According to Rivals, Nebraska signed the #32 class in the country, including four 4 star athletes and fourteen 3 stars among their 24 recruit haul. An additional 18 players are due to walk on, which is impressive standing on its own.
In his "Connecting on Campus" column, athletic director Shawn Eichorst explained their general approach to recruiting as "providing our coaches and staff all the resources, support and facilities reasonably necessary to recruit, retain and graduate the best and brightest student-athletes." As a head coach, those words coming from your AD have to be music to your ears. I'm sure Bo Pelini agrees.
This past year the Husker athletic department provided the most recruiting resources ever, in the entire history of the Nebraska football program. On signing day Pelini publicly thanked Eichorst and the athletic department for supplying private planes that allowed them to finish off the 2014 class strong and get a kick start of the 2015 class.
Eichorst added that, moving forward, they plan to add a number of additional full-time staff members assigned specifically to recruiting. A lot of programs, namely in the SEC have assigned similar roles within the football department, and the results have definitely paid. A total of seven SEC teams are represented within the top ten of Rivals' team recruiting rankings (Alabama, LSU, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Georgia, Florida, Auburn). Eichorst said that those recruiting support positions will be posted in the fall.
"Even though it’s extremely difficult to compare apples-to-apples, we are proud that our overall allocation of resources for recruiting consistently ranks among the best in the Big Ten Conference as well as nationally." Eichorst added. "Bottom line, we will continue to do what is reasonably necessary to put our programs in position to graduate our student-athletes and to compete for both conference and national championships.”
With the recruiting support positions yet to be filled, and Nebraska having to travel extended distances to get their coaches in front of the nation's top talent, expect Eichorst to have a similar "we spent more than ever" message next year.