincoln anytime soon.

The good news is they survived arguably the toughest year of recruiting Nebraska has faced in the Internet era and were able to put together a national top-25 class built primarily on local talent.

This wasn’t a class bumped in the rankings by a bunch of late Florida additions that hardly knew anything about Nebraska. It was built with a strong foundation of local talent, and that probably is the type of formula the Huskers need to build their classes with going forward.