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.
Attrition happens in college football. It happens to every team all over the country. It struck Nebraska again over the weekend.
News came out that freshman cornerback Ronald Delancy III has entered the transfer portal. Delancy had not earned significant playing time for the Huskers. He appeared in the games against Ohio State, Northwestern and Penn State.
It is worth noting that he was one of the players who did not play against Illinois that tweeted his frustration about the game. Delancy was the fourth member of the 2020 recruiting class to enter the transfer portal. All were in Lincoln less than a year. All four were from Florida. Coach Scott Frost mentioned the difficulty in keeping young players motivated during a season like this during his press conference leading up to the matchup with Iowa.
“We’re going to be done with school and still have a few weeks a season left here, so there there’s been probably even more challenges than before but at the end of the day a lot of kids need to learn to be patient and if they persevere, things are going to work out better for them,” Frost said. “Not everything happens easy or right away or when you want it to. It’s kind of like the progress we’re making as a team but hasn’t quite gotten there yet. We try to teach those lessons to those kids every day.
“At the end of the day, some of them will learn them, some won’t and won’t stick around here or somewhere else they go, but that’s the challenge facing a lot of us.”
Then on Saturday, the Huskers lost a defensive back from the 2021 recruiting class. Lardarius Webb, a 3-star cornerback from Jackson Academy, decided to reopen his recruitment. That left the Huskers with three defensive back commits in the 2021 class.
The Huskers have lost three defensive backs from signed in the 2020 recruiting class. Malik Williams, Koby Bretz and Marques Buford remain in the 2021 group. Does it make sense now for the Huskers to add another defensive back to prepare for the future? Lets assume all seniors move on after this season despite eligibility being frozen.
Here is who the Huskers have returning next season.
- Tamon Lynum
- Quinton Newsome
- Cam Taylor-Britt
- Braxton Clark
- Noa Pola-Gates
- Myles Farmer
- Isaac Gifford
- Nadab Joseph
Williams, Bretz and Buford will be added to that group. There is still a lot to like about that group. The starters should be good but the depth will be a bit shaky until a few players prove themselves. Even though there is a lot of potential here it makes sense to add at least one more defensive back to the class. There can be a case made for two more, one true cornerback and one safety.
All this just becomes another interesting storyline as we speed towards the early signing period opening on Dec. 16.
Recruit Watch
>> Emerging 2022 tight end Kaden Helms is still hard at work to improve his game.
In the lab🧪 pic.twitter.com/4A6o7Q1TNr
— Kaden Helms (@KadenJHelms) November 28, 2020
>> Offensive line commit Branson Yager took a trip on his own out to Lincoln to check out his future home.
I am so grateful The University of Nebraska! I am so grateful for the love the coaches have shown me! From the day I was offered I knew where home was! I am so thankful for the relationships I have built with the other commits so far! I can’t wait to start school! #GBR #Huskers pic.twitter.com/PsPJOgs7vz
— Branson Yager (@BransonYager) November 27, 2020
ICYMI
>> Nebraska basketball bounced back with a big win over North Dakota State on Saturday.
>> ‘Holding on Hope: Kearney Catholic’s Matt Johnson is a responder’ is Derek Peterson’s latest magazine feature.
>> As Jacob Padilla wrote, Nebraska showed flashes of good play in the loss to Iowa.
>> The Huskers deployed a quarterback rotation against Iowa and Adrian Martinez showed progress.
