Matt Rhule and Co. put together one of the best recruiting classes, on paper, in the last 10-plus years of Nebraska football last week by signing 28 players for the No. 17-ranked national class and No. 5-ranked haul in the Big Ten.

The Huskers actually came up just short of a Top 15 class and finished just shy of surpassing Penn State for the No. 4 class in the conference.

There are a lot of reasons that factored into Nebraska being able to sign a high-quality class in the 2024 cycle and, according to Huskers athletic director Trev Alberts, it all boils down to hard work.

“I just can't say enough about what Coach Rhule and his staff have done," Alberts said last week during his monthly appearance on Huskers Radio Network. “I’m excited for them. I'm excited for our football program. You can sort of feel a little bit of energy and tangible momentum. Obviously you have to be a little bit careful. We don't need to put a bunch of pressure on young people who have never had a chance to be at this level. But I tell you what, acquisition and retention of talent are really, really important in athletics – and especially in college football.”

"We talked about this when we hired Coach Rhule. We were really looking for a leader who had the understanding and the ability to create the apparatus around football. Obviously, the full-time assistant coaches are really, really important. But just like our staff, there's all kinds of people associated with football. Names that probably many Husker fans have no idea who they are. But just their organizational structure, their work, these things don't just happen. You don’t get some of the players that are coming to Nebraska that just show up. It doesn’t just happen, especially when you look at what’s happened the last seven years and how long it’s been that we’ve been to a bowl game."

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Beyond just working hard, though, Alberts says the effort in Nebraska's NIL operation was an underrated part that was just as important in piecing together recruiting class of that magnitude.

"To have the kind of success they’ve had (in recruiting), I think it just starts with, number one, just good ole fashioned hard work," Alberts said. "They have worked extraordinarily hard. And then to have a strategic vision around how they were going to approach it I thought was really, really good. ... But if we didn’t have 1890, we’ve been talking about all this recruiting success and how hard our coaches have been working, but 1890 has been a really critical component and piece to help our student-athletes monetize their name, image and likeness.”

According to the Huskers' third-year AD, those NIL efforts could be seeing a boost from at least one big-time name – and perhaps a few more – down the road.

“Ndamukong Suh and I have connected a little bit," Alberts said, mentioning that the two of them spoke when they were both at the volleyball Final Four in Tampa, Florida recently. "He’s got a lot of different things going on. He’s getting to the point, not sure yet when it will be, but as he’s thinking about life (after) playing in the National Football League and what that looks like, he’s got some ideas, he’s got some things (he’s thought of). I think he's going to be involved some way, somehow in Husker Athletics.

"I want to get people like Ndamukong Suh. I’ve thought about Will Shields. There’s former players that have so much to give, and we've got to think about how we can better engage with them to help. So he’s got some ideas in the NIL space and some of those emerging things that perhaps can help some of our student-athletes. It was great to see Ndamukong, and there were other former players there like Kenny Bell and Fabian Washington. We just had lots of people that wanted to be a part of something really special, and to have it be one of our women’s programs was sort of the icing on the cake. (The Final Four) didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but I’ll tell you what, you’ve gotta be really proud of those young ladies.”

Alberts spoke for roughly an hour during his radio appearance last week, as is customary, and touched on some other key topics. Here's a rundown of the most notable things he said:

“I was extraordinarily impressed, as you think about the transfer portal and all of the chaos, our chaos has been pretty limited. And I really think that speaks to the culture that Coach Rhule and his coaches have built. Young men want to be a part of our football program, and that's pretty cool.”

“It’s really a challenge for our coaches. There’s nothing stopping negative recruiting. It’s not just Coach Rhule. You look at the rest of our programs, you’re gonna have some natural attrition, and you’re gonna have people entering the portal that make sense. But I think culture building and the value of culture is more important than ever before. That’s part of what we’re trying to do at the NCAA level – institutional involvement. I’m grateful for 1890, that they’ve stepped in the gap for us.

"The reality is, you think about where we are today from a long time ago when the first collectives started popping up around college athletics. We had zero interaction. Little by little, the goalposts have moved a little bit. We’ve been able to have more involvement. But at some point, just having some institutional involvement will be really, really important. We’ll see where all this goes. I’ve always believed that in the end, eventually, institutionally whether it’s through collective bargaining or however it gets there, the institutional involvement in this space will be real."

“It works both ways. Not only is (tampering) happening, but people are leveraging players to ask other players. It’s like, ‘Hey, we’ve got a great team here, have you ever thought about coming here? I think you can do a really good job in the NIL space.’ It is a really challenging time in that not only are you recruiting future student-athletes, you’ve also gotta re-recruit your own. And I’ll say on the other side, let’s give some balance to this conversation, I will also say there are coaches telling players to go in the transfer portal. So that does happen as well.

“I really appreciate Coach Rhule and our football program’s approach. I believe that they honor their word, and we do the very best we can to honor, support, grow and develop our own internally, and then we’ll always be looking to add additional talent to help us get over the hump.”

“Yeah, I’m concerned about a lot of things. I’m on the Football Oversight Committee – and there’s two now (for the FBS and FCS) – and it came up in our last meeting. It’s time for us to take a holistic vision of our game and review. I watch some of our coaches, I watch Coach Rhule. Nobody feels sorry for the coaches, but the reality is that what we’re asking them to do – the pace at which they’re going – really is not sustainable. So we’re gonna take a holistic look at our game, and that’s gotta include everything. How we approach things is so different from conference to conference. Even small things like uniforms, how our games are officiated, how quickly do we place the ball. I think it’s a good chance to take a step back and look at the recruiting calendar. We’ve made some tweaks and changes to that, but how does that interface in the totality of the way our game is presented?

"Even things like the fan experience in our games – the disruption in terms of timeouts and the length between them – how do we make sure that our game is presented in the best way possible that’s clean, efficient and, most importantly, consistent. Consistently applied. How are we looking at replay and review? And how are those applied from conference to conference? I think the more that we can bring consistency to our game and eliminate some of the different approaches (the better).

"And I certainly don’t want to present a picture that our game is broken. I mean, college football has never been more popular. In spite of significant angst around how all this stuff works, our game is strong. But I think we have a chance to really look at it and enhance it even further. That’s a feeling that’s shared by a lot of my colleagues: Is there a way that we can make it even better? It’s a fair point that we need to take a step back and look at everything.”

“You find a way. Some of the silver lining, you could (say to) yourself, ‘Well, we didn’t make a bowl game again this year’ as you’re trying to build a program if you’re Coach Rhule. I think having the time and the total focus on recruiting (is a benefit). Could we have had some benefit from extra practices? Of course. But I think having the full focus on making sure this ‘24 class is fantastic I think kind of works out for us in the long run.”

“I just hope everyone gets the chance eventually – and we will – to really reflect on how special a season this was. As I sat down and I looked around the stadium, to see all the red and the commitment of our fans was just really remarkable.

“It’s the highest total attendance and support of any women's athletics program in Cornhusker history. So I’m just grateful to all of our fans.

“I’m grateful for Coach (John) Cook. I obviously wasn’t here during his whole journey as a head coach, but this has to be among his best coaching jobs he’s ever done. I mean, he was the national coach of the year for a reason, but you look at that team – a young team – and the culture he built, what an amazing season. To start the year with Volleyball Day in Nebraska and end it down in Tampa, I won’t soon forget this season. It was really fun.”

“We obviously don’t want to impact standing room only. We are looking into that. I think there is, possibly, an opportunity to do that. I don’t want to commit to doing any of that at this point, just because we need to do some additional analysis. But we’re looking at it, and we’re hopeful we can get that done. ... I don’t know that you can match (Nebraska’s home atmosphere) across the country.”

“He took a risk after that Minnesota game and Creighton game, when he basically challenged his team publicly and said, ‘At some point you have to decide that it's not OK to keep getting punked by the other team.’ That can go one of two ways. To his credit, based on the culture that (that) assistant coaching staff and him have built, the team responded. I’ll tell you, those are two really impressive wins.”

“(Both teams are) starting to create a little belief in themselves and some mental toughness. You don't want to get too excited, but both of those teams have a chance to make a real difference in the Big Ten Conference.”