Our Football Recruiting Class is Last in the Big Ten and 70th Overall

[https://247sports.com/college/nebraska/Season/2022-Football/Commits/](https://247sports.com/college/nebraska/Season/2022-Football/Commits/)

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That is dismal. Last year we had the fifth-best in the Big Ten and 20th overall. It’s been since 2014 for the last time our recruiting class was not top 30. I know signing day hasn’t happened yet and there’s still time to get players but for crying out loud, what’s going on?

This isn’t the first time the team has had a losing record in those years either. Why is it being neglected so much this year? The older classes still have a lot of raw talent so that doesn’t necessarily mean next year will be abysmal but Toledo, Tulane, East Carolina, and Marshall all have better classes than us and they’re mid to low tier group of five teams.

What can we do to attract recruits? In the past when we were good I know a lot of it relied on the promise of being televised nationally four games a year, but now everyone is and that isn’t special. We lost our Association of American Universities membership (which is likely why the Big Ten accepted us anyway). I’ve heard comments that our athletic facilities are aging and not up to par with other Big Ten schools. Plus (though admittedly I don’t know how much this crosses the mind of football recruits) young people are leaving Nebraska. The chances of an NFL career are low enough even at Alabama, but having a degree in a state that has one of the highest rates of emigration for young people. (Nebraska has the [10th highest rate of population loss](https://www.3newsnow.com/news/local-news/a-deeper-look-brain-drain-in-nebraska) for educated young people in the US).

If I’m a four-star recruit getting equal offers from Nebraska, Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin, I can totally understand why Nebraska is the last choice out of those. Our fanbase is incredible and loyalty is high, but to be frank, a lot of other programs have fierce fanbases too. The mere fact we are Big Ten and that we have a strong fanbase are probably the two biggest selling factors in recruiting. The kids of today have never known a great Nebraska team. The last (arguably) great team was 2001 with the Heisman. Recruits today were born a full two years after that.

Despite pretty good recruiting classes up to this point, we haven’t had many players go on to lead strong NFL careers. Ndamukong Suh, Lavonte David, and Randy Gregory are by far the biggest names to come out of the program that are still playing today, and Gregory is mostly known as having an issue not smoking weed. Ameer Abdullah has had a decent career but not spectacular. But it’s really four players in the last like 15 years that truly made a mark. There hasn’t been a first-round draft pick out of Nebraska since Prince Amukamara in 2011 and he isn’t in the league anymore.

So besides just being in the Big Ten with a loyal fanbase, how do you recruit these guys? I think you start by doing your best to keep the best talent in the state. The top four recruits out of Nebraska this year are going to Missouri, Oregon, Oklahoma, and Auburn. Turn that around next year and keep the talent home. Maybe try to leach the top talent out of Iowa and Kansas. Go after Texas too, they’ve got 51 four-star recruits, they don’t need them all.

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There is no hope. Fuck everything. Go Big Red.

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