This is HuskerOnline.com’s feature in which recruiting analysts Mike Matya and Bryan Munson give their weekly takes on topical issues concerning Nebraska football, baseball and recruiting.
Today in our next installment of “Three and Out” we hit on top dozen Huskers, in-state outreach, and 500-mile radius R250 prospects.
Who are your best dozen?
The Big Ten Network programming has been a popular topic lately. The format for their Tour through the Big Ten schools to kick off the upcoming season is different (and bad). Their non-stop replays of last year’s games are great to fall asleep to as well.
What the BTN needs is some creative programming. Want to get a fanbase fired up for the season? Ask them who their all-time favorite players are, and hear the praise and the questions from both sides.
The PAC12 Network is running a special like this right now called “The 12 Greatest”. It was such an interesting show that I couldn’t turn it off until it ended, even though I didn’t know hardly anyone on the list. Those that I did know I was surprised by how high they were ranked.
Because of the show it got me thinking about who are the 12 best players to ever put on the scarlet and cream for The Big Red.
Chances are I could ask 50 people this same question and, when we compile all of the lists together, there would likely only be about 25 different names among everyone’s lists. So here is my chance to stir up a little discussion and since it’s the RSS likely some criticism, too.
So bring your criticism and bring me your lists. Here is mine:
1. Tommie Frazier – Does Nebraska win a National Championship in the 90s without him?
2. Johnny Rodgers – First Heisman trophy winner for Nebraska leads NU to two titles.
3. Dave Rimington – Center wins the Big 8 POY, two-time Outland Trophy winner and won the Lombardi. He has his own trophy now.
4. Mike Rozier – Won the Heisman. Averaged 7.2 yards per carry and ran for more than 200 yards in each of his final four games at Nebraska.
5. Ndamukong Suh – Junior Season stats: 85 tackles, 24 TFL, 12 sacks, 24 QB hurries, 10 pass breakups, three blocked kicks, an interception and a partridge in a pear tree.
6. Rich Glover – If Rodgers was the firepower on offense for the 70 and 71 teams then Glover was the lifeblood defense. Had 100 tackles his senior year.
7. Eric Crouch – Tough to do, but Nebraska’s third Heisman Trophy winner finishes outside the top half. It’s that good of a list.
8. Will Shields – Outland winner in 1993 and paved the way for the top rushing team in the country in 1989, 91 and 92.
9. Turner Gill – Tough to look at it this way, but second best QB to not win a title at Nebraska. Leader of the Scoring Explosion in 1983.
10. Grant Wistrom – Probably could be higher but tough company. 3x NC and won the Outland in 1997.
11. Zach Weigert – Outland trophy winner in 1994, first team all-Big Eight all three years he started and retired jersey.
12. Dean Steinkuhler – Outland and Lombardi award winner in 1983. Famous for his TD on the Fumblerooski play in the 84 Orange Bowl.
Just missed: Trev Alberts, Ahman Green and Aaron Taylor
Deserve consideration: Lawrence Phillips, Broderick Thomas, Irving Fryar, Larry Jacobson, Tom Novak, Bob Brown, Roger Craig, Lavonte David, Mike Brown and Jason Peter
– Bryan Munson
In-state outreach ramped-up
The Nebraska football program missed out on the top four in-state recruits for this Class of 2022, which is a sign of how far the estimation of Cornhusker football has fallen in the eyes of some local high school players, especially in Omaha.
That mentality and dynamic needs to change, and according to Bellevue West Football Coach Michael Huffman, the Husker coaches are doing all in their power to address those perceived shortcomings in the program that have built up over the past couple decades.
Coach Huff, who won Class A State championships in 2016 and 2019, and whose program has become a consistent feeder of Division I talent to colleges, made an appearance on the Gary Sharp Show last week to discuss some of those issues from his vantage point.
Sharp asked Coach Huff the broad, general question of why he thought in-state kids would pick a particular school to play college football.
“I think, at the beginning of it, they’ve got to know and have a comfort level with some of the kids who are already there,” Coach Huffman stated.
“I give an incredible amount of credit to AAU basketball, which has really helped that. These kids know each other from when they are really little. Whether they are playing at OSA or Factory, or whatever it may be, they grow up knowing each other.
“Right now, the big connection between like Devon (Jackson), the (Deshawn) Woods kid from Central, and even some of our kids, is the North Omaha Boys and Girls Club. So they grow up knowing each other. That’s important, but they want to have the chance to be in a situation to use their talents.”
Huffman has no problem with the way Nebraska has been handling in-state recruiting, particularly at Bellevue West.
“I have zero complaints,” Huffman said. “We’ve been very lucky because they have recruited our kids hard…. Omaha is an interesting place because people [who live there] come from all over.”
Coach Huff said that Micah Riley-Ducker’s family liked the Hawkeyes from the start, but fell in love with Auburn on his visit there. Kaden Helms and his family were always Husker fans.
“(Scott) Frost nailed it at the press conference when he said at Big Ten media days, ‘winning will take care of a lot of that stuff,'” Huffman said when it comes to drawing the attention of top in-state football recruits.
Until things start coming around in a significant way in the win/loss column, the NU staff is going out of their way to make Nebraska high school football coaches feel welcomed around the program.
“I love the fact that they invited all the high school coaches to come down and watch practice this year,” Huffman said. “I think that’s a great step in the right direction.
“Now, I’ve been lucky enough that I’ve been able to go, but now they have literally sent it out to every coach in Nebraska — if you can get down there, all they ask is that you RSVP the day before. And they gave out the whole fall camp schedule. Those things go a long way.
“I’m not one of these guys who thinks [the Husker coaches] need to get in every [high school] building in Nebraska. That’s impossible. There’s some towns, and I’ve been in small town Nebraska, that can go 10 or 15 years before you have a [Division I] kid.”
– Mike Matya
Brahmer rated in R250 as 5.8, 4-Star; look around the radius for 2023
It was a little bit of a surprise to see Nebraska with a four-star recruit already on their commitment list for 2023. The national analysts at Rivals like Ben Brahmer and where he could be a year or two from now. There is a bit of a comparison to be made with Thomas Fidone, but Fidone is a generational recruit and a real athletic freak.
Still, this starts Nebraska out on the right foot in the 2023 class with Brahmer and Gunnar Gottula in a class that could get close to having just north of 20 players in the next cycle potentially. Nebraska has offers out to uncommitted, in-state recruits Maverick Noonan and Teitum Tuioti who both could make a run at four-star rankings.
When you widen out what is going on in the 500-mile radius, though, Nebraska has to like what they see. There are a number of players at key positions that show up in the radius. The Huskers, having their 2022 class 66% or so complete, can take some time to recruit both 2023 and 2024 classes going forward.
Here is a look at the uncommitted players right around that 500-mile radius that showed up in the R250:
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