Ask any UNI fans and they'll say they hate losing Clanton because they know what he can do. Especially recruiting and mentality-wise.
They'll also warn you that his first 2 or 3 years were borderline awful until "his" guys and style of player was there. Even with the talent they've produced the last few years - Brown, Penning, Penning, Scott-Brown, etc. the one thing you hear is that they tend to be technically weaker. They are big, strong, punch-you-in-the-mouth (quite literally) dawgs but they tend to be fundamentally and technically weaker. Look at the scouting reports and draft grades for the guys that have gone to the NFL or through the process. The big knock is feet and hands. Against most of the FCS that works because the depth of talent on the DL isn't there week to week, so they could just beat the hell out of the DL and have it work. Brown and Penning were notorious for being called for personal fouls for "unnecessary roughness" for finishing blocks. They were really penalties, but they were so much bigger and stronger than everyone else it just looked bad. That will be great when it eventually gets to that point here, but being fundamentally weaker in the B12 isn't going to fly quite as easily simply because you're a "dawg"