Over the last few years, Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule has sporadically come under fire for some of his recruiting decisions. More specifically, he’s come under fire for not offering specific in-state prospects that have gone elsewhere, convincing fans that Rhule made a mistake in not offering them soon enough or recruiting them hard enough.
The complaints about guys like Teddy Rezac might be about to be eclipsed. At the moment, Jett Thomalla might be the biggest miss of the Rhule era. As long as judgments are only based on what other schools offered a prospect.
Jett Thomalla offer sparks Q's over Nebraska football’s in-state recruiting approach
It was one thing when Thomalla left the Nebraska Cornhuskers off his final list and committed to the Iowa State Cyclones. It’s quite another when the Alabama Crimson Tide comes calling for the Millard South quarterback. Is the 4-star gunslinger about to be the biggest recruiting miss of Rhule’s first three years in Lincoln?
That is undoubtedly the worry, especially since it’s not as though the Cornhuskers haven’t at least given the young quarterback a look. This isn’t a situation where the coaches didn’t have the kid on their radar, and then it was too late.
Nebraska very clearly said “thanks but no thanks” to Jett Thomalla. And when the biggest team pursuing him was a Big 12 program with nothing remotely hinting at consistency, it was an interesting story that he was going to a neighboring state.
One of the best SEC programs in the game's history will make some people nervous—one could even say, “sweating bullets.”
Rhule has stated on more than one occasion that the upcoming roster limits will force his staff to pass in-state kids at a rate Husker fans aren’t used to compared to previous seasons. The idea that one of the best players in Nebraska would go elsewhere was unheard of even a decade ago. Even during the worst period of the program’s modern history.
No one will know whether not offering Jett Thomalla was a massive mistake until both he and Dayton Raiola get to college and compete for playing time. That will not stop Nebraska football fans from double-taking at offers from programs like Alabama.