National Signing Day has come and gone and the Wisconsin Badgers have put together a fairly decent class compared to the rest of the Big Ten. In the spirit of looking at recruiting classes compared to the rest of the conference, Badgers Wire is taking a look at Wisconsin’s class on a national level and a conference level. We’ll be including their national rankings and their conference rankings. Next up on our list is a newer program to the Big Ten, but one of the most storied programs to reside in the conference: Nebraska.
While the Cornhuskers are a tradition-rich program due to many decades of success in the second half of the 20th century, that success came when they were in the Big Eight and then the Big 12 Conference as opposed to the Big Ten. The school’s administration is hoping Frost, a former quarterback at Nebraska himself, can tap into the winning ways he had at UCF and apply them to the Cornhuskers. So far, it has not gone well at all for Frost, who has yet to win more than five games in a season during his time as head coach at Nebraska. Only in his fifth year of head coaching, Frost is trying to figure out what he can do to bring in enough recruits to turn things around, but Nebraska isn’t the type of program that is going to accept a lot more five-win seasons.
Yes, Frost will get at least two more seasons no matter what else happens, but if he doesn’t begin to show improvement in 2020, the 2021 season will be a hot-seat year. Even though Frost is family in Nebraska — and will therefore get a little extra time an outside hire would not have received – he will have to turn things around relatively soon.
The Cornhuskers have the nation’s 20th-ranked recruiting class in 2020. They finished with the Big Ten’s No. 4 recruiting class with a player average rating of .8838. Their best player is offensive tackle Corcoran Corcoran. At 6-foot-6, 280 pounds, Corcoran (.9751) is the No. 47 player in the nation and the 4th-best offensive tackle in the class of 2020. The Badgers (.8782) have a lower per-recruit average than the Cornhuskers (.8838). The Badgers’ best player in 24/7’s composite rankings is offensive tackle Trey Wedig (.9643). The 6-foot-8, 320-pound behemoth is ranked (.0108) lower than Corcoran for the Cornhuskers.
The position where both classes compare: cornerback. The Badgers signed Max Lofty (.8526), a 5-foot-11, 170-pound player out of Pine Creek High in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He’s the No. 86 player at his position in the country and the 9th-best player coming out of Colorado. The Cornhuskers signed Ron Delancy. At 5-foot-11 and 160 pounds, Delancy (.8551) is the nation’s 76th-best cornerback, but he’s the 124th-best player in a football recruiting hotbed: Florida. In both cases, these players are likely going to redshirt their first year and start contributing the year after.