At the end of last week, I was close to writing an article about how screwed up our quarterback room is going to be in 2024 and probably again in 2025. We could get in a very difficult situation with almost no one in the QB room for a second straight year (thus my Travolta gif). For many of you that followed me, I told you how big of a mistake it was in our 2023 class not signing a QB recruit and only taking Jeff Sims. In my opinion, you have to get your guy that you are starting to groom for your offense in year 1. You then of course follow that up with a QB commitment (like we did with Kaelin) for your second recruiting class. That way when/if Sims leaves you at least have two hand-picked guys coming in that are at least Power5 scholarship worthy. If you don’t, you essentially put yourself in a bad spot for your future when it comes to the depth in that room because you only have your true freshman coming in, or another transfer.
In my opinion, what should have happened was Rhule should have grabbed Sims AND grabbed a high school QB that knew he was going to learn the offense and be prepared for when Sims moved on (whether that be in 2024 as a RS Freshman or 2025 as a RS Sophomore). But Rhule bypassed that philosophy and solely went with Sims as the only new QB he brought into the team in his first year. As it stands, Nebraska basically wasted the first year developing at the most important position because they 1) grabbed the wrong transfer QB and 2) didn’t grab a guy to start developing for when Sims is gone.
To defend Rhule a little bit, it was a tough situation to be in. Nebraska had Casey Thompson, Chubba Purdy, Logan Smothers, Henrich Haarberg, and Richard Torres already there for spring football to go along with Jeff Sims coming in. It’s very rare to have 6 scholarship QBs on your roster for the spring and quite frankly 7 scholarship QBs is tough to do. But with the new NCAA rules where you can essentially cut players with no restrictions when a new coach comes in on top of the fact that 2 or 3 of those guys were out for most of spring, it just didn’t make sense to me.
But enough about what’s already happened. Nebraska got in a spot where their starting QB all spring and first two football games is already in the portal (Sims). Their #2 QB was hurt all fall (Purdy) and started for us the last couple games when our #3 QB HH finally had been beaten up too much. And the reality of our situation now is that Kyle McCord is not transferring to Nebraska from Ohio State without a starting spot guarantee, and I anticipate his commitment within the next day or two.
So what will that mean for Chubba Purdy and Henrich Haarberg? Purdy almost certainly won’t be ok with that, as he graduates and can transfer free of penalty right now. He’s not going to sit around and be a backup. Now I know what some of you are saying, which is the worst philosophy I can hear from Nebraska fans sometimes, and that’s “well we are going to need the backup he needs to stay for when/if McCord goes down.” Let’s set aside the fact that McCord played in every game this year for the Buckeyes… the QB position is just much different than other spots. That philosophy may work for backups at RB, WR, LB, DL, etc., but at QB if your #1 is healthy you stay. The position has more transfers percentage-wise than any other position due to this fact. Staying to be a backup and crossing your fingers that the starter gets hurt to get your chance is just a weird philosophy for a teammate.
And let’s not forget, we have Raiola coming in for a visit this weekend. So if we get McCord who is guaranteed a starting spot and then the #1 overall QB in the 2024 recruiting class coming in sandwiching you, you’re probably leaving if you are Purdy.
I also know that we have Kaelin committed in the 2024 class, but remember he only committed when we turned to him after Raiola committed to Georgia. Kaelin doesn’t shy away from competition, but that’s a tough pill to swallow. I expect him to move on and commit elsewhere.
So What Does The Room Look Like In 2024?
So if we get McCord AND Raiola as i’m predicting, there’s a good chance Purdy and Kaelin won’t be members of the football team this upcoming season. That leaves you with only Haarberg as an emergency 3rd string QB. That is a very thin situation. And to beat the dead horse, 2023 was basically a dead year for development at the QB spot. That’s not a great look.
Nebraska may go the Ohio State route where they grabbed a Tristan Gebbia from Oregon State where he knew he wouldn’t be playing, was an emergency option for them if things went crazy, and basically tell him “we can groom you for coaching”. The long and short of it, is let’s take a look at what Purdy does and if HH stays in the QB room. Rhule can’t afford to move him right now, that’s for sure.
Our TE Coach Being Fired 2 Hours Into Employment Gives Us Flexibility
Bob Wager was an FBS coach for just slightly longer than I last in the bedroom which is really not that impressive. But the good news is, that gives Rhule a ton of flexibility with how he constructs the offensive staff for 2024.
You can always keep the analyst that moved into that spot. But assuming you don’t, you can move Satterfield to that spot and grab the QB coach that is rumored to be possibly a part of all this movement that coached McCord and Raiola (even though I don’t believe that to be true). You can move Satterfield to RBs coach, keep the TE analyst, and grab a QB coach (if the rumors on Barthel leaving are true).
What Changed?
A friend of mine brought up a good point after reading my article from yesterday you can find here:
But he said, “If Rhule really was all about not paying guys just to come here and paying our lockerroom for achievements to keep attrition low, I wonder if that changed a bit when he realized you can’t just sell vision every year and if we had a chance and now the money he changed his tune?”
I remember an article that came out that I reference frequently, and it is the fact that your first year or two of recruiting classes (2023 and 2024 for Rhule) you can sell vision. But by your 3rd and 4th classes you are needing to show tangible results that your vision can come to fruition. I still remember the Bellevue West coach back in 2021/2022 saying that all of his players are always really intrigued and bought in to what Frost and his staff were saying. It wasn’t because the pitches were bad. But at some point the recruits need to see the results on the field.
Circling it back to Rhule, is he understanding that year 2 is a very big year for him and while he doesn’t really want big ticket guys purchased to come INTO the program but more leave money to KEEP players around, is it a necessary part of the process to get the QB you need?
If We Grab Raiola What Does That Do For Other Recruits?
Kaelin was a huge peer-recruiting piece of Rhule’s puzzle for this 2024 class. There is no doubt he built a really tight bond with multiple guys like Carter Nelson and obviously his two Bellevue West WRs.
I don’t expect there to be much of an issue with this. At the end of the day the nation’s #1 ranked QB and #2 ranked overall prospect according to 247 and Rivals wants to be a part of your team. You make that work. If that rubs a few guys the wrong way, so be it. Quite frankly the addition of Raiola probably gives you some better options anyway in many instances.
In fact i’d say that’s really my only problem with the timing of this whole thing. If we had Raiola on board as the #1 QB in the 2024 class since June, it probably changes at least a little bit who is coming in with him. But that’s probably splitting hairs at this point.
One Watchout For Raiola
While I fully anticipate him to be ‘N’… Georgia is full court pressing him the day or two prior to leaving for Lincoln on his visit. Expect them to try and remedy whatever created this mess for the two parties and squash the visit to Nebraska.
If he still gets up here this weekend, it’s a wrap and he’s coming to Nebraska.
Why Does Wiltfong Know?
What I don’t understand is how does Wiltfong have sources at basically every school? He knew Raiola was getting ready to take a trip and also that it was back to Nebraska? Local media in Nebraska who I would think have better connections didn’t even know that. Just kind of mind-boggling to me how he knows all this stuff.
The Transformation
What is really crazy to me is the fact we are going from one of the worst QB rooms in Power 5 with Sims, HH, and Purdy to possibly one of the best in an offseason. I’m not trying to speak in hyperbole there, but based on how things went in 2023, that room just wasn’t very good. What if all of a sudden in 2024 I told you we had an All-Conference B1G player in it and the #1 recruit in the nation there? It really doesn’t get much better than that. And while it won’t be an overly deep room that needs to avoid injury, i’ll take this everyday of the week.
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