The USC Big Ten tour continues in Lincoln. We are looking at the Nebraska program, trying to learn more about the Cornhuskers, who will be USC’s conference neighbors starting in 2024.
Big Ten schedules have been created, and it already feels like the dawning of a new era for USC, even though that era won’t begin for another 12 months. This is why we’re talking about the other schools USC will soon play against.
We sat down with Cornhuskers Wire and its editor, Evan Bredeson, to explore how Matt Rhule can revive this once-proud program.
One line of thought you have likely seen or heard over the past 10 years is that Nebraska fans are delusional to think they can regain past glories. Nebraska will never be that relevant or that good again, the skeptics say.
We won’t claim that such analysis is baseless. In some ways, the landscape is very different, and the presence of Ohio State and Michigan in the Big Ten, alongside USC next year, will make it very hard for Nebraska to be elite on a national scale.
However, as Bredeson noted, there are some very obvious things Nebraska can do to significantly improve. These things have been neglected over the past 20 years of decline and decay.
One obvious thing: Recruit Nebraska players more successfully! This hasn’t been done well over the past 20 years!
“Recruiting within the state of Nebraska has not been a given,” Bredeson told us. “Nebraska has missed on several big-name players within the state, as a result of misguided judgment on how to recruit the state, rubbing people the wrong way. It became incredibly difficult.”
Bredeson noted that Matt Rhule sent NU special teams coordinator Ed Foley on a recruiting mission. Foley’s job was to visit to every county in the state of Nebraska.
“They were told we haven’t seen a Nebraska coach here for over a decade. That’s how bad it got,” Bredeson said when Foley and other staffers visited the whole state on a listening tour. “They lost touch … they missed out on big names.”
Maybe if Nebraska can recruit more in-state players, the program can dream big again. Just a thought.
You can listen to our full one-hour conversation with Cornhuskers Wire below:
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