I really don't think facilities are holding Nebraska back from getting big time recruits. There are 4 huge flaws to coming to Nebraska to play football now (in my opinion).
1- The weather. This is out of our control, but it matters. There are less kids that are willing to go to a state with the temperature extremes that we have. Out of the kids that are willing, Nebraska now has competition (Oregon, Wisconsin, Ohio St, Michigan/Michigan State, Oklahoma, and several others). Nebraska used to have a pretty solid monopoly on kids that didn't care about climate.
2- Kids want to go to the NFL. Nebraska isn't putting guys in the league like they used to. We generally have 3 kids drafted, which is a decent amount, but it is nothing compared to the major college programs. As info, in the 2017 NFL draft the following teams produced more NFL draftees than Nebraska..... Villanova, Youngstown State (former Husker coach), Eastern Washington, Ohio (former Husker coach), Wyoming (former Husker coach), Western Kentucky, West Georgia, Northwestern. Nebraska had the same number of kids selected in the draft as Grambling State, Bucknell, Drake, Alabama State, Albany State, Chattanooga, Ashland College, Kutztown, Lamar, East Central Oklahoma.....the list goes on and on.
3- Nebraska plays far too many morning and early afternoon games. This is a double edged sword....the bulk of the season ticket holders are senior citizens (which leads me to point #4 in a minute). Generally speaking, those people don't like we play at 7:00 at night. Players and recruits would rather play at 7:00 at night on national TV. There are probably a dozen games on national TV at 11:00 every day (CBS, ABC, NBC, ESPN, ESPN 2, FSN, ESPN News, BTN, then all of the regional FSN channels, Altitude, maybe more). There are maybe 2-3 on at 7:00 at night. We don't get the exposure we once did. At the same time, it is probably better to play at 11:00 than 7:00 and get embarrassed on national TV like we consistently do against top tier teams (See Ohio State last year).
4- Nebraska has a great stadium and a loyal fan base. That can't be denied. That said, Nebraska is probably the quietest stadium that I have ever been in. Again, the biggest reason is because well over 50% of the crowd is over the age of 50 years old. These are the long time season ticket holders that keep the sellout streak alive. The student section is decent sized, but that makes up about 5% of the total attendance. There are literally thousands of fans that come into the stadium with a set of radio headphones on. Those people listen to the game on the radio while in the stadium and don't make a peep. We might as well seat 60,000 because that is about the max in terms of who actually cheers. This isn't just a Nebraska thing. This is true for Notre Dame, Michigan, and several other "traditional powerhouses" that are no longer relevant.
To be completely honest, I love what Riley is doing with recruits. I will gladly go 8-4 every year recruiting the type of guys we are recruiting. I can do without the Lawrence Phillips, Randy Gregory, and Suh's of the world. They are fantastic football players, but horrible human beings. Ever since Solich left we have lost a lot of credibility and respect among college fans nation wide. We've had two baboons as coaches....Callahan had his throat slashing episode and Pelini had his 50 tantrums a night plus the despicable recording about the administration. Riley is a high character guy. At least with him we will go back to being a high character program. Just my two cents.