2017 Nebraska Cornhuskers

[Jack Lambert]

Mike Riley enters his 3rd season as Nebraska's head coach, and thankfully, the reign of scattershot black QB Tommy Armstrong is finally over. I'm even glad his below average back-up for the last three years, Ryker Fyfe, is gone too. Neither of these guys were good QBs, and Riley's recruiting has really paid off at the position for Nebraska. The starter (finally, an actual QB will be under center) this year will be Tulane transfer Tanner Lee, who's got the potential to surprise a lot of people! At 6'4, 220, Lee's got great size for the position, and will be looking to sling it all over the field this year. Lee got destroyed behind a terrible offensive line at Tulane, so working behind Nebraska's should come as a relief to him. Backing up Lee is former four-star recruit Patrick O'Brien. He was Riley's first great QB that he got to commit, and red-shirted last year. He'll be the primary back-up. Freshman Tristan Gebbia, who nearly unseated O'Brien for the backup job in fall camp, will likely redshirt this year. I think Gebbia is Nebraska's QB of the future.

At FB, senior Luke McNitt has the position locked down, as he has the last couple of years. Ben Miles (the son of coach Les Miles) will be the future at the FB and H-Back spots. At tight end, Tyler Hoppes, a senior walk-on who hasn't played much in his career, in generating a lot of hype, and has locked down the position over some scholarship players. Hoppes is being looked at as a big weapon in the passing game, so he'll be one to keep an eye on. Fellow senior Conner Ketter and sophomore Matt Snyder back up the tight end spot, along with two freshmen in Jack Stoll and David Engelhaupt (who I think should be at LB). The Cornhuskers will start no white WRs this year, but they will have two who will play a fair amount: 6'5 junior Bryan Reimers is the tallest wideout Nebraska has, and he's good, so he'll be playing a lot as the backup at the "X" WR spot. Senior walk-on Gabe Rahn will be the 2nd string slot WR. Also of note, Husker DWFs will surely be weeping as "super-freshman" WR Keyshawn Johnson Jr. is still "away from the team" and won't be back until January.

The offensive line has some great prospects on it. Nick Gates has been starting at LT since he was a freshman, and will continue to make an impact for Nebraska manning the blind-side. Junior Cole Conrad looks to get the start at center, while Tanner Farmer, who should be in the NFL one day, will be the right guard. Nebraska has several highly touted backups on the line, including Matt Farniok, Brendan Jaimes, Michael Decker, and Boe Wilson.

On defense, Nebraska somehow manages to continue to find white players to start. In-state Mick Stoltenberg is an absolute mountain of a man, and will be manning the NT spot in the Cornhusker's 3-4 defense. He's good enough to make an NFL roster if he can stay healthy. Red-shirt freshman Ben Stille is a backup at the FDE spot, and Peyton Newell is a backup at the BDE spot. The "Dog" OLB spot will be manned by a combination of junior Luke Gifford and a black player. Gifford has had an outstanding camp, and pushed himself up to c0-starter status. Former walk-on Chris Weber, now a senior, will man the "Mike" inside LB spot, and will likely lead Nebraska in tackles. Weber is a captain and is the leader of the defense. Besides these two, redshirt freshman Collin Miller is 3rd string at WLB. Unfortunately, one of the most talented players on the Husker's defense, sophomore JoJo Domann, is out for the season, which is unfortunate. I'm hoping he makes a full recovery, as he would've likely started this year.


Since 2005, Nebraska has started 11, 13, 11, 12, 11, 13, 14, 13, 8, 10, 11, and 11 white players. It looks like a drop back down to 9 for the Cornhuskers this year, but they have a fair amount of depth.

Offense
QB - Tanner Lee
FB - Luke McNitt
TE - Tyler Hoppes
LT - Nick Gates
C - Cole Conrad
RG - Tanner Farmer

Defense
NT - Mick Stoltenberg
DOG LB - Luke Gifford - co-starter
MLB - Chris Weber

 

[Leonardfan]

Great write-up JL!

 

[Jack Lambert]

Nebraska gets smart and cans their pathetic AD. Now, I'm hoping Riley and staff get canned at some point this season and Nebraska hires Scott Frost. He's still a little unproven as an HC yet, but he might be one of the only guys currently coaching besides Frank Solich that knows you need to recruit the state of Nebraska well to be successful there. Nebraska will be at their best if they recruit players like Wisconsin gets and is a "blue-collar" team. Not trying to get high upsiders at every position all of the time.

http://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/20777039/nebraska-cornhuskers-fire-ad-shawn-eichorst

 

[Heretic]

Nebraska gets smart and cans their pathetic AD. Now, I'm hoping Riley and staff get canned at some point this season and Nebraska hires Scott Frost. He's still a little unproven as an HC yet, but he might be one of the only guys currently coaching besides Frank Solich that knows you need to recruit the state of Nebraska well to be successful there. Nebraska will be at their best if they recruit players like Wisconsin gets and is a "blue-collar" team. Not trying to get high upsiders at every position all of the time.

http://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/20777039/nebraska-cornhuskers-fire-ad-shawn-eichorst

Yet I read a quote from Riley earlier today, along the lines of, "We've just got to keep recruiting <affletes>"...which seems to be his answer to everything when it really just reveals his own level of confidence as a head football coach...that he feels he has to rely on a bunch of affletes from another faraway state or "the hood" to win games instead of relying on his own coaching knowledge, schemes, and prowess to do that. It's gotten him a career winning percent of around 54, which is mediocre at best. You think he'd try another strategy after all of those years.

Osborne knew the importance of recruiting in-state players and then developing them both physically and mentally to be highly successful. There was rarely a drop-off along the OL from year-to-year because of that...and they were 2-3 deep on that line. Those in-state players also played for pride of their home state first without even thinking about the NFL. If a career in the NFL happened, that was just icing-on-the-cake. One of the front-runners for AD is former Nebraska and NFL player, as well as current AD of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Trev Alberts, who was coached under Osborne. They need to bring someone like him in as AD for them to get back to their roots and start the process of making Nebraska, Nebraska again.

 

[celticdb15]

Hoping Nebraska gets things back on track and starts recruiting more fairly aka locally. They have a storied tradition that has been all but forgotten since they've moved to the B1G! Sad to see! Like others have mentioned Frost could be the man for the job, they need someone who cares about their history.

BTW I like JLs comment about playing for state pride, community pride, and self pride seems like that's a lost quality in today's connected world.. . Half of CFB fans believe players should be paid!

 

[Shadowlight]

Yet I read a quote from Riley earlier today, along the lines of, "We've just got to keep recruiting <affletes>"...which seems to be his answer to everything when it really just reveals his own level of confidence as a head football coach...that he feels he has to rely on a bunch of affletes from another faraway state or "the hood" to win games instead of relying on his own coaching knowledge, schemes, and prowess to do that. It's gotten him a career winning percent of around 54, which is mediocre at best. You think he'd try another strategy after all of those years.

Osborne knew the importance of recruiting in-state players and then developing them both physically and mentally to be highly successful. There was rarely a drop-off along the OL from year-to-year because of that...and they were 2-3 deep on that line. Those in-state players also played for pride of their home state first without even thinking about the NFL. If a career in the NFL happened, that was just icing-on-the-cake. One of the front-runners for AD is former Nebraska and NFL player, as well as current AD of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Trev Alberts, who was coached under Osborne. They need to bring someone like him in as AD for them to get back to their roots and start the process of making Nebraska, Nebraska again.[/QUOTT

Hybrid DE/LB Trev Alberts and QB Eric Crouch are my two all time favorite Cornhuskers.
A slightly different look yesterday. Senior WR Rahn #81 was lined up quite often (he caught two passes) and Luke Gifford #12 had his best game to date on D. Also getting quite a few reps on D was hybrid freshman Ben Stille. The team just seemed a tad whiter. As for Riley it would seem he is on borrowed time. I find it hard to believe he will change his recruiting ways and philosophy but there were tiny steps taken yesterday in a positive direction. Time will tell where it all lands but I suspect a new AD will want their own guy so Riley is on thin ice and will have to win (obviously) to keep his job.

 

[Heretic]

Shadowlight: Nebraska was hit with the injury bug at WR and LB last week, so that's the primary reason why Rahn and Stille were playing. Gifford, even though listed as second-string, has started every game and is now considered the best defender on the team by the players, even the black ones, yet he is still listed second-string. Ha.