Recruiting Lookback: Class of 2011

[Mavric]

Following up on his story about the Class of 2010, the OWH looks at the Class of 2011.

TAKEAWAYS

>>Injuries have bedeviled the class. Allen, Davie and Williams have all suffered serious knee injuries. Peat had a bad back. Reeves has been able shake injuries. Turner was hurt most of last year, even when he did play. Stars and recruiting services can’t always tell the whole story when injury bugs bite.

Out of 20 recruits, three positional players have started more than ten games. Fifteen percent is pretty anemic, even if one of those starters – Abdullah – is a standout. But here’s the thing: Jackson, Sterup, Allen and Turner could all start every game next year. Davie, Reeves and Price could start next year or, almost certainly, as seniors. The 2011 class has a chance to get significantly better over the next two seasons.

 

[NUance]

Out of 20 recruits, three positional players have started more than ten games. Fifteen percent is pretty anemic, even if one of those starters – Abdullah – is a standout. But here’s the thing: Jackson, Sterup, Allen and Turner could all start every game next year. Davie, Reeves and Price could start next year or, almost certainly, as seniors. The 2011 class has a chance to get significantly better over the next two seasons.

Well, four starters if you count Bondi. This class was pretty good, but bitten by the transfer bug. Green, Klachko, Moore and Peat. All four had the potential to contribute. Moore would have started every game for us. I'm still perplexed as to why a guy would commit, play a year, and then bail out because his girlfriend wanted him closer to home. /shakes head

 

[Saunders]

Out of 20 recruits, three positional players have started more than ten games. Fifteen percent is pretty anemic, even if one of those starters – Abdullah – is a standout. But here’s the thing: Jackson, Sterup, Allen and Turner could all start every game next year. Davie, Reeves and Price could start next year or, almost certainly, as seniors. The 2011 class has a chance to get significantly better over the next two seasons.

Well, four starters if you count Bondi. This class was pretty good, but bitten by the transfer bug. Green, Klachko, Moore and Peat. All four had the potential to contribute. Moore would have started every game for us. I'm still perplexed as to why a guy would commit, play a year, and then bail out because his girlfriend wanted him closer to home. /shakes head

 

[NUance]

^^ Ha ha! Yeah, a picture is worth 1k words. I think that captures the situation.

 

[Saint Boseph]

one aspect of that class which sticks out, and speaks to the caliber of the 2012 and 2013 classes, is that David Santos is likely to be a second string LB. Once they moved him from the mike to the will spot, kid looked like a natural. That quality of a player being a backup is the kind of depth we need across the board.

 

[kchusker_chris]

we pretty well wrote of 08' and 09'. Now McKewon has basically done the same for 10' and 11'. It certainly seems like things have turned around with these more recent classes. If Pelini can win 9/10 with those 4 classes, think what he can do with this next batch of guys. We've always known he can do great things with the right talent. 09' season proved that. But the jury is still out on whether he can get his hands on that talent. Going to take a few classes to make up for these 4. He's well on the way though.

 

[Saint Boseph]

we pretty well wrote of 08' and 09'. Now McKewon has basically done the same for 10' and 11'. It certainly seems like things have turned around with these more recent classes. If Pelini can win 9/10 with those 4 classes, think what he can do with this next batch of guys. We've always known he can do great things with the right talent. 09' season proved that. But the jury is still out on whether he can get his hands on that talent. Going to take a few classes to make up for these 4. He's well on the way though.

I don't think McKewon has written off 2011, he said that there is opportunity the next two years for 2011 class to make some hay. CJax, price, sterup, reeves, and allen can go a long way towards that. Just as it stands now, the injury/transfer bug from that class doesn't make it look too stellar.

 

[Mavric]

we pretty well wrote of 08' and 09'. Now McKewon has basically done the same for 10' and 11'.

Out of 22 players, 9 started ten games or more. Moudy — if he beats out Price — can make that number ten this fall. That’d be 45 percent. The 2009 class had 20 members, 11 of which started double-digit games. (A 12th player was C.J. Zimmerer, the top fullback, started seven games but served as the No. 1 fullback for two years). If Moudy doesn’t win the job, or has an injury-filled year and doesn’t reach double-digit starts, then the number of double-digit starters will be the same as the number of players who transferred early or left the program without exhausting their eligibility.

I don't think having 9-10 starters plus a first-stringer is "writing the class off." About 50% is pretty standard - not great but far from terrible.

And I don't think 2009 ended up being quite as bad as many - including myself - have claimed. I wasn't quite as good as it could have been because two of the quality starters out of that class (Kinnie and Gomes) weren't around very long. But it netted two of the Top 10 rushers in Husker history (Burkhead and Martinez), a four-year starter in Sirles, 6 solid starters (Ankrah, Randle, Martin, Pensick Qvale and Zimmerer) and one you liked in Green. Out of a class of 20 that's two of the best runners we've had, three very good, multi-year starters and seven more who started most of a year if not more. Definitely a top-heavy class but that's 60% who were at least decent contributors which isn't terrible.