Fox Sports Top College Head Coaching Jobs

[Mavric]

23. Nebraska


They have the fan support and they have the interest, but here's the deal -- where are the players going to come from? While it made financial sense for Cornhuskers to join the Big Ten, I'm still not sure how it made strategic sense to the long-range future of the program.

Ultimately recruiting is the lifeblood of any program and there aren't enough players in Nebraska to be dominant. I counted 23 different states represented on this year's Nebraska roster. That has to be a record for any team on this list. You can win a national championship at Miami or USC without having to get on an airplane.

You have to live on an airplane to win nine games at Nebraska.

Link

 

[BigRedBuster]

23. Nebraska


They have the fan support and they have the interest, but here's the deal -- where are the players going to come from? While it made financial sense for Cornhuskers to join the Big Ten, I'm still not sure how it made strategic sense to the long-range future of the program.

Ultimately recruiting is the lifeblood of any program and there aren't enough players in Nebraska to be dominant. I counted 23 different states represented on this year's Nebraska roster. That has to be a record for any team on this list. You can win a national championship at Miami or USC without having to get on an airplane.

You have to live on an airplane to win nine games at Nebraska.

Link

How has that number changed just because we moved to the Big Ten?

 

[LukeinNE]

Clay Travis is a notorious SEC homer. He's saying that Nebraska would be the tenth best job in the SEC. "Absurd on its face" is a pretty good way to describe this list.

 

[strigori]

Keep in mind the writer of that article is an unabashed SEC homer.

Arkansas, UNC, South Carolina are not good jobs. No one who is not over weighting the southern location is going to put those programs on a list.

Miami violates his own criteria. They have no real fanbase, and their facilities are garbage. Yeah, they have a nice recruiting ground, but unless they are playing for national titles, no one shows up.

 

[Creighton Duke]

From that list, Arkansas and Washington are reaches. I think the other 20 teams have very good arguments for being ranked higher (lower?).

 

[NUance]

I'm still not sure how it made strategic sense to the long-range future of the program.
Ultimately recruiting is the lifeblood of any program and there aren't enough players in Nebraska to be dominant. I counted 23 different states represented on this year's Nebraska roster. That has to be a record for any team on this list. You can win a national championship at Miami or USC without having to get on an airplane.
You have to live on an airplane to win nine games at Nebraska.

I agree that we have to travel to recruit. But it's funny that the author doesn't mention anything about long distance recruiting for a team like Oregon, ranked #9 on this list. They haven't handed out an instate scholarship since 2013. Zero instate Oregon recruits for 2014 LINK or the current 2015 class. LINK They actually travel more for recruits than we do. He does mention the recruiting factor for Notre Dame though. But he ties ND to Catholic high schools. Does Neuter Dame only recruit Catholics?

 

[SuperBigFan69]

I'm still not sure how it made strategic sense to the long-range future of the program.
Ultimately recruiting is the lifeblood of any program and there aren't enough players in Nebraska to be dominant. I counted 23 different states represented on this year's Nebraska roster. That has to be a record for any team on this list. You can win a national championship at Miami or USC without having to get on an airplane.
You have to live on an airplane to win nine games at Nebraska.

I agree that we have to travel to recruit. But it's funny that the author doesn't mention anything about long distance recruiting for a team like Oregon, ranked #9 on this list. They haven't handed out an instate scholarship since 2013. Zero instate Oregon recruits for 2014 LINK or the current 2015 class. LINK They actually travel more for recruits than we do. He does mention the recruiting factor for Notre Dame though. But he ties ND to Catholic high schools. Does Neuter Dame only recruit Catholics?

You bring up good points! Real fast though, Catholic High Schools do not only admit Catholic kids...far from it. But there is still a huge draw to ND from a lot of those schools.

For Oregon, it seems like they get a lot of kids from Cali.

 

[LukeinNE]

I'm still not sure how it made strategic sense to the long-range future of the program.
Ultimately recruiting is the lifeblood of any program and there aren't enough players in Nebraska to be dominant. I counted 23 different states represented on this year's Nebraska roster. That has to be a record for any team on this list. You can win a national championship at Miami or USC without having to get on an airplane.
You have to live on an airplane to win nine games at Nebraska.

I agree that we have to travel to recruit. But it's funny that the author doesn't mention anything about long distance recruiting for a team like Oregon, ranked #9 on this list. They haven't handed out an instate scholarship since 2013. Zero instate Oregon recruits for 2014 LINK or the current 2015 class. LINK They actually travel more for recruits than we do. He does mention the recruiting factor for Notre Dame though. But he ties ND to Catholic high schools. Does Neuter Dame only recruit Catholics?

You bring up good points! Real fast though, Catholic High Schools do not only admit Catholic kids...far from it. But there is still a huge draw to ND from a lot of those schools.

For Oregon, it seems like they get a lot of kids from Cali.

CA and Oregon may technically be border states, but in terms of actual distance, I guess I don't see a dramatic difference between Oregon pulling kids out of Los Angeles and us recruiting Texas or Ohio.

 

[NUpolo8]

I'm still not sure how it made strategic sense to the long-range future of the program.
Ultimately recruiting is the lifeblood of any program and there aren't enough players in Nebraska to be dominant. I counted 23 different states represented on this year's Nebraska roster. That has to be a record for any team on this list. You can win a national championship at Miami or USC without having to get on an airplane.
You have to live on an airplane to win nine games at Nebraska.

I agree that we have to travel to recruit. But it's funny that the author doesn't mention anything about long distance recruiting for a team like Oregon, ranked #9 on this list. They haven't handed out an instate scholarship since 2013. Zero instate Oregon recruits for 2014 LINK or the current 2015 class. LINK They actually travel more for recruits than we do. He does mention the recruiting factor for Notre Dame though. But he ties ND to Catholic high schools. Does Neuter Dame only recruit Catholics?

You bring up good points! Real fast though, Catholic High Schools do not only admit Catholic kids...far from it. But there is still a huge draw to ND from a lot of those schools.

For Oregon, it seems like they get a lot of kids from Cali.

CA and Oregon may technically be border states, but in terms of actual distance, I guess I don't see a dramatic difference between Oregon pulling kids out of Los Angeles and us recruiting Texas or Ohio.

The only difference is the conference. A kid from LA can play for Oregon and still play against LA schools. That went away a little with the Big Ten and Texas but, like Oregon, success matters.

 

[NUance]

I'm still not sure how it made strategic sense to the long-range future of the program.
Ultimately recruiting is the lifeblood of any program and there aren't enough players in Nebraska to be dominant. I counted 23 different states represented on this year's Nebraska roster. That has to be a record for any team on this list. You can win a national championship at Miami or USC without having to get on an airplane.
You have to live on an airplane to win nine games at Nebraska.

I agree that we have to travel to recruit. But it's funny that the author doesn't mention anything about long distance recruiting for a team like Oregon, ranked #9 on this list. They haven't handed out an instate scholarship since 2013. Zero instate Oregon recruits for 2014 LINK or the current 2015 class. LINK They actually travel more for recruits than we do. He does mention the recruiting factor for Notre Dame though. But he ties ND to Catholic high schools. Does Neuter Dame only recruit Catholics?

You bring up good points! Real fast though, Catholic High Schools do not only admit Catholic kids...far from it. But there is still a huge draw to ND from a lot of those schools.

For Oregon, it seems like they get a lot of kids from Cali.

CA and Oregon may technically be border states, but in terms of actual distance, I guess I don't see a dramatic difference between Oregon pulling kids out of Los Angeles and us recruiting Texas or Ohio.

Yeah, Oregon recruiting So Cal seems comparable to Nebr recruiting Texas. btw, Here is a pretty good article on Nebraska recruiting versus distance. LINK Check out the graphic in the article. The teams in the upper right quadrant are overachieving versus distance in their recruiting efforts. We're pretty close to the extreme upper right.

 

[zoogs]

I suppose one advantage Oregon does have is they play in the Pac 12, along with all the top California schools. At least when we were in the Big Twelve, we had more of a footprint in Texas.

The author is right in that Nebraska is and maybe always will be a "sell". Lincoln is kind of in the middle of nowhere. But football wise? NU is unique, it's in a special atmosphere, has the most devoted fanbase in the country and an unmatched legacy. Who wouldn't be honored to be tabbed to continue that? It takes a certain level of purist to appreciate those things, but it's cool to get the football coaches who aren't just looking for hot shopping districts.

The only reason we're not higher on this list is because it's been a while since NU has been a force in CFB, and that skews perceptions.

 

[RyouN?]

As far as recruiting goes I don't think playing local games is as important as it used to be. We have all taken notice that attendance has started to drop off everywhere. The most noticeable drop off in attendance has been evident in the youth. With TV and the internet, teams like nebraska do not need to play in Texas, California, Florida etc. to get exposure or get noticed. Even if we did it wouldn't add enough value to change anything. Going to an opponents stadium to watch us play is not going to sell them on nebraska (unless we have a fan takeover). And I don't see how giving your friends and family the opportunity to see you play once a year would put us over the top. If that was a deciding factor they wouldn't be going to nebraska no matter what conference we are in.

For most, moving far away to a place where you don't know anyone can allow you to grow up and really find out who you are. We should be able to utilize that as a selling point, instead of looking at it as a hurdle.

 

[Minnesota_husker]

I dont really have a huge issue with being at 23. I get that SC/UNC/Miami shouldnt be that high, but location can be very key, we all know that.

That being said, Nebraska has 23 states represented but that doesnt bug me that much.. do what you have to do.

 

[Stumpy1]

I'm still not sure how it made strategic sense to the long-range future of the program.
Ultimately recruiting is the lifeblood of any program and there aren't enough players in Nebraska to be dominant. I counted 23 different states represented on this year's Nebraska roster. That has to be a record for any team on this list. You can win a national championship at Miami or USC without having to get on an airplane.
You have to live on an airplane to win nine games at Nebraska.

I agree that we have to travel to recruit. But it's funny that the author doesn't mention anything about long distance recruiting for a team like Oregon, ranked #9 on this list. They haven't handed out an instate scholarship since 2013. Zero instate Oregon recruits for 2014 LINK or the current 2015 class. LINK They actually travel more for recruits than we do. He does mention the recruiting factor for Notre Dame though. But he ties ND to Catholic high schools. Does Neuter Dame only recruit Catholics?

You bring up good points! Real fast though, Catholic High Schools do not only admit Catholic kids...far from it. But there is still a huge draw to ND from a lot of those schools.

For Oregon, it seems like they get a lot of kids from Cali.

CA and Oregon may technically be border states, but in terms of actual distance, I guess I don't see a dramatic difference between Oregon pulling kids out of Los Angeles and us recruiting Texas or Ohio.

Oregon has kids from 25 different states on their roster...56 kids from Cali on the roster.

 

[Scratchtown]

I'm still not sure how it made strategic sense to the long-range future of the program.
Ultimately recruiting is the lifeblood of any program and there aren't enough players in Nebraska to be dominant. I counted 23 different states represented on this year's Nebraska roster. That has to be a record for any team on this list. You can win a national championship at Miami or USC without having to get on an airplane.
You have to live on an airplane to win nine games at Nebraska.

I agree that we have to travel to recruit. But it's funny that the author doesn't mention anything about long distance recruiting for a team like Oregon, ranked #9 on this list. They haven't handed out an instate scholarship since 2013. Zero instate Oregon recruits for 2014 LINK or the current 2015 class. LINK They actually travel more for recruits than we do. He does mention the recruiting factor for Notre Dame though. But he ties ND to Catholic high schools. Does Neuter Dame only recruit Catholics?

Oregon isn't surrounded by Wyoming, South Dakota, Colorado, Kansas, and Iowa.....no real hot bed for recruitment. Oregon has the luxury of playing in California (potentially 4 times), and Arizona.