Recruiting never stops and it's easy to miss the top stories day-to-day. Recruiting analyst Greg Smith recaps all things Nebraska recruiting news, analysis and more so you never miss a thing.
One of the most interesting storylines in college football over the last two seasons has been the new four-game redshirt rule. The rule states that a player can play in up to four games in a season and still preserve their redshirt, thus saving a year of eligibility.
When this rule went into place, fans (and some coaches) envisioned a scenario where the rule could be used to get a lot of freshmen’s feet wet. That would give them experience and game tape to learn from. While that was the hope, that hasn’t been the widespread case—at least so far at Nebraska.
We are still in the early phases of this. It seems like the coaches are still learning their way on how they want to handle the rule. There are obvious players like Wan’Dale Robinson from the latest recruiting class who will play all season. Adrian Martinez from the year before for the same mold. From the 2018 class, eight players burned their redshirts. Cam Taylor-Britt, Maurice Washington, Caleb Tannor, Barret Pickering and Martinez all contributed significantly.
In the most recent class to make it to campus, three players have already played in enough games to not redshirt. Robinson, Garrett Nelson and Quinton Newsome all have pretty defined roles. As for the rest of the group? Coach Scott Frost could be looking to them for help coming out of the bye week.
“It'd be great to have a couple of the O-linemen—Piper, Benhart—and some of those guys start to give us some help,” Frost said. “Some skilled guys. Rahmir Johnson still has a couple games to play in, and I'm going to want him to help us a couple games down the stretch. And guys on defense too. You might see a bunch of new guys later in the year. Defensive linemen like Mosai Newsom and Ty Robinson, there's too many to count.
"But if those guys are ready to play, we can seriously use the help and the depth right now."
It’s easy to see why getting more freshmen involved has been a topic of discussion. So few true freshmen are contributing meaningful snaps. It's magnified when the team struggles. It’s tempting to think the easy fix is to put in the highly-touted player waiting in the wings.
The Huskers’ staff has a plan in place for how to use some of the young players. I’d bet the way the games have gone so far haven’t presented as many opportunities to get them in as expected. Everyone around the country is learning how to deal with this rule. The way it looks now the Huskers will have a lot of redshirted players on an already young football team.
That’s something to watch in the future.
Recruit Watch
>> The Huskers made a handful of offers on Thursday in Oklahoma. They included 2021 standout AJ Green from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
So excited to announce that I have been offered to continue my athletic career as a Husker🔴⚪️ @CoachRHeld @SeanDillonNU pic.twitter.com/YLd9iCQZqH
— ĀJ Green🃏 (@RoyalGreen25) October 17, 2019
>> Georgia 4-star linebacker target Des Tisdol got another cool edit from the Huskers.
— Desmond Tisdol⭐️ (@Des_Tisdol) October 17, 2019
>> Georgia 2021 offensive lineman Bryson Estes had a video pop up on Twitter of him moving some big weight.
345! @Brysonestes77 pic.twitter.com/K0iHbcIaaB
— ELCA FOOTBALL ⚡️F🏈STER⚡️ (@ELCAFootball) October 17, 2019
ICYMI
>> Madi Kubik’s career-high 22 kills were key in the Huskers’ win over No. 20 Purdue.
>> Tom’s Time takes a look back at the Oct. 1988 meeting with Oklahoma State featuring Barry Sanders.
>> The midterm report card (Premium) is here for Nebraska’s kickers and special teams.
Greg is the Recruiting Analyst for Hail Varsity and has covered Husker athletics since 2013. He has always had a passion for sports while growing up in the Chicago area. As he got older and had to hang up his cleats and sneakers, he realized his passion for sports went beyond just watching and attending games. He has covered many events from the Rose Bowl to championship boxing matches. If he’s not talking sports, he’s hovering over his grill. He is married to an amazing woman, Kim, and they have a dog that barks when Greg yells at the TV during games.
