Nebraska Football: WR recruiting tells the tale of the Scott Frost era

If a Nebraska football fan wants to know what went wrong during the Scott Frost era, there’s no better indication than the success rate of high school wide receiver recruiting under the failed head coach.

While it’s true that player turnover is the new norm in college sports, Nebraska football had a history during the failed Scott Frost era that should raise everyone’s eyebrows. Some may wonder why I’m looking back at this era yet again, considering it’s very over. The reason I find this particular statistical anomaly worth pointing out is that it is something we can look at during the early years of the Matt Rhule era. It might be something to help us decide if things are moving in the right direction.

So even if you’re one of those who just want to move on. If you’re tired of looking back and figuring out why Frost was as bad at this job as he was. Why his staff, who seemed like they wanted to succeed, failed so spectacularly, I ask you to bear with me. Because this is interesting if for no other reason than how absolutely bad high school wide receiver recruiting went for the Nebraska football team.

A twitter user who knows a thing or two about statistics, who goes by the name of Stewmanji decided the departure of Alante Brown was as good a time as any to look at just how bad wide receiver recruiting went with Frost and company.

To be fair, the above table is really more about how bad wide receiver development went under Frost. Though it’s impossible to tell whether the issue is more that the Nebraska football team brought in recruits that didn’t work out, or whether the Huskers’ coaches couldn’t make the recruits into productive players. At least couldn’t do it for most of them.

With Brown’s departure, the Nebraska football team officially saw 14 of 17 high school wide receiver recruits from the Frost era leave the program with eligibility left. That includes two that either never enrolled or were kicked off before they ever had a chance to see the field.

Nebraska Football: WR recruiting tells the tale of the Scott Frost era

Of those 14, only three recruits played more than four games before leaving Lincoln. Brown (29 games) Zavier Betts (18) and Wan’Dale Robinson (18) are at the top of the list. Of course, Betts is back now so it’s possible he could add quite a few more games before things are all said and done.

It is safe to say that of the 14 players that left early, only Wan’Dale Robinson was an obvious and important loss to the offense. He was in fact the offense the year before he departed for Kentucky.

In regards to Brown, he was the only Scott Frost receiver recruit who had any real impact at all on the 2022 season. After catching just three passes each of the last two seasons, Brown hauled in 16 receptions for 191 yards.

It says something that puts him third on the list of 17 for best seasons by a Scott Frost high school recruit.

Nebraska football and moving forward under Matt Rhule

It might be a while before we know why Brown decided to leave the program. We do know that Rhule felt that Betts was good enough to bring back into the fold. There is talk that he believes in Brown enough that the door is still open for his return.

It also may not take too long to see if Rhule’s recruiting and Joey Maguire’s tutelage is going better than what happened under Frost. The 2023 class hauled in six high school receivers.

Jeremiah Charles, Jaylen Lloyd, Brice Turner, Jaidyn Doss, Demitrius Bell, and Malachi Coleman could all pan out. The odds are that most of them won’t. But it will be interesting to see if Rhule’s recruits pan out better than Frost’s and what the pattern becomes after just a few years of Nebraska football under the new regime.