Amazing (not in a good way) Roster Situation

[Tsakoi]

Upon studying the scholarship distribution chart for a bit something struck me as quite odd and downright amazing. Our football team is almost completely void of upper-classmen who started their careers "on scholarship" at Nebraska. Both the senior and junior class is a hodge-podge of transfers, former walk-ons and in a surprisingly few cases somebody who gets meaningful snaps that actually arrived as a freshman at Nebraska. Frost is waaaaay too deep into his time in Lincoln for us to be in a situation where we are continuously a "young" team.....but here we are...... take a look.....

Seniors - There are only (10)
TE Travis Vokolek - Transfer from Buttgers - often injured - played behind Allen and Stoll when healthy.
WR Omar Manning - Transfer from JUCO - often missing on gameday or in the middle of a game - first year with us a total bust - second a little more encouraging.
WR Oliver Martin - Transfer from Cockeye via Michigan - ineligible or injured often times since arriving - solid hands but not used much lately.
OL Broc Bando - Began career on scholarship with Nebraska - Never made it too high on the depth chart. Limited playing time outside of ST.
OL Trent Hixon - Began career as a walk on with Nebraska - Started for a time with some calamitous results - returned to limited backup role.
DL Jordon Riley - Transfer from N. Carolina - injured in first year - stuck behind D. Daniels then seemingly passed up by younger and smaller guys for playing time.
OLB Caleb Tannor - Began career on scholarship with Nebraska - Developed into a contributor although it took a long time.
OLB/DE Pheldarious Payne - Transfer from JUCO - Has regular playing time and has contributed - a slight injury situation.
MLB Eteva Mauga-Clements - Transfer from JUCO - Never higher than 5th choice in his position - ST duty mostly.
MLB Chris Kolarevic - Transfer from N. Cockeye - 3rd in line at MLB - has played lots of snaps with no huge game impact.

That's it. That's your senior class. 2 guys who started their careers at Nebraska on scholarship and of those 2 only 1 is a major contributor.

Do you think the junior class is any better? Lets see......

Juniors - There are (17)
QB Casey Thompson - Transfer from Texas - New '22 Arrival - Boy o boy do we need this one to work out.
RB Markese Stepp - Transfer from USC - Arrived in '21 injured - Apparently re-injured at some point - spot duty in weird RB rotation - non-factor thus far.
RB Anthony Grant - Transfer from JUCO - New '22 arrival- High hopes for this new arrival.
WR Wyatt Liewer - Began Career as a walk on with Nebraska - Practice champion - game time comes and he drops the ball - a lot, .go back and check...50/50 drop catch ratio.
WR Trey Palmer - Transfer from LSU - New '22 arrival -Thank you uncle Mickey - probably will factor into the return game on ST too.
WR Isaiah Garcia - Castanada - Transfer from New Mexico - New '22 arrival - Possibly filling the slot style Toure wideout position.
OL Hunter Anthony - Transfer from Okie Light - New '22 arrival - Supposedly can play OG or OT - experienced but comes with in injury history.
OL Nouredin Nouili - Transfer from Colorado State - arrived in '21 - The lone bright spot on the OL last year once he was plugged into the starting lineup halfway through.
OL Kevin Williams - Transfer from Northern Colorado - New '22 arrival - Can he make the jump from whatever league N. Colo is to the Big 10?
DE Tate Wildeman - Began career on scholarship with Nebraska - Complete non-factor up to this point and a strong candidate for transfer out soon. Bust.
DE Casey Rogers - Began career on scholarship with Nebraska - Solid snaps - solid contributor - makes plays and will be relied on heavily this year for more of the same. Leader.
OLB Garrett Nelson - Began career on scholarship with Nebraska - Multi year starter - Contribution grows year after year. Healthy, solid team guy. Leader.
MLB Luke Riemer - Began career as a walk on with Nebraska - Basically forced Nebraska to put him on scholarship by practice and game performance. Dream walk on story.
CB - Braxton Clark - Began career on scholarship with Nebraska - Was in line for more playing time before injury took a season from him. Needs to step up now.
CB - Quinton Newsome - Began career on scholarship with Nebraska - Firmly planted himself as a starter in '21 and earned a blackshirt. Solid contributor.
CB - Tyreke Johnson - Transfer from OSU - His arrival made big noise in '21 based on former 5 star status then.......crickets. Bust potential high.
CB Omar Brown - Transfer from N. Cockeye - New '22 arrival - Freshman All- American at N. Cockeye - Big expectations are following him as he enters a bigger league.

Of the (17) juniors only 5 started their careers as Huskers and of those 5 a total of 3 have become contributors so far. Of the walk-ons only 1 has made a real name for himself.


Grand total of 4 "contributors" have been retained and developed by Scott Frost going into '22 season. That is a complete failure no matter how you look at it. I understand that COVID made us top heavy with seniors last year, but having two entire classes made up mostly of guys who came from the outside or just got here points to serious program problems. Think about this.....where would we be without the transfer portal? Can they (Scott & Turd) fix this moving forward or will Turd be finding someone else to try soon?

 

[Jim14510]

Your point isn't without merit but a little disingenuous to leave off the 4th year redshirt sophomores which was Frost's first full recruiting class. Without covid they'd all be redshirt juniors.

Varying degree of contributions but all 13 started their career at Nebraska. Below is assuming none get injured

Past contributors that for sure will be contributors in 2022:
Robinson
Henrich

Past contributors that may have diminished roles but will still likely contribute in 2022:
Johnson
Farmer

Prior contributors that need to improve a lot, get passed by someone better, or we're fucked:
Benhart
Piper

Little to no prior contribution but potentially make an impact in 2022 or 2023
Hickman
M. Newsome
Wright
Pola-Gates

Doesn't seem likely they'll ever contribute/potential processing candidates
Lynn
Banks
Snodgrass

 

[Jim14510]

So including the redshirt sophomores you likely have 8 "contributors" that have been retained and developed by Scott Frost going into '22 season. Optimistically as high as 16.

I'd also include Reimers. He was really a blue shirt. Given a scholarship but it was delayed for a year so he didn't count against the initial 25 number. Not positive on the rules but I believe he was guaranteed a scholarship in 2020 as much as any scholarship is guaranteed anyway.

So even with Reimers that would be an optimistic number of 16. Your 4 + Clark + Reimer + my 10. Still not great and almost certainly some of those won't actually contribute.

The really interesting part is when Frost was hired I thought at least he'll be able to bring in some offensive skill position guys while the line and defense catches up.

Breakdown of those optimistic 16
Defense - 12
Offense:
Oline - 2
TE - 1
RB - 1

No WR, No QB

 

[Tsakoi]

"disingenuous"....as in I was being purposely deceitful? Of course there are different angles to this topic but I'm not lying with intent to misinform.

The roster still categorizes players by class so we go by that.

And in those two existing upper classes you'll find little contribution from original Nebraska scholarship players. The remaining spots in those two classes have been replaced by outsiders. This can largely be attributed to attrition, early NFL departures, misses, legal problems and injuries. One major point is that Frost has had to backfill a ton. (He has done fairly well at this)

Examples of the good: CT Britt, C Jurgens, D Daniels and A Allen all would be considered developed by Frost and parts of those two classes had they chosen to stay, but now are headed to pro contracts. 4 guys selected (+1 for Jojo, but he isn't part of this topic because he has exhausted his eligibility) will be among our best draft classes in the last 15 years.

I still feel like the main point remains....how does Nebraska have a OL senior and junior class without a clear contributor from our own "pipeline" for '22? Not a guy we offered as a PWO who later came to us via CSU (NN). Not a guy from Omaha North HS that we got via N. Colo. Where are the linemen that we developed to come in as a junior or senior, like Wisc and Cockeye do, to anchor our line?

There is a deficiency somewhere in our past recruiting, player development and/or retention overall that lead us here.

 

[Jim14510]

"disingenuous"....as in I was being purposely deceitful? Of course there are different angles to this topic but I'm not lying with intent to misinform.

The roster still categorizes players by class so we go by that.

And in those two existing upper classes you'll find little contribution from original Nebraska scholarship players. The remaining spots in those two classes have been replaced by outsiders. This can largely be attributed to attrition, early NFL departures, misses, legal problems and injuries. One major point is that Frost has had to backfill a ton. (He has done fairly well at this)

Examples of the good: CT Britt, C Jurgens, D Daniels and A Allen all would be considered developed by Frost and parts of those two classes had they chosen to stay, but now are headed to pro contracts. 4 guys selected will be among our best draft classes in the last 15 years.

I still feel like the main point remains....how does Nebraska have a OL senior and junior class without a clear contributor from our own "pipeline" for '22? Not a guy we offered as a PWO who later came to us via CSU (NN). Not a guy from Omaha North HS that we got via N. Colo. Where are the linemen that we developed to come in as a junior or senior, like Wisc and Cockeyes do, to anchor our line?

There is a deficiency somewhere in out past recruiting, player development and/or retention overall that lead us here.

Unfair is probably a better word. Under normal circumstance his transition recruiting class would be redshirt seniors/gone. 2nd class redshirt juniors/seniors.

 

[Jim14510]

Probably the biggest fail was not retaining very many Riley recruits. How much blame you put on Riley's recruiting/culture and how much is on Frost's ability to retain and develop them is up for debate but there's no way you can spin it that Frost didn't have any fault. The 2017 class was demolished. They potentially could have been redshirt super seniors this year.

 

[Tsakoi]

Unfair is probably a better word. Under normal circumstance his transition recruiting class would be redshirt seniors/gone. 2nd class redshirt juniors/seniors.

You are correct that things look better the further down the roster goes and we are definitely going to need to stabilize and get contributors from the "sophomore" class. (Some of which will have been here 4 years like Hickman, it's fucking weird)

 

[Jim14510]

You are correct that things look better the further down the roster goes and we are definitely going to need to stabilize and get contributors from the "sophomore" class. (Some of which will have been here 4 years like Hickman, it's fucking weird)

2020 class has quite a few issues and of course the 2022 class is abysmal from a freshman outlook. Wont be getting weened off the portal anytime soon. Maybe that's the new normal.

 

[ac husker]

Good analysis from both posters in this thread. This was also a major reason why we didn’t see a lot of HS recruits this cycle.

 

[LoudHogRider]

Sobering thread, but I agree with one of Jim's comments above: thanks to the blessings (and the curse) of the transfer portal, this may be the "new normal" going forward. It certainly presents challenges for any coaching staff to build continuity and culture if that's the roster mix.

 

[ChocaEgg]

Oof. We have to have the worst Sr class in all of P5. Barftastic.

 

[Toe]

You're just now finally realizing that Riley's last class and Frost's first class completely blew up? This was obvious a couple years ago. Most of the '17 class was gone by Frost's second year.

 

[Jim14510]

You're just now finally realizing that Riley's last class and Frost's first class completely blew up? This was obvious a couple years ago. Most of the '17 class was gone by Frost's second year.

It's not about just realizing it. It's specifically how terrible they were and how he still hasn't caught up.

 

[Baron Winnebago]

It's not about just realizing it. It's specifically how terrible they were and how he still hasn't caught up.

It didn't help catch up when lots of his first two classes went belly up quickly

 

[David Webb]

You will still have people using the “young” excuse if things don’t go right this year. Last year it was the youngest OL in history. What will it be now?

 

[ChocaEgg]

You will still have people using the “young” excuse if things don’t go right this year. Last year it was the youngest OL in history. What will it be now?

There will be plenty of excuses -

New Offense
New Coaches
Young [insert position group here]
Tougher than expected schedule (lol)
Etc etc

 

[Jim14510]

You will still have people using the “young” excuse if things don’t go right this year. Last year it was the youngest OL in history. What will it be now?

I don't think the young excuse can get used anymore. Again most of the sophomore eligible people this will be their 4th year. Question is will the expectations of the portal transfers match the results.

The answer is no and that will be the mistake that makes 2022 different from other losing seasons is the reliance on the portal. Another reason people can say the portal is terrible for college football.

 

[MtnHusker]

I think we can all agree that our player development hasn't been the best. But to me the biggest reason our roster is a mess is player retention. At one pint under Frost he had the highest or near highest turnover rate of scholarship players. Some disagree with me but from what I have heard Frost did not make the returning Riley players feel very welcome or like they were getting a fair shot so many of them left. Plus Frost has recruited a limited number of potential Impact Players (4 star recruits) and most of those have left. He has done just as poor of a job retaining the players he recruited.

The Transfer Portal could be our friend and his saving grace. Seeing a player like Thompson from Texas acting like a true Leader in his first week on campus makes me happy. Plus seeing the pictures of him working out is a night and day comparison to how many of our players look. Casey is yoked, makes Martinez look like a Student Manager. My buddies son lived by some of the football players 2019-2020 school year. The players had a bar set up in their garage that was a constant party. He was visiting his son and said Martinez was walking around shirtless on a hot day and it looked like he had never lifted a weight in his life.

 

[vailhusker]

I think we can all agree that our player development hasn't been the best. But to me the biggest reason our roster is a mess is player retention. At one pint under Frost he had the highest or near highest turnover rate of scholarship players. Some disagree with me but from what I have heard Frost did not make the returning Riley players feel very welcome or like they were getting a fair shot so many of them left. Plus Frost has recruited a limited number of potential Impact Players (4 star recruits) and most of those have left. He has done just as poor of a job retaining the players he recruited.

The Transfer Portal could be our friend and his saving grace. Seeing a player like Thompson from Texas acting like a true Leader in his first week on campus makes me happy. Plus seeing the pictures of him working out is a night and day comparison to how many of our players look. Casey is yoked, makes Martinez look like a Student Manager. My buddies son lived by some of the football players 2019-2020 school year. The players had a bar set up in their garage that was a constant party. He was visiting his son and said Martinez was walking around shirtless on a hot day and it looked like he had never lifted a weight in his life.

Casey has probably lifted more in the last week or so than Martinez lifted in his whole time at Nebraska. Casey already looks more competitive and looks more like a leader than Martinez. Hopefully it all comes together in the Fall.