The 3-2-1: Putting a wrap on Nebraska's 2022 signing day

We put a final wrap on Nebraska's signing day and more in today's 3-2-1 column.

1 - 28 players and five new coaches join the Husker program

Scott Frost will be heading into his fifth year at Nebraska, but in some ways, it feels like a year one.

The Huskers have added a total of 28 new players to their 2022 roster, along with five new assistant coaches.

That means 33 percent of the scholarship players on this team will be new in 2022, along with 50 percent of the full-time assistant coaches.

It's really remarkable the flip Frost has done to both his roster and coaching staff since early December. The total breakdown is 15 high school recruits, 10 transfers and three junior college additions.

What's interesting is NU is still not done. I believe you'll see the Huskers add at least another two to three players at key positions of need over the coming months.

Welcome to the new recruiting world. There are no stopping points, and with the NCAA now giving schools up to seven extra spots per year to account for lost transfers, it gives teams a ton of flexibility.

“It feels different but everything is changing and other than the new coaching faces I think this is kind of where it is going," Frost said. "There are so many kids getting in the portal and so many changes and people jumping around and I expect that this year will kind of be the new normal going forward.

2 - Some room will need to be made on this roster over time

With 28 players added to the roster, Nebraska will obviously need to now make some room to be at 85 by August. That doesn't account for potentially adding more transfers during the spring either.

The reality is there are some position rooms like running back, wide receiver, offensive line and in the secondary where spring attrition seems inevitable.

I also think that adds to the competition and maybe it will light a fire under a guy or two that hasn't been able to take a step forward at NU.

Regardless, Frost and his staff are going to be faced with some tough conversations with guys over the new few months.

3 - The new staff additions delivered for Frost

Offensive coordinator Mark Whipple added two new quarterbacks, Mickey Joseph added four new wide receivers, Bryan Applewhite brought in two new running backs, Bill Busch added a kicker and a punter, and Donovan Raiola added two transfer offensive linemen.

This staff faced a very challenging December and January and they closed. Very rarely do you see things go this smoothly at Nebraska.

If Frost would have not made the staff changes, it's hard to imagine any of this happening. There is really no way they would've been able to convince both Casey Thompson and Chubba Purdy to come without Whipple.

Applewhite landed Ajay Allen and Joseph had a hand in all of the receiver additions. Frost shook up his staff in mid-November for a reason. He wanted to get a jump on this and it appears his approach paid off.

1 - How should the NCAA adjust the recruiting calendar going forward?

I think one of the most difficult things for Nebraska over the month of January was the NCAA recruiting rules and the dead period.

From Dec. 13 to Jan. 13 the NCAA was in a recruiting dead period. This needs to be fixed going forward. So many transfer portal prospects are forced to make key, life-changing decisions and oftentimes when they enter the portal things are in the dead period.

This then makes it impossible for transfer portal targets to take official visits and see their future schools in time before the start of classes. Also, some schools are on a different academic calendar than others, giving them an unfair advantage with how much time they have to bring in portal visitors.

"Our semester started early which kind of prevented us from bringing in kids that were potential transfers on campus for official visits," Frost said. "Hopefully that gets addressed but we did the best we could under the circumstances.”

The NCAA needs to open up in January going forward. They need to allow portal targets the opportunity to take official visits, to prevent silly things like what Thompson had to do, visiting Lincoln on his own and then talking to the Husker coaches over FaceTime from a hotel. At a certain point, you have to ask "what are we doing here?" If Thompson and his dad want to visit Lincoln, they should be able to meet with the coaches in person.

2 - How will the QB battle play out?

Speaking of Thompson, so how will this QB battle play out? I think most of us assume it's Thompson's job to lose, but after talking to both Chubba Purdy and Richard Torres this last week, they feel as if they are in the mix as well.

Frost also shot down any notion that the starting QB job is already Thompson's.

"There are a lot of narratives around that are not really based in fact," Frost said. "(Thompson) is going to have every opportunity to start and he knows that. The other guys are going to get their opportunities too. We have got a long time to work with him and spring ball and fall camp to figure it all out.”

I think we all can agree though the job is Thompson's to lose, but let's see how things play out.

Nebraska added four-star wide receiver Janiran Bonner on Wednesday. He was one of the top overall available wide-outs in the country left on the board.

When you look at Bonner, he just appears to be different than everyone else on the roster.

With that said, I predict Bonner will not redshirt and he'll play a key role for the Huskers in 2022.

Sean Callahan can be reached at sean@huskeronline.com and he can be heard each day at 6:45 am and 5:05 pm on Big Red Radio 1110 KFAB in Omaha during the football season. He can also be seen on KETV Channel 7 in Omaha during the fall and each week he appears on NET's Big Red Wrap-Tuesday's at 7 pm.