Bummer, but not surprising.
I'm so mad! It's just not fair! We never win anything!
OK, now that out of my system.
Look, we were never going to get him on the first pass. He was always going to go to a program who's been a big time winner. We couldn't even get the #1 QB to come to Nebraska after 1995 for God's sake.
Nebraska's success in football has ALWAYS been based on:
1. Having a unique system, both on and off the field.
2. Exceptional line play on both sides of the ball based on actual development over 3-5 years.
3. Finding some key difference makers on offense and defense at skill positions.
4. Out-coaching our opponents on game day.
Our success was NEVER based on recruiting 20 guys at the 4 and 5 star level every year. We would recruit just enough of them to fit our system and in years where we had more than the average number of these guys, we were great.
It sure as hell never involved recruiting the best pro style QB in the country either. The last really good NFL caliber QB we had in our program was Vince Ferragamo in 1976. Before that, we had Jerry Tagge in 1971. We have had some other great and really good college QBs (Gill, S. Taylor, Frazier, Frost, Z. Taylor, TM, and even AM) and won or almost won many titles with some of them. But none of them were legit NFL QBs (although one of them is a hell of an NFL head coach). Since Ferragamo, the closest thing to an NFL level QB we have almost had is Blaine Gabbert.
The model of a QB we need is Frazier and Crouch. Great runner, average to good passer (I think these guys would have been in the high 50s in today's landscape), competitive as hell, but just as important,
tough as hell and durable.
When we stop looking like a poorly coached farce on Saturday, like a team that wastes the talent we have, then the difference makers will come. Probably not in 2024, but later.
I know I'm going to ruffle a few feathers here, but we also need to understand that there are many universities (i.e. Georgia) that are just more fun to attend than the University of Nebraska. The campus is better, the school is higher rated, the nightlife is better, the weather is better, you're 2 hours from the beach, you're an hour away from a city that's a lot more fun than Omaha, and just being completely honest, it's a target rich environment for a young man (almost 60% female, most of which are the daughters of well to do people from the Atlanta suburbs). Sorry that the truth hurts, but it's still the truth, and you can't overcome that with a really cool locker room.