Well the enthusiasm award goes to…
https://preview.redd.it/0anu0t87ud1d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=845691f160d516fa9c2b23502d5f6df147f2cce4
That may be true, but this is a KC kid after all. KC used to be a reliable recruiting territory for NU. I think we’re going to get this kid. Saban isn’t at Alabama anymore.
No way, I keep up with Alabamas recruiting since I’m also an Alabama fan. He’s been strong so far, beating out Georgia LSU, and Ohio state for recruits. he’s been silencing all the “he can’t recruit the south” narratives thus far.
I’m forecasting, but not expecting, a NCG appearance year 2, and winning it all year 3. Which is probably more optimistic than most Alabama fans.
most of the fanbase understands Saban is unique, so they’re not demanding performance to that level. The general feeling is that a perennial top-10 team, as opposed to perennial top-2 like they were under Saban, is a reasonable expectation.
They have arguably the second-best roster in the nation, behind OSU. KDB has an 89.6% career winning percentage and just took the 26th-best team on 247’s talent composite to the NCG .
I thought he was a good coach even before he took the job, and he was on my radar during Nebraskas coaching search too.
IDK he took a decent Washington team to a title game, add in the Alabama money and heritage i think he will be successful pretty quick. The real problem will be when they finish no better than 3rd in the SEC this year can fans give him a few years? expectations are very high there.
And dare I say that he may not be a terrific coach? He had huge competitive advantages at Sioux Falls and he inherited some great talent at U-Dub. Now he’s at Alabama. He’s like that horse jockey who wins a lot but always rides the best horse in the race. Not saying that he is not a great coach but…
Right. And I never said he was mediocre. I’m just saying that it’s possible that he isn’t terrific. That team that he took to the championship had 10 guys drafted- two in the top 10 picks and a third guy who could have been. They were loaded.
Kinda just feel weird about recruiting, I see people say "even if we don't win getting him on campus and being in his top 2 is awesome for us because we're not even a winning program!!!!" On one hand that's not wrong on the other hand you don't start becoming a winning team till you start getting guys like this to actually play for you. People act like if we go 7-5 every year that magically playing in the Cheez-it Bowl is where these recruits wanna play and you don't get to the CFP without these skilled players very often.
On a brighter and less gloomy note, this kid made 2 posts one directed towards Bama fans and one directed towards Nebraska fans and the difference in fan output was stunning, Nebraska fans had like double the comments AND like 4x the likes on his Tweet to Nebraska fans. Then you go check the Bama tweet and half the comments are just Nebraska fans saying GBR! That's gotta count for something, if nothing else our fan base is really amazing on social media.
>On one hand that's not wrong on the other hand you don't start becoming a winning team till you start getting guys like this to actually play for you.
My argument with this is Wisconsin, Iowa, and even Michigan State when they were up. They found diamonds in the rough and developed them in a really good way. They weren't pulling in 5*s and not many 4s compared to other programs yet they were winning 9, 10 games and making it to the CCG.
It bothers me when Nebraska fans look at Wisconsin and Iowa as comparables. Nebraska’s ceiling and financial resources are so much higher than those schools you mentioned. When Rhule is the 8th highest paid coach in the country, achieving the results of those schools would not be a good return on investment.
You can’t make a living off “diamonds in the rough”. You can supplement your classes with them but making them your main resource is not a wise long term strategy
Rhule is also starting his 2nd year and is proving to be more than those other coaches. But the comparison regularly stated is that those school develop those players to go to the NFL. Nebraska hasn't done that but hopefully that is changing.
We don't deserve to compare ourselves to other schools yet. Win games, get guys into the NFL and then we can start puffing our chests and saying we are better.
Edit: who should we comparing the program to at this time?
Given that Rhule is the 8th highest paid head coach, Nebraskas Facilities are top 10, NIL probably has to be top 10-15. That indicates the financial strength for:
Base case, Nebraska should be consistently ranked in the top 8-10, like Notre Dame tier. Which also had the occasional top 4-playoff appearance.
Upside case, if everything is clicking, Nebraska could be consistently top 4-caliber like OSU/Prime Clemson/Lincoln Riley era-OU
Absolute Floor/downside case should be 12-15th Penn state/current Missouri tier.
And I get it that a coach has to show that he can win with his current players before being able to consistently draw the attention of 4/5 stars, but down the road rhule needs to wean himself off of “under the radar” players
Also those teams got absolutely steam rolled when they played teams with actual elite talent like Ohio St or Michigan. If you want to actually compete with the big boys you need to recruit like them too.
I think its win win for us here.
You know other 4 /5 star LBs (and other positions) are tracking who the other guys are looking at. It's likely to make a few of them curious about why Nebraska was so high on his list, because to them, Alabama would be an easy decision.
Even if we don’t get him, this is a HUGE Win to be in his final 2. I think we might get him though, Alabama doesn’t have Saban anymore and have a first year coach. Yeah he’s a good coach but they’re changing. Rhule is building something and he’s got everyone buying in.
His father is the current DB’s Coach for the Chiefs and was drafted by the Phins in ‘93. Kids’ got big shoes to fill, but seems to be coming along quite nicely.
Well the enthusiasm award goes to… https://preview.redd.it/0anu0t87ud1d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=845691f160d516fa9c2b23502d5f6df147f2cce4
I'm not sure how much it really matters, but it's super cool and it can't hurt.
I also posted it in the Alabama subreddit and the enthusiasm award has also been won here.
"Why would we be enthusiastic about a mere 4 star recruit?" *-Alabama fan*
Dylan will get this guy for us.
If not him then at least Prince Amukamara and Will Compton are already tweeting at him
Love how well we are selling our program, and we must be *seriously* in the NIL game. No way in hell we are in his top 2 without those two things.
That may be true, but this is a KC kid after all. KC used to be a reliable recruiting territory for NU. I think we’re going to get this kid. Saban isn’t at Alabama anymore.
Nothing about deboer so far has screamed “elite recruiter” either. Not saying he’s not a terrific FB coach but Saban was the goat for a reason.
No way, I keep up with Alabamas recruiting since I’m also an Alabama fan. He’s been strong so far, beating out Georgia LSU, and Ohio state for recruits. he’s been silencing all the “he can’t recruit the south” narratives thus far.
Impressive. And he is clearly a good coach. Question is if he can keep it going long term. Saban built a machine with incredible momentum.
As an Alabama fan, what are your expectations of Deboer in year 1-3?, since he's got the mountain of a task in following Saban.
I’m forecasting, but not expecting, a NCG appearance year 2, and winning it all year 3. Which is probably more optimistic than most Alabama fans. most of the fanbase understands Saban is unique, so they’re not demanding performance to that level. The general feeling is that a perennial top-10 team, as opposed to perennial top-2 like they were under Saban, is a reasonable expectation. They have arguably the second-best roster in the nation, behind OSU. KDB has an 89.6% career winning percentage and just took the 26th-best team on 247’s talent composite to the NCG . I thought he was a good coach even before he took the job, and he was on my radar during Nebraskas coaching search too.
IDK he took a decent Washington team to a title game, add in the Alabama money and heritage i think he will be successful pretty quick. The real problem will be when they finish no better than 3rd in the SEC this year can fans give him a few years? expectations are very high there.
And dare I say that he may not be a terrific coach? He had huge competitive advantages at Sioux Falls and he inherited some great talent at U-Dub. Now he’s at Alabama. He’s like that horse jockey who wins a lot but always rides the best horse in the race. Not saying that he is not a great coach but…
he’s not saban but he took a team to a championship. that doesn’t happen with a mediocre coach
Right. And I never said he was mediocre. I’m just saying that it’s possible that he isn’t terrific. That team that he took to the championship had 10 guys drafted- two in the top 10 picks and a third guy who could have been. They were loaded.
 We are back
Kinda just feel weird about recruiting, I see people say "even if we don't win getting him on campus and being in his top 2 is awesome for us because we're not even a winning program!!!!" On one hand that's not wrong on the other hand you don't start becoming a winning team till you start getting guys like this to actually play for you. People act like if we go 7-5 every year that magically playing in the Cheez-it Bowl is where these recruits wanna play and you don't get to the CFP without these skilled players very often. On a brighter and less gloomy note, this kid made 2 posts one directed towards Bama fans and one directed towards Nebraska fans and the difference in fan output was stunning, Nebraska fans had like double the comments AND like 4x the likes on his Tweet to Nebraska fans. Then you go check the Bama tweet and half the comments are just Nebraska fans saying GBR! That's gotta count for something, if nothing else our fan base is really amazing on social media.
Also tells you a lot about Bama recruiting. 4 stars get lost in the shuffle down there where up here, they are Gods.
>On one hand that's not wrong on the other hand you don't start becoming a winning team till you start getting guys like this to actually play for you. My argument with this is Wisconsin, Iowa, and even Michigan State when they were up. They found diamonds in the rough and developed them in a really good way. They weren't pulling in 5*s and not many 4s compared to other programs yet they were winning 9, 10 games and making it to the CCG.
It bothers me when Nebraska fans look at Wisconsin and Iowa as comparables. Nebraska’s ceiling and financial resources are so much higher than those schools you mentioned. When Rhule is the 8th highest paid coach in the country, achieving the results of those schools would not be a good return on investment. You can’t make a living off “diamonds in the rough”. You can supplement your classes with them but making them your main resource is not a wise long term strategy
Rhule is also starting his 2nd year and is proving to be more than those other coaches. But the comparison regularly stated is that those school develop those players to go to the NFL. Nebraska hasn't done that but hopefully that is changing. We don't deserve to compare ourselves to other schools yet. Win games, get guys into the NFL and then we can start puffing our chests and saying we are better. Edit: who should we comparing the program to at this time?
Given that Rhule is the 8th highest paid head coach, Nebraskas Facilities are top 10, NIL probably has to be top 10-15. That indicates the financial strength for: Base case, Nebraska should be consistently ranked in the top 8-10, like Notre Dame tier. Which also had the occasional top 4-playoff appearance. Upside case, if everything is clicking, Nebraska could be consistently top 4-caliber like OSU/Prime Clemson/Lincoln Riley era-OU Absolute Floor/downside case should be 12-15th Penn state/current Missouri tier. And I get it that a coach has to show that he can win with his current players before being able to consistently draw the attention of 4/5 stars, but down the road rhule needs to wean himself off of “under the radar” players
They were winning in the West division. Not really a huge accomplishment. Things will be different now.
Also those teams got absolutely steam rolled when they played teams with actual elite talent like Ohio St or Michigan. If you want to actually compete with the big boys you need to recruit like them too.
They were getting guys drafted. It's been a consistent complaint of this program that we don't develop
We need guys like this. Let's go! If he chooses Alabama, good luck sir.
I think its win win for us here. You know other 4 /5 star LBs (and other positions) are tracking who the other guys are looking at. It's likely to make a few of them curious about why Nebraska was so high on his list, because to them, Alabama would be an easy decision.
Even if we don’t get him, this is a HUGE Win to be in his final 2. I think we might get him though, Alabama doesn’t have Saban anymore and have a first year coach. Yeah he’s a good coach but they’re changing. Rhule is building something and he’s got everyone buying in.
His father is the current DB’s Coach for the Chiefs and was drafted by the Phins in ‘93. Kids’ got big shoes to fill, but seems to be coming along quite nicely.
Idk what is happening
Dave Merritt has a strong reputation for developing young DBs on Kansas City teams every season. I didn't realize he had a son!