I want to further my look at Nebraska’s early recruiting strategy for 2020 by comparing the Husker’s efforts to those around the Big Ten. I am in no way a recruiting expert (nor do I even follow very closely outside of seeing what Nebraska’s biggest needs are in season). I am writing this to look at the macro trends of recruiting across the conference. This is a follow up to my piece last week looking specifically at Nebraska. The data for this analysis comes from 247sports.com.
I mentioned last week how Nebraska had already made over 400 offers. The next closest school, Rutgers, has only made 337 offers through June 18. Purdue and Michigan come close with 335 and 325 respectively. Unsurprisingly, Northwestern has made the fewest offers with only 60. Our closest neighbor, Iowa, has made the second fewest offers with 128. Across the entire conference, the average number of offers is 240 per school.
The Huskers large class of offers could pay dividends in the future even if it does not yield a massive success this year. The relationship with Lawrence Free State’s Turner Corcoran started last season while recruiting Jalan Robinson reported Mitch Sherman at The Athletic. Building these connections with high school coaches across the country could lay a strong foundation for recruiting 5-star players from these high schools down the road.
In the days of the Big 12, Texas was a valuable recruiting ground for Nebraska. This has not always been the case since the move to the Big Ten. However, Scott Frost seems to be reemphasizing Texas recruiting leading the conference with 58 offers to players in the Lone Star State. Illinois has recruited Texas the second most heavily with 48 offers.
With Frost’s ties to the state of Florida, I expected Nebraska to have recruited more heavily here than other Big Ten programs. This is not the case. Indiana and Rutgers have made 70 and 59 offers to players from Florida compared to 58 offers by the Huskers. With 565 total player offered in the state of Florida, some programs have mostly ignored the state. Michigan State, Iowa, and Wisconsin have all made fewer than 15 offers to the Sunshine State which is rich in talent (Northwestern with its small total offer number has also only made 2 offers to Florida recruits).
|
Big Ten Recruiting in Major States (> 50 Offers to Players in State)
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
AL
|
AZ
|
CA
|
DC
|
FL
|
GA
|
IL
|
IN
|
MD
|
MI
|
MO
|
NC
|
NJ
|
OH
|
PA
|
TN
|
TX
|
VA
|
Total
|
|
|
Illinois
|
5
|
3
|
5
|
3
|
48
|
9
|
18
|
2
|
1
|
2
|
15
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
1
|
48
|
3
|
170
|
|
Indiana
|
17
|
8
|
8
|
7
|
70
|
16
|
9
|
14
|
6
|
27
|
17
|
2
|
2
|
34
|
3
|
17
|
29
|
5
|
291
|
|
Iowa
|
7
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
13
|
5
|
20
|
4
|
4
|
12
|
12
|
0
|
1
|
7
|
1
|
1
|
6
|
0
|
94
|
|
Maryland
|
4
|
0
|
5
|
7
|
55
|
38
|
0
|
0
|
28
|
12
|
1
|
7
|
14
|
11
|
7
|
3
|
3
|
15
|
210
|
|
Michigan
|
6
|
12
|
23
|
8
|
52
|
36
|
7
|
3
|
19
|
19
|
4
|
8
|
8
|
20
|
3
|
6
|
24
|
12
|
270
|
|
Michigan State
|
0
|
6
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
34
|
9
|
4
|
9
|
23
|
3
|
3
|
5
|
29
|
4
|
1
|
15
|
5
|
168
|
|
Minnesota
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
50
|
25
|
11
|
6
|
1
|
22
|
13
|
1
|
10
|
27
|
5
|
3
|
33
|
0
|
208
|
|
Nebraska
|
27
|
10
|
35
|
6
|
59
|
31
|
9
|
1
|
9
|
10
|
12
|
6
|
12
|
9
|
5
|
6
|
58
|
9
|
314
|
|
Northwestern
|
0
|
2
|
3
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
9
|
1
|
1
|
7
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
7
|
2
|
3
|
7
|
2
|
49
|
|
Ohio State
|
0
|
6
|
13
|
5
|
27
|
18
|
2
|
4
|
6
|
13
|
2
|
6
|
8
|
14
|
3
|
8
|
26
|
6
|
167
|
|
Penn State
|
2
|
5
|
19
|
6
|
52
|
14
|
5
|
2
|
13
|
13
|
3
|
9
|
10
|
16
|
8
|
9
|
17
|
12
|
215
|
|
Purdue
|
11
|
13
|
4
|
4
|
55
|
27
|
13
|
9
|
8
|
20
|
15
|
5
|
11
|
28
|
3
|
20
|
41
|
7
|
294
|
|
Rutgers
|
4
|
0
|
8
|
11
|
68
|
28
|
2
|
0
|
26
|
9
|
3
|
3
|
43
|
33
|
8
|
4
|
25
|
14
|
289
|
|
Wisconsin
|
0
|
3
|
8
|
8
|
7
|
12
|
6
|
2
|
10
|
7
|
5
|
6
|
5
|
5
|
2
|
0
|
14
|
3
|
103
|
|
Total
|
83
|
69
|
136
|
72
|
565
|
293
|
120
|
52
|
141
|
196
|
105
|
62
|
131
|
240
|
56
|
82
|
346
|
93
|
|
Looking at positional recruiting across the conference, I decided to measure offers as a percent of the school’s total offers. The Huskers, with great stability at QB with Adrian Martinez, Noah Vedral and Luke McCaffrey, have used less than 1.5% of its offers on QBs. Nebraska’s starting QB through 2022 is likely already on the roster. Iowa is the only other school with fewer than 2% of offers used on the QB position.
I was surprised to see the Huskers have offered a very low percentage of OL recruits as this has been a position of need for years. Only Rutgers has offered a smaller percent of OL so far. Nebraska has also made it a priority to recruit Athletes in this class with nearly 8% of its offers being used on these players. While some of these Athletes will likely find positions once on campus, I expect Frost wants more players like Wan’Dale Robinson that can be used in a wide variety of roles.
|
Percent of Offers to Position Group
|
|||||||||||
|
ATH
|
DB
|
DL
|
LB
|
OL
|
QB
|
RB
|
ST
|
TE
|
WR
|
Total
|
|
|
Illinois
|
5.00%
|
13.33%
|
16.11%
|
2.22%
|
23.89%
|
5.00%
|
7.22%
|
0.00%
|
0.00%
|
27.22%
|
180
|
|
Indiana
|
4.67%
|
14.95%
|
18.07%
|
8.72%
|
22.74%
|
4.05%
|
4.05%
|
0.31%
|
4.67%
|
17.76%
|
321
|
|
Iowa
|
5.47%
|
8.59%
|
25.78%
|
9.38%
|
14.84%
|
1.56%
|
8.59%
|
0.00%
|
7.81%
|
17.97%
|
128
|
|
Maryland
|
5.70%
|
16.23%
|
18.42%
|
10.09%
|
16.23%
|
3.51%
|
11.40%
|
0.00%
|
5.26%
|
13.16%
|
228
|
|
Michigan
|
7.08%
|
16.31%
|
14.77%
|
9.23%
|
15.38%
|
4.62%
|
12.31%
|
0.00%
|
5.54%
|
14.77%
|
325
|
|
Michigan State
|
6.42%
|
11.76%
|
19.25%
|
10.70%
|
15.51%
|
5.35%
|
9.63%
|
1.07%
|
5.88%
|
14.44%
|
187
|
|
Minnesota
|
5.43%
|
18.99%
|
22.87%
|
10.08%
|
13.95%
|
3.49%
|
7.36%
|
0.00%
|
3.88%
|
13.95%
|
258
|
|
Nebraska
|
7.94%
|
15.88%
|
19.60%
|
12.41%
|
13.90%
|
1.49%
|
9.68%
|
0.00%
|
3.97%
|
15.14%
|
403
|
|
Northwestern
|
5.00%
|
11.67%
|
16.67%
|
11.67%
|
30.00%
|
3.33%
|
5.00%
|
0.00%
|
6.67%
|
10.00%
|
60
|
|
Ohio State
|
6.09%
|
13.71%
|
14.72%
|
9.14%
|
18.78%
|
4.06%
|
11.68%
|
0.51%
|
6.09%
|
15.23%
|
197
|
|
Penn State
|
7.17%
|
18.73%
|
20.72%
|
6.37%
|
13.94%
|
3.59%
|
7.57%
|
0.00%
|
5.58%
|
16.33%
|
251
|
|
Purdue
|
6.57%
|
14.63%
|
15.82%
|
10.75%
|
19.40%
|
4.48%
|
10.15%
|
0.00%
|
3.88%
|
14.33%
|
335
|
|
Rutgers
|
8.61%
|
18.69%
|
19.88%
|
9.50%
|
13.65%
|
3.26%
|
8.31%
|
0.00%
|
5.64%
|
12.46%
|
337
|
|
Wisconsin
|
4.96%
|
12.06%
|
15.60%
|
17.02%
|
14.18%
|
2.13%
|
10.64%
|
0.00%
|
7.80%
|
15.60%
|
141
|