re: Will Nebraska football ever make a comeback?

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Which QB are you talking about? Crouch? And which RB?

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Newcombe at QB and DeAngelo Evans at RB. I attended Nebraska during the Solich years and while the record in 03 looks good now at the time fans were disgruntled in being run off the field in the big games:

41-24 L to Missouri
31-7 L to Texas
38-9 L to KSU

Things weren't ever going to improve with Solich, the mistake was completely throwing away the programs legacy and identity by hiring Callahan.

He played QB with injuries in 98. Even without the injuries I think Crouch would have ended up the better option QB anyway.

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He played QB with injuries in 98. Even without the injuries I think Crouch would have ended up the better option QB anyway.

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Newcombe was phenomenal in 97 & before his injury in '98. Sub 4.4 speed and a much, much better passer than Crouch ever was.

Newcombe had an knee injury in '98 that would have required him to miss 3-4 games. Solich refused to let him rest and played him even though he was visibly injured. The injury worsened and became chronic. This cost Newcombe a shot at an NFL career as he could not pass his physical.

Solich migh have gotten away with this in the pre-Internet age but his handling of Newcombe and DeAngelo Evans kept Nebraska from ever landing a top notch option QB or RB while Solich was around.

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Nebraska recruited nationally i the 80's and 90's. Nebraska had well developed relationships with high school coaches in California, the Southwest, and eastern states like Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.


For some reason Nebraska abandoned those recruiting areas and tried to solely recruit players out of Texas.

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Circumstances change, the coaches they had relationships with move on and other teams start recruiting the same areas and or local teams get better and start keeping kids. In the Big 12 they were playing in Texas every year so it made sense to focus on that.

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Nebraska can’t recruit nationally.


I just don't buy that.

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you are taking this too literally, perhaps it could be said better, this issue is that without a home recruiting base with lots of talent, they can't recruit enough of the type of 4 and 5 star players to build the top 10 classes year in and year out. They can get some guys but not enough to build the depth. So they will have to go another way. People keep bringup Wisconsin because they are inthe same situation. They don't have a lot of in state talent to fall back on so they recruit next level guys and develop them. Oregon did this too. Nebraska could do this no doubt, though personally i think it was better for them to stay in the Big 12, where they have Texas to fall back on.

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I understand your point, and I certainly agree with everything you said. I just think we are over complicating it and the "Nebraska can't recruit nationally" is misleading imo.

All it would take is for Nick Saban, Dabo Sweeney, or Urban Meyer to move up to Lincoln and accept the head coaching job (obviously that isn't happening and is just being used for the sake of discussion) and boom, Nebraska is all of a sudden a Playoff contender. ESPN would grabt the news and run with it...Nebraska's top 25 classes immediately turn into top 5 classes within one year.

Nebraska is still a big enough name and program to garner national attention.

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Nebraska is still a big enough name and program to garner national attention

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Nebraska is a top 10 program in terms of revenue and they have facilities that are top tier. Also they have a ton of money for assistant coaches.

Frost has been as unlucky as anyone when it comes to injuries the last two years. Would like to see what he can accomplish with two relatively injury free seasons.

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I just think we are over complicating it and the "Nebraska can't recruit nationally" is misleading imo.

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I agree, the problem is if you have to recruit nationally. Its difficult to sustain, because a) most people, including high level athletes, prefer to go to college close or relatively close to home b) you are competing against basically everyone. Not sure if this is a good analogy but it's like playing all your games on the road.

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All it would take is for Nick Saban, Dabo Sweeney, or Urban Meyer to move up to Lincoln and accept the head coaching job

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Now this is where i disagree. Saban didn't recruit as well at Michigan State as he did at LSU. Why? Did he just magically become a "better" recruiter? No. Remember, when he got to LSU, LSU had 8 losing seasons in 11 years and had fired 4 coaches in less than 20 years. No coach lasted more the 5, it was not a top program. One of the reason's he took the LSU job was because there was so much talent in the state and a lot of it was leaving. His second class at LSU was 2001, he was hired in Dec 1999, so that was his first class he had a full year to recruit. It was also a great year in La (as small state, its prone to boom, bust years) there were 3 top 25 players, Michael Clayton, Marcus Spears and Marquis Hill. A good coach would have gotten 2 of them, but Saban got all 3, plus Andrew Whitworth, Steve Peterman, its one of the best classes and LSU history and set a precedent of "locking down" that state pretty much ever since. The only person that's been able to consistently crack it has been Saban

He did the same thing at Alabama, one of his early classes there (08 or 09) was a big year in Mobile and he cleaned it up. Now, more than a decade into a dynasty he's cherry picking top 100 guys nationally, but he starts with his local base. Dabo started with his basic base, 200-300 mile radius from Clemson includes Atlanta and has boatloads of talent. 2 titles and 5 playoffs later, they too are cherry picking nationally but still the bulk is from that zone