Challenges to a robust walk-on program in 2017

[grandpasknee]

Can someone explain to me what a "preferred walk-on" is versus a normal walk-on?  Not really sure what it means.  

[Enhance]

22 minutes ago, grandpasknee said:

Can someone explain to me what a "preferred walk-on" is versus a normal walk-on?  Not really sure what it means.  

This is a pretty good breakdown. 

 

Sounds like 'preferred' somewhat guarantees a spot on the 105 whereas a 'walk-on' is someone who will have to go through tryouts for a spot.

 

It also sounds like there isn't a solid consensus on what the term actually means.

[Kiyoat Husker]

54 minutes ago, InOmaha said:

If my second gets a scholarship offer to play at some D-II school, I'm not going to just jump on the offer because it's free.  I'm going to see if they have any degrees with long term prospects.  There's no reason to waste her time on a free education at a smaller school if it provides a worthless degree in the long run.  Just so the University can pad it's Title IX numbers.  I'd rather her chase a worthwhile degree even if that meant passing up scholarship offers or the chance to walk on.  Life is too short to waste time getting a free social justice degree from a D-II school before figuring out you may need to go back and get a STEM degree from a larger University for real life stuff.

 

Good points.  One other thing to factor in your decision is that the prestige of the program doesn't always translate into better, or higher paying jobs.  An engineering degree, for example, is a somewhat standardized program with excellent wage potential basically anywhere in the country.  An engineering degree from an accredited smaller school will still get you most of the same jobs as one from Purdue, Yale, or MIT.  Plus, it probably costs a lot less than those schools.  Most STEM degrees are similar in that way.

 

Careers that are more in the "Liberal Arts" or "humanities" fields are much more worthwhile to find the best schools with regard to reputation and ranking.  Here's a recent article about a study on the subject:

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/08/does-college-matter/400898/

[junior4949]

On ‎12‎/‎14‎/‎2017 at 2:34 PM, Xmas32 said:

 

I think you really hit the nail on the head Enhance in regards to the offensive system.  I graduated HS in the late 90s and it seemed like half the teams we played against ran some kind of option or veer scheme, my team personally did a mix of wishbone and I formation.  If the high schools can somewhat align in terms of running a similar offensive system of what Frost does (which I know is significantly easier said than done) than we might start to see Nebraska have a resurgence in local O-linemen as they've already been coached on some of the concepts.

 

One of the biggest problems with offenses and such today versus the 90's at the high school level stems from a lot of high school programs now playing eight man football.  I'm from SW NE.  There used to be a number of kids from these parts make their way onto the team.  Just about every school in these parts back in the 90's played 11 man football.  I can pretty much count on one hand the amount today that play 11 man football.  No matter how similar they try to make them, they're just different.  It takes different skills to play each.  I knew a few guys from eight man teams who tried to walk-on.  It usually didn't go well. 

[Gage County]

Who has the best walk-on program right now? What schools are having high success with walk-on program? What's a good comparative program or a program to aspire to be like?

 

[HuskerPowerVA]

Agree with most of the posts here.  I am still amazed that anyone even compares the walk-on program that was deployed under TO with any program of the modern era.  Just too many changes to the entire football landscape, rules, and finances to even have a meaningful discussion.