I don't think its dead. How can you state its dead or even on life support with guys like Gangwish,
Reilly, Hovey, Burtch, Trey Foster, Utter, & Foltz are very much in the thick of it for 2 deep recognition. Is it going to change under MR, yep, drastically. Bo was taking about double the kids Riley took as walk-ons in 2015.
A lot can be read into that. Maybe he couldn't put a large group together because he just didn't have the time. Maybe Cotton got into the ear of some kids and told them to "take the free ride" @ SDSU vs walking on (as he previously was recruiting them to do). Maybe MR is like BC in that aspect, that he doesn't want to waist his time recruiting Walk-Ons. Bo had a love for walk-ons. He loved a feel good story about a blue collar kid working his way into the mix and honestly this was a major flaw by Bo because he also became bias and jaded toward players... Bo also had Cotton. Love Barn or hate him but the guy was pretty solid at finding walk-ons. I don't think MR has a Barney Cotton to recruit walk-ons and I don't think he cares about it at the level Bo did.
I mean MR hired Chris Brasfield to run the walk-on program. Chris being a guy from Texas who had probable never recruited NU one day in his whole life let alone probably never stepped foot inside the state before he was hired. How's that make sense to hire this guy to find Nebraska kids to walk-on. I really hope it works out but to me, that was MR finding a job for Brasfield and keeping the Corvallis mafia together.
I haven't been a BO find since 2010. I NEVER liked Barney as a coach. But I give them their due when it comes to building up the walk-on program.
And no, the decrease isn't just about the cost of college. Not every kid from Nebraska is too poor and cant find other means to pay for school. There are a ton of kids in Nebraska who can find ways to pay for school at UNL other then on a scholarship. Many kids want to play big time college football. This is their shot. Many are willing to give it a try for a year or two. And no the program isn't dead. It just isn't as big of a part of the program as it was under Bo & TO. Those guys loved the walk-on program. Jury still out on MR