Recruiting Update and Thoughts From a Long Time Husker Fan

Hi everyone! I’m Scott Polski, a life long, native-born Cornhusker fan. I actually wept when NU pummeled the Gators in the 96 Fiesta Bowl. Around here I will focus on recruiting, coaching and player development in the NU football program.

If you’re paying attention at all, the last three weeks have been a whirlwind for Husker football recruiting. The incoming recruiting class of 12 high school players, generally ranked as the lowest rated in the Big Ten, left most, if not all, Husker fans underwhelmed and concerned about the future of the of the Husker program following a season of epic disappointment.

Coaching Changes

Scott Frost cleaned the offensive side of the house following the season-ending loss to Iowa, changing several coaches from STAFF to FAN status. The defensive staff remained largely intact as the 2021 squad kept the Huskers in every game this season. Frost quickly began molding the new offensive staff, bringing in former NU quarterback Mickey Joseph to coach receivers.

Mark Whipple was lured away from the Pittsburgh Panthers where he had just finished developing Kenny Pickett into a Heisman Trophy finalist. Donovan Riaola and Ryan Applewhite rounded out the additions to the offensive staff, while Bill Busch was hired as Special Teams Coordinator.

Transfer Portal

Joseph immediately paid dividends when Trey Palmer followed Joseph to Lincoln from Baton Rouge, and when Decoldest Crawford also signed a letter of intent to join the 2022 Husker receiving corps. The transfer portal began to channel a crop of talented players to NU. Casey Thompson, former starting QB for the Texas Longhorns, started the talent influx, followed by Florida State quarterback Chubba Purdy. The newcomers joined Logan Smothers, Heinrich Haarberg, and Richard Torres to make the QB room at NU more crowded and potentially competitive than it had been in years with five scholarship quarterbacks for new offensive coordinator Whipple to work with.

Anthony Grant joined a talented, if under-utilized and under-developed, collection of running backs. Grant was more than productive at New Mexico State Military Institute, where he averaged over seven yards per carry in amassing 1,730 rushing yards and 18 rushing touchdowns in 2021. Nebraska never settled on a featured running back in 2021 after freshman Gabe Ervin started the season opener. He later suffered a season-ending injury in the third game of the season at Oklahoma. Several backs, including Jaquez Yant, Rahmir Johnson, and Markese Stepp, a transfer from USC, showed flashes of potential.

NU got some special teams help when punter Brian Buschini came to NU via the portal. There are also some potential returners, including Palmer, that literally cannot do anything but improve the utterly embarrassing lack of production and execution that has been the calling card of Scott Frost’s special teams since his arrival in Lincoln.

Nebraska’s transfer haul was ranked the best in the B1G by 247Sports (as opposed to the recruiting class, which was 50th nationally and 14th in the B1G).
Our updated transfer portal team rankings at 247Sports look very different than our 2022 team recruiting rankings with several first-year coaches addressing rosters needs via top-rated transfers. (College football transfer portal team rankings: LSU, USC lead top 10 classes for 2022)

Scott’s Thoughts – Looking Back and Looking Forward

So, new coaches, new players … should make for an enthusiastic, maybe even giddy spring at Dear Ol’ Nebraska U. But in the words of college football’s favorite grandpa, Lee Corso, “not so fast my friend.” Fans have been hoping against hope, really since about 2003, that Nebraska would reclaim its rightful place among the NCAA football elites, and that the endless Alaska-like darkness of this long, cold football winter would finally end.

From Solich, to he whose name should never be uttered without being preceded by the most foul vulgarity that can be mustered, to Pelini (see, I wasn’t referring to Bo, like some of you thought), to the kind and gentle soul of Mike Riley, long-suffering Husker fans have hungered and thirsted for a cool drop of relevance on our parched tongues.

Then, against all odds, the golden child himself arrived from the Sunshine State. Indeed, Tom Osborne’s last quarterback, the home grown son of the open prairies, who last held a National Championship trophy aloft while wearing the Scarlet and Cream, came home.

I remember thinking that there was no way he would take this gig. Why would he leave his home in Orlando, where he could stand on his front step, throw a dead cat, and hit five blue chip high school football studs, to come back home and jump into this dumpster fire that had been burning almost since he left?

But, he came back. And the Husker Nation was jubilant and unified! We all wanted to see Scott Frost lead us again to the promised land, by way of We-Don’t-Suck-ville, and passing through Damned-Near-Competitive-Town.

We knew this would take a while. But we never turned the corner. We’ve been stuck in wait-until-next-year-land and became one of only two Power Five football programs to have not played in a friggin’ bowl game since Scott Frost arrived, us and, you gotta be kidding me, Kansas! This is not how this was supposed to play out.

THE ONLY TEAM IN THE B1G TO NOT PLAY IN A BOWL IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS!

Let that sink in as I push my rose-colored glasses aside. I’ll admit that there seems to be more to be optimistic about this time, but just over a month ago I was proclaiming that I’d seen enough to know I’d seen enough. After four seasons, NU is 15-26 and holds a .341 winning percentage. The fan base is divided. Some are angry.

The consecutive home sell out record is the last remaining vestige of a once great college football tradition. Some fans wring their hands and wonder if Frost can’t do it, who can? If he gets fired, who else would even consider coming here next? These fans have accepted that this may be as good as it gets. That the time from Devaney’s arrival to Osborne’s retirement was a fantastic three-decades long aberration that can’t be replicated in these times.

But Lincoln remains now where it has always been, in a state with a small population, No. 37 in the United States. No major professional sports teams reside within Nebraska’s boundaries. When Bob Devaney arrived, there was no history in Lincoln; no proud tradition; no rabid fan base; no world-class facilities. NU has got all of that now. These kids wearing the uniforms don’t know the history first-hand. Their fathers or grandfathers pass on the oral tradition.

The Game of the Century, Johnny “The Jet”, Mike Rozier, the original Rimington, national championships, Eric Crouch, 10-win seasons as a birthright are all a part of that rich history. If you met a stranger and the conversation got to where you were from, as soon as you said “Nebraska,” the subject changed immediately to football. It was what everyone knew about Nebraska. Love us, or hate us, Nebraska football was part of the collective consciousness of the nation.

Nebraska is a long way from there now, and getting back there is a long way off. But patience with another lackluster, embarrassing three, or four, or five win season is not the way to get back. So excuse me if I’m reluctant to jump in and drink the Kool-Aid. I’ve seen this before. The solution has to be the coaching, because the problem has been the coaching. And a fish stinks from the head down. This is Frost’s team, warts and all.

A couple years ago some fans were bemoaning the fact that Nebraska “lost out” on getting Joe Burrow. He went on to guide an LSU team, one that is now in the discussion with the 1994 and 1995 Husker teams as being the greatest college football team of all time, to an undefeated season and a national championship. To that I say: as if having Joe Burrow would have turned the NU program around in 2019. If Burrow had played behind the line that “protected” Adrian Martinez that season, he would still be in therapy for PTSD.

NU has had a talented quarterback who never looked as good as he did his freshman year. The Huskers have had offensive linemen who were apparently mystified that they couldn’t move until after the center snapped the ball. Nebraska had a center who had the quarterback looking like an infielder on the baseball team trying to field grounders hit all around him. Poor clock management, lack of adjustments, play calling that was so bad it was predictable even for marginal fans were the story of the team. These are coaching issues.

The past season has to be the end of this kind of ineptitude. Bring in all the talented, excited kids you want. Have a top-10 recruiting class. But if they don’t get better after they get to Lincoln, then you’ll see more of what you have seen enough of.

So watch this next couple of months. Listen a little to what you hear. Listen and watch critically. I hope, to the core of my being, that this is the year. But if not, then be ready to demand more. The players and this fan base deserve it.