I agree with you boss. The recruiting mentality starts at the top. If your head coach puts an emphasis on recruiting, he will hire guys who also put a mentality on recruiting. He doesn't have to be out on the weekly grind, but he has to set the expectation. Some staffs that depend on the developing, like Fitz at Northwestern, Ferentz at Iowa, and others, set the expectation to find guys that fit a system that slows the game down, limits possessions and find a way to pull out a victory. That typically works about 6-9 times per season, rarely more.
When you look at the actual recruiting rankings the past several years, Nebraska is not pulling in Top 20 classes on the regular. They are low to mid 20's and that is before attrition. The results should no doubt have been better than they have been, but lets not kid ourselves into thinking that Nebraska is recruiting at a level to win titles.
One of the biggest difficulties Nebraska has in recruiting is the apparent need to want to bring in multiple local kids that aren't top 500 players. I have written this before, and will write it as many more times as necessary, Nebraska can get a top 10 player from several states, they don't need to get the top 5 players from Texas and the top 5 players from Florida and the top 5 players from Louisiana. Recruit the entire country, have a staff that can relate to the top players and an offensive and defensive philosophy that is attractive to top players.
OR hire you can hire conservative midwest guy, because he relates to the fans.