Dirk on recruiting local

[Tomhusker64]

NU must dig deeper for in-state football gems;

History shows they’re out there

By Dirk Chatelain, Omaha World Herald, POSTED: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2015

 

<snip>

 

Two nights later on ESPN, four Nebraska natives played on “Monday Night Football.” Danny Woodhead (North Platte), Zach Miller (Weston), Trevor Robinson (Elkhorn), Kyle Emanuel (Schuyler).

What do they have in common? None played a down for the Huskers.

LINK

 

 

Good read. Don't know how to do the fancy quote stuff. Enjoy. http://m.omaha.com/huskers/chatelain-nu-must-dig-deeper-for-in-state-football-gems/article_922ad58e-0f33-5eee-9342-f02b35014592.html?mode=jqm

Edited November 13, 2015 by NUance
I did the fancy quote stuff for you, Tomhusker. And it's such a great article I moved it to the Husker FB forum to get more traffic. :-)

[zoogs]

Good, in-depth article from Dirk. It's not about prioritizing Nebraska kids over outside kids and it's not about not recruiting nationally. If anything, we need to recruit nationally -- and better.

 

But also keep the local pipeline established and strong.

[BigRedBuster]

Very good article and something many fans have been saying for a very long time.

 

There is more talent here than what Callahan and Bo believed or were willing to work to find.

[Red Five]

Its easy to look back in hindsight and pick and choose kids that we missed on.

 

Its a catch 22. Sure it's great to tout guys like Ott or Emanuel. But there are many other kids that go to other schools (D1 and D2) that never really pan out into Nebraska level players.

 

Basically it boils down to "recruit the right kids" (which is a cousin of "call plays that work").

[NUinID]

 

I really agree that the University of Nebraska and MR need to find more in state players and offer them scholarships to play football. There are probably 3-4 kids every year playing somewhere at a different position than what they play in HS that could come to Nebraska and really become players.

 

I always remember an interview from about 10 years ago on Sports Nightly with Charlie McBride. He was talking about a kid from a small town in Nebraska playing RB, LB in high school. Good athlete about 6'4" 230 lbs. Not fast enough to play those spots in college but a real good athlete with lots of room on his frame to gain weight. He said he took one at him and said he would take him and make a DT out of him. The guy was Loren Kaiser.

 

There are guys like this all the time in this state. Nebraska needs to tap into these guys and trust what they see on tape as potential and not what they see right now.

Edited November 13, 2015 by NUance
There was already a thread on this article, NUinID. So I merged them. :-)

[HuskerShark]

Things are definitely different than they were 20 years ago. Scholarship limits are much less, and the price of college education has sky-rocketed. That alone is one reason the walk-on program isn't what it once was, and that's why you're not seeing as many kids turning down scholly offers from schools like Iowa State or FCS schools to chase the dream of playing for Nebraska. Some still do, but that number is a lot less than it once was.

[NUance]

Great article! Thanks for posting.

 

The problem is, it's been Nebraska's strategy to save a couple of schollies each year by *not* making offers to some of our most talented instate players. We've been doing this for several years now in the hopes that they'll walk-on. And quite often they do. But other programs--like Iowa and Kansas State--are onto our strategy. They routinely swoop in and steal one or two of our best instate recruits out from under our nose each year. I can understand why a recruit would leave Nebraska. I mean, if I was a talented player faced with being a walk-on and paying upwards of $200,000 at NU, or becoming a Hawkeye, I might just choose the payday in Iowa City. (Well, not really. I'd probly try to land a schollie at a place like Wake Forest or UVA before I settled for Iowa.) Anyway, my point is that it's time for us to change our strategy on recruiting instate players. And close the damn borders! Get on it, Riley!

[Pedro Guerrero]

Didn’t Bo have a couple classes where he only signed 1 in state kid?

 

I’d be interested to see how many of the scholarship in state kids pan out and how many flame out. I’m not talking walk ons that earn scholarships I mean the ones that are signed right away.

[FrankWheeler]

I'm not buying this. A lot of these kids were missed by everybody. Half of the guys didn't even play at an FBS school and he's trying to look back and blame the coaches for not giving them a scholarship offer?

 

Its silly to look back now and say, "If only Callahan would have got Zach Miller a scholarship and put him at tight end!", "Why didn't he offer Luke Lundy instead of Quentin Castille?"

 

Its a silly argument.

[lo country]

Bottom line. NU needs to recruit better. Be it scouring every program in Nebraska and find kids that can contribute, beating the 500 mile radius or going into SEC country whatever. Just recruit kids, develop them and get them to contribute.

 

Winning helps. Getting a definitive system in place on both sides helps.

[NUance]

I'm not buying this. A lot of these kids were missed by everybody. Half of the guys didn't even play at an FBS school and he's trying to look back and blame the coaches for not giving them a scholarship offer?

 

Its silly to look back now and say, "If only Callahan would have got Zach Miller a scholarship and put him at tight end!", "Why didn't he offer Luke Lundy instead of Quentin Castille?"

 

Its a silly argument.

 

Sure, some of them were missed by everyone. Like Danny Woodhead and Zack Miller. But what about guys like Trevor Robinson, Drew Ott, Shaun Prater, and so on. This quote says it all:

 

In August, 20 athletes who played their high school football in Nebraska were in NFL training camps. Only six played at NU

 

 

6/20. Sheesh, that's pathetic. I could probly hit 6/20 freethrows with my eyes closed. We should be able to pull in more than 30% of the instate players who end up going to the NFL. Shouldn't we?

[Waterloohusker26]

Very good article and something many fans have been saying for a very long time.

 

There is more talent here than what Callahan and Bo believed or were willing to work to find.

 

Can put a lot more names under the "gave" a scholarship to a local kid who never produced compared to the ones who go on to produce at other schools

[Landlord]

Totally in agreement that our state still needs to be a priority and that there are undeveloped players waiting in the rough, ready to be fully realized on their potential.

 

 

 

One question I have though, what is the state of Nebraska high school football? When I was playing, and even to a higher degree years before, it seems like everyone all ran triple option offenses, which made the transition into the Osborne/Solich Nebraska teams a bit easier. Has HS football caught up with the times in the state? History is a dangerous precedent to use here, because of the ever increasing devotions and resources high school kids in bigger metro areas and more populated states are getting year round.

[BigRedBuster]

Totally in agreement that our state still needs to be a priority and that there are undeveloped players waiting in the rough, ready to be fully realized on their potential.

 

 

 

One question I have though, what is the state of Nebraska high school football? When I was playing, and even to a higher degree years before, it seems like everyone all ran triple option offenses, which made the transition into the Osborne/Solich Nebraska teams a bit easier. Has HS football caught up with the times in the state? History is a dangerous precedent to use here, because of the ever increasing devotions and resources high school kids in bigger metro areas and more populated states are getting year round.

I watch C1 ball. I don't see anyone running traditional option offenses anymore. I believe there is more passing now however, still no where close to some other parts of the country. I see way more offenses running out of the shot gun now compared to before. With this, I see some read option.

[FrankWheeler]

I will give you some of the guys like Harland Gunn, Shaun Prater, Trevor Robinson but you are going to have some guys fall through the cracks. I'd agree that Nebraska should probably try to lock down every 3 star player in the state but if the coaches offer and recruit them and they choose someplace else (FANT!) can you blame them?

 

Furthermore, can you really say that Tim Semisch should have been at Nebraska? He had 10 catches in 3 years at NIU. Lundy played at Southwest Oklahoma State, Fort Scott Community College, Southwest Baptist, and Ottawa University.

 

There are also trade-offs during this process. NU took one linebacker in 2010 - Lavonte David. Should the scholarship have gone to Kyle Emanual, unranked LB, instead? I also don't buy his argument that Emanual was only unranked because nobody offered him a schollie and he would have been a 3 star if Nebraska just would have taken a chance on him. Bronson Marsh was all nebraska and was only given 2 stars. Dirk makes this entire process too simplistic in the article.