As the Nebraska football team sees some real struggles in its plans for the 2026 recruiting class, one has to wonder if its approach to in-state targets needs a rethink. Considering that one recruiting analyst believes there are some hard feelings among coaches and players in Nebraska high schools, it feels like Matt Rhule and his staff have made some serious missteps this past year in how they've gone about approaching the limitations on the program and the roster limits.
While Iowa State is coming into Nebraska and grabbing one commit after another, most of those commits have been shrugged off by Husker faithful because they didn't even have offers from Rhule and his gang. However, now that Millard South quarterback Jett Thomalla has committed to Alabama (also without an NU offer), things are looking like something is off.
Nebraska football faces in-state recruiting fallout amid roster-limit squeeze
Rivals analyst Tim Verghese appeared on an episode of Hurrdat Sports' podcast earlier this week and said that what Rhule is doing isn't exactly beloved around the state these days.
"I think for the most part, everyone kind of understands the football element of how all of this works," Vergehese began before offering a critical caveat. "I'm not gonna lie and say there's not some ruffled feathers or some hurt feelings just across the board about like the lack of, maybe some of previous staff or even earlier years past with the staff where they were almost excited to kind of offer guys in state and be early on guys in state."
The analyst added he thinks the current approach from the Nebraska football staff is a little more hesitant and "laid back."
Rhule himself has said that he'd like to be able to recruit in-state more than he has this year. However, he's also made it clear that the 105-man roster limit that the House Settlement put into place forced him to change his view on nearby high school players.
The problem is that even when the Huskers do go all in on an Omaha prospect, like they did with Darion Jones, they're losing battles to the likes of the Iowa Hawkeyes.
When Rhule first took the helm of the Husker football program, he and his staff went out of their way to show they were recruiting kids from all over the state. The message was clear: they were reversing the damage Scott Frost and his crew did.
However, for the 2026 and 2027 classes, it feels as though the damage is self-inflicted. The big question is whether Rhule will reverse it soon, or whether Nebraska football now has to look outside its borders. And of course, if that becomes the case, whether that's a sustainable approach for long-term success.