2017 recruiting class & Top 5 concerns coming out of the Spring

[big red23]

"Corner depth: Is their enough corner depth to get through 2017?
With Joshua Kalu's move to safety, Nebraska's depth at cornerback is very thin going into 2017. Chris Jones and Lamar Jackson appear to be locked in as starters, while Eric Lee is in a prime position to be the nickel corner.

After these three, DiCaprio Bootle is really the only other guy that looks to be in contention at corner for playing time.

This is a position where Nebraska can't afford to suffer any major injuries, and it also looks like freshman Elijah Blades will be in a great position to see time as a true freshman."

Really with this! If this is truly the case, then why was everyone okay with signing only one DB in 2017? I was absolutely beside myself that we only signed one DB, and I still am today. Look I love the quality of recruits this staff is bringing in, and I love the effort they are putting into recruiting. I really am, but it the grand scheme of things you can't have hole like that in a class or you are going to get reports like above.

It just amazes me how many people said that we did not need DB's towards the end of the recruiting cycle last year. Now we are getting reports that say, "This is a position where Nebraska can't afford to suffer any major injuries." Talk about a slap in the face!

 

[RealTucoSalamanca]

You have to look macro and micro. You can't just say we need a certain position.

You have 85 scholarships. You have to look at how many DBs you have on scholarship before you go out and sign a bunch. As of right now, you have 14 DBs on scholarship. That puts you 3 deep at each position. In my roster breakdown, I have 15 DBs so we could have signed one more and been ok. But the fact remains unless he was a 5 star stud, he wouldn't have helped for this year anyway. Because you had 3 or 4 guys returning that had starting experience.

Now after this year, you lose 4 DBs, 2 of which are starters. So in my worksheet, we need to get 5 DBs in this class, 3 corners and 2 safeties.

Always remember that oversigning in a position group gets you out of balance. Look at WR for an example of that. 1 senior, 3 juniors, 0 Soph, 4 freshmen. We have 8 WR on scholarship, my breakdown says we need 9, losing 1 senior after this year, we should get 2. But I imagine we take 3 in an effort to even up classes going forward. So that means you have to take that scholarship from another position group, which will in turn be short for a season.

 

[PAOK]

It is not like Kalu can't move back if something bad happens.

 

[GretnaShawn]

It is not like Kalu can't move back if something bad happens.

Exactly. If a CB gets hurt, then Kalu can move back to CB easily. So you have Jones, Jackson, Kalu, Lee, Bootle and Blades if need be. That is 6 deep.

 

[RealTucoSalamanca]

What I see is that people want to throw more people in the mix to overcome recruiting misses. That only works if the players leave and aren't still on scholarship.

Example of this is OLine. We had 17 on scholarship after signing day, 2 of those 17 were guys that had contributed very little in 4 years. We could have signed 2 more in the last class to make up for their lack of production but having 19 OL on scholarship and 6 freshmen messes things up from a balance stand point.

so you stick with 4 and balance it out in the next class.

 

[HuskerLLM]

Exactly. If a CB gets hurt, then Kalu can move back to CB easily. So you have Jones, Jackson, Kalu, Lee, Bootle and Blades if need be. That is 6 deep.

New DB coaches have Avery back at CB as well

 

[TheBeav815]

".

It just amazes me how many people said that we did not need DB's towards the end of the recruiting cycle last year. Now we are getting reports that say, "This is a position where Nebraska can't afford to suffer any major injuries." Talk about a slap in the face!

Exactly my point about QBs in the other thread. You move Kalu to Safety and Domann blows a knee, suddenly it starts to look thin to put together a dime package out there.

 

[jeans15]

We have a ton of DBs.