Rosters Compiled - Nebraska vs Other Surrounding Area Schools

[jbt25]

2022 Football Rosters

Total number of Players Listed per Team

Nebraska = 150
Ohio State = 117
Iowa = 120
Wisconsin = 106
KU = 112
KST = 118
Iowa State = 107
Oklahoma State = 127

To me, this seals the argument.

There’s no longer a need to have these large numbers anymore. Nobody else who’s any good has over 125-130.
Most good teams have under 120 even non traditionally good teams

Teams who didn’t used to be as good are better than we are now with lower numbers

Another thing people forget is one of the best walk on traditions used to be the I.M. Hipps Jarvis redwines , Jimmy Williams, etc the Pell Grants that’s no longer available and after that the prop 48 walk-on‘s. no longer

I don’t count those as true walk ons they aren’t the same as the rural less talented instate Nebraska walk on who has no D1 scholarships and walks on…The prop 48s weren’t just people who couldn’t go to better schools because of their athletic ability. It was usually restricted academically for them and that’s how Nebraska was able to add a bunch of good players. No longer the case.

Lastly, Nebraska roster sizes over the years

- 1970s and early 80s with freshman team 180-200 players

- Late 80s-90s TO cut roster to 150s after Frosh team was no longer

- 2002 - 1st non winning 7 loss season in modern Husker history = 170 180 ish on roster

- 2003 - 9 wins 150 on roster

- 2005-06 8 and 9 win seasons under callahan 120-130

- 2009-13 under BO 130-140 ish 9 plus win seasons

- 2014 - 2022 Riley and Frost basically had 150 plus all
losing seasons

So there absolutely no correlation to roster size and winning. It’s certainly proven you don’t need large roster size is today to win at a high-level most of the teams who are great have the lowest numbers.

It’s all about how good your quality 2 deep three deep and 4 deep are every year. that’s the focus to get the best players and get them on the field

which is what Osborne started to do the walkons became mostly irrelevant on defense and only really on offense due to the style blocking FBS and block first wide receivers but that all went away.

 

[headcard]

Really good stuff thanks for sharing. I agree that out massive roster size is a negative with the limits on assistant coaches in todays game.

 

[redwine65]

expecially when there's no jv team and they play grab ass in practice these days

 

[jbt25]

sadly, but not surprising Iowa takes the cake for the least diverse roster only 27%

Also Sad is Nebraska is 2nd least diverse roster- around 40% Wisc and KST 41-42 % Iowa State just barely under 50%

The Nebraska had nearly 60 African-American players on the team in 2022 so we could easily get to a roster that looks like most other good teams by dropping the total number of players

Ohio St, Ohio St and maybe surprisingly KU well over 50%

 

[king_kong_]

expecially when there's no jv team and they play grab ass in practice these days

This is a good point

I don’t mind the large roster size when 4-5 guys on the practice squad are hitting the injury tent daily due to extremely physical practices

When it’s half pads and walkthroughs it doesn’t make any sense

 

[T...Chafes]

I'd say there's room for maybe 15-20 walk ons. Any more than that is too much.

 

[jbt25]

expecially when there's no jv team and they play grab ass in practice these days

yep, and really would killed walk on program in my opinion in terms of having to have larger numbers is when everybody started strength training and conditioning year round

Also there’s no advantage to playing fresh fifth stringer in 3rd or 4th qtr who can’t lay on a tired unconditioned DL or OL because now all the great players more raw talent players are better conditioned. not as much parity in the 70s and 80s and even 90s and definitely not as conditioned as even somebody like Toledo is today even a small schools can stand up to the bigger schools better than they used to.

also we can’t go beyond 2nd or 2rd string because we don’t blow anybody out 40-50 to 7 anymore in the first half to 3 qtrs if go conditioned one or two string player on the other team, we don’t have teams that are as an apt as Nebraska faced half of their schedule in the 70s and 80s just doesn’t happen.

 

[jbt25]

Really good stuff thanks for sharing. I agree that out massive roster size is a negative with the limits on assistant coaches in todays game.

yeah, but I would even say in recruiting nobody wants to sit behind seven or eight deep trust me

 

[jbt25]

I'd say there's room for maybe 15-20 walk ons. Any more than that is too much.

bingo I’d love to know the number of people if they don’t make your 105 roster in the August how many of them other than maybe a few freshmen but if you’re a junior or redshirt sophomore, and you don’t make the 105 to me as a walk on they should be cut.

no matter how many injuries you suffer you’re not going to the person that didn’t make the 105 roster in most cases for that season and truth be told even though they were Walkons if two scholarship players went down at key positions, especially on defense and running back there not plugging that next man up with a walkon in the 90s, we just moved another great scholarship player to that position typically. I also think it’s misrepresenting your actual team and why they are so good.

do you have an extra 30, 40 or 50 players that other teams don’t have and they’re just watching the game from the sidelines as part of the team. Yes we want players with heart, but if they don’t have the enough raw talent to ever climb above 100 or 90 we’re wasting everybody’s time and it’s more costly

 

[Husker.Wed.]

Great post. I've thought for a long time having so many players gets in the way of preparing the 3 deep. Like everything else involved, college football is now a business and as unfortunate as it is kids can't live a dream of practicing with Nebraska, it is no longer practical.

 

[HominidHusker]

I noticed they only have 4 walk-on additions so far this year, but we’ll see what the next signing period brings.

 

[jbt25]

The great Walkons that people still talk about today made that 105 as freshman or redshirt freshman guys like Shanle and Makovicka. That’s the point no longer can we afford to play that senior heady safety who runs or 4.7 40
just can’t do it today you need to speed first and foremost.

I agree in the past you would’ve wanted a lot of walk on offensive lineman but again everybody’s better now on all teams across the country you can’t do it like we used to be that good

 

[mkbrkloster]

sadly, but not surprising Iowa takes the cake for the least diverse roster only 27%

Also Sad is Nebraska is 2nd least diverse roster- around 40% Wisc and KST 41-42 % Iowa State just barely under 50%

The Nebraska had nearly 60 African-American players on the team in 2022 so we could easily get to a roster that looks like most other good teams by dropping the total number of players

Ohio St, Ohio St and maybe surprisingly KU well over 50%

Are you wanting a more diverse roster because you think more diversity has inherit benefits (curious what benefits you see) or because you think black guys are better football players, so we need more of them?

 

[Redmich]

A few years ago such talk about limiting walk on numbers would have and did bring out the pitch forks and the OP along with his supporters declared heretics

We are evolving as a fan base

 

[HuskerDana]

sadly, but not surprising Iowa takes the cake for the least diverse roster only 27%

Also Sad is Nebraska is 2nd least diverse roster- around 40% Wisc and KST 41-42 % Iowa State just barely under 50%

The Nebraska had nearly 60 African-American players on the team in 2022 so we could easily get to a roster that looks like most other good teams by dropping the total number of players

Ohio St, Ohio St and maybe surprisingly KU well over 50%

As much as I appreciate your first post as really good analysis, do we really need to have a correlation of white to AA players on a roster?

Personally, I don't give a sh#t if our roster is predominantly one color or the other, as long as they are good players and know how to win.

 

[litespeedhuskerfan]

sadly, but not surprising Iowa takes the cake for the least diverse roster only 27%

Also Sad is Nebraska is 2nd least diverse roster- around 40% Wisc and KST 41-42 % Iowa State just barely under 50%

The Nebraska had nearly 60 African-American players on the team in 2022 so we could easily get to a roster that looks like most other good teams by dropping the total number of players

Ohio St, Ohio St and maybe surprisingly KU well over 50%

Dude.....

 

[itseasyas1-2-3]

sadly, but not surprising Iowa takes the cake for the least diverse roster only 27%

Also Sad is Nebraska is 2nd least diverse roster- around 40% Wisc and KST 41-42 % Iowa State just barely under 50%

The Nebraska had nearly 60 African-American players on the team in 2022 so we could easily get to a roster that looks like most other good teams by dropping the total number of players

Ohio St, Ohio St and maybe surprisingly KU well over 50%

yuck

 

[redfanusa]

Have to have 100 walk-ons so that one of them earns a scholarship and makes everybody feel warm and fuzzy.

 

[baseball31ne]

As much as I appreciate your first post as really good analysis, do we really need to have a correlation of white to AA players on a roster?

Personally, I don't give a sh#t if our roster is predominantly one color or the other, as long as they are good players and know how to win.

You’re not part of the group that wants to see and do everything through the mindset of
Diversity
Inclusion
Equity

 

[Rrosey3]

The great Walkons that people still talk about today made that 105 as freshman or redshirt freshman guys like Shanle and Makovicka. That’s the point no longer can we afford to play that senior heady safety who runs or 4.7 40
just can’t do it today you need to speed first and foremost.

I agree in the past you would’ve wanted a lot of walk on offensive lineman but again everybody’s better now on all teams across the country you can’t do it like we used to be that good

Brian Shaw was another walk-on that had great numbers and started.

 

[redwine65]

A few years ago such talk about limiting walk on numbers would have and did bring out the pitch forks and the OP along with his supporters declared heretics

We are evolving as a fan base

I think there was a time were we could get a player to walk on instead of go to ksu.
before we were pass happy and floundering about.
which would make sense to have a larger roster.

 

[rgrachek]

sadly, but not surprising Iowa takes the cake for the least diverse roster only 27%

Also Sad is Nebraska is 2nd least diverse roster- around 40% Wisc and KST 41-42 % Iowa State just barely under 50%

The Nebraska had nearly 60 African-American players on the team in 2022 so we could easily get to a roster that looks like most other good teams by dropping the total number of players

Ohio St, Ohio St and maybe surprisingly KU well over 50%

What difference does it make what color our players are? This is supposed to be a meritocracy. If the best players are purple, we should try to get them on our team. In other words, why does "diversity" matter?

Also, what do you mean by diverse? The percentage of Americans who are African-American is 13.6%, Iowa's roster has twice that. Nebraska 3 times that. If 100% of our players were African-American, by your definition would we finally be "Diverse"?

Some have really stepped in it calling for diversity when it comes to things where African-American people excel to a level that is higher than their percentage of the population. It's strange enough to call for all levels of society to be racially balanced no matter what, but it's even more weird when we call a representation of a minority that is 2-3 times their proportion of the population as "not diverse enough".

Finally, the most bizarre thing is to try to achieve a proportion by not increasing opportunity but rather eliminating others to reduce the denominator.

 

[HuskerOH]

sadly, but not surprising Iowa takes the cake for the least diverse roster only 27%

Also Sad is Nebraska is 2nd least diverse roster- around 40% Wisc and KST 41-42 % Iowa State just barely under 50%

The Nebraska had nearly 60 African-American players on the team in 2022 so we could easily get to a roster that looks like most other good teams by dropping the total number of players

Ohio St, Ohio St and maybe surprisingly KU well over 50%

Go away

 

[Husker5]

sadly, but not surprising Iowa takes the cake for the least diverse roster only 27%

Also Sad is Nebraska is 2nd least diverse roster- around 40% Wisc and KST 41-42 % Iowa State just barely under 50%

The Nebraska had nearly 60 African-American players on the team in 2022 so we could easily get to a roster that looks like most other good teams by dropping the total number of players

Ohio St, Ohio St and maybe surprisingly KU well over 50%

Who cares about the diversity, it is about merit and performance. Why even bring this up? We live in the midwest, big surprise, there are white people that live here and just happen to play football. Most of the farming communities are legacy that happen to be caucasian. Nebraska recruits nationwide but also as in the current thread has a huge walkon program where many kids are local. That likely will be shortened because of the changes in recruiting and transfer portal. Tom Osborne used the program to his advantage where he had 3-4 stations practicing full time and not standing around watching as has been the case of our recent coaches. Recruit the best players regardless of race!