Nebraska football started slowly in 2018, but the 2019 signing class has been filled with fireworks. The commitment of Ty Robinson was the icing on the cake.
Scott Frost won big at UCF. He hasn’t won big at Nebraska yet, but if the 2019 Nebraska football signing class is any indication, success might not be far off. The Huskers had five 4-star recruits committed entering the early signing period with their eyes set on defensive end Ty Robinson.
Robinson’s signature wasn’t going to come easily. The nation’s No. 207 overall prospect and No. 16 defensive end was highly sought after with offers from in-state Arizona, USC, Oregon, Alabama and others. The Huskers were the favorites to land him from the start, but fighting off those major players is a huge statement in itself.
Nebraska signed 23 players on the first day of the early signing period. The addition of Robinson elevated the Huskers’ class to fourth-best in the Big Ten and No. 24 in the nation. There are still a few weeks to go before National Signing Day in February, but the Huskers are more or less locked into a Top 27 or so class with more room to grow. That’s in the same ballpark as they have been in the past, but somehow the feeling isn’t quite the same.
Frost has taken the ceiling for this program’s recruiting base and turned it into the floor. If Nebraska can pick up one or two more blue-chip players they’ll be flirting with a Top 20 class, a feat which hasn’t been achieved in Lincoln since 2011.
Robinson isn’t the golden egg, guaranteed to change the fortunes of a program forever. But he is a marker of a change at Nebraska and the first inklings of what could be a storybook journey for the Huskers and Frost.