SIGNED ATH Jake Cotton

[huskers1]

Did your brother and high school teammate have a brother on the team and his dad as a coach? I would bet not, so the odds that Cotton walks on go up dramatically. Like I said, I'll give ya Evans possibly attending a smaller school that gave him a schollie and I am aware of guys like Dietz and Hinz this year choosing to go other routes. I'm aware of James Davis last year choosing to go to Ohio or Homer, I understand that. Cottons situation is completly different with his dad on staff tuition goes down. His dad makes damn good money anyway so its not like he couldn't afford to pay his full tuition if necessary.

 

[MadcatNU]

i dunno why he couldn't have just walked on. Maybe cause Barney won't be here next year?

for that matter, why give scholarships to any white kids from nebraska? after all, they all love us enough to pay their own way. we are wasting valuable scholarships on guys like o'hanlon, crick, henery, ty steinkuhler, todd peterson, etc.? someone forward this idea to TO immediately!

either pelini is purposefully sabotaging this class or barney has something on him, because there's no way the 6'7 son of an NFL lineman (and brother of a promising young tight end) could have any where near the athletic ability of kids that put together video tapes and go to camps.

Sarcasm aside, you are suggesting he may not be that bad of a prospect and comes from a good football family. This is true, and for all i know he may indeed be a good prospect.

But if so, why haven't we heard of him before now? As stated, he comes with a good pedigree and his father is even the OL coach at a major D1 football program. I find it hard to believe lack of exposure is the problem here. More likely there have been plenty of people that have seen him play, just that none of them came away very impressed with his abilities. I can't say he's a poor prospect anymore than you can guarantee he's a good prospect - all we can do is go off the information at hand. And to me that suggests that this offer is a shaddy one. Obviously, i would love for Jake to come here and prove me wrong about this.

The comment about NCAA rules violations is interesting. Maybe the only way the staff could put him on the team was to put him on scholly. I’d be less critical in this situation, but still not happy about using a scholly in a limited year for an offer like this. Also, I thought coaches sons have walked onto the football program at other places.

in addition to the possible reasons i already listed above about why we may not have heard of him, you might also consider the possibility that recruiting services (as well as coaching staffs) are not omniscient, particularly when a kid plays for a low profile school. even moreso when that kid has a huge late growth spurt that increases his potential dramatically.

as far as the offer beign shady, what do you mean by that? did you intend to say confusing or baffling or do you actually think something nefarious is afoot? you're correct that you and i can't make any definitive statements on this kid's ability to play football, but it does seem obvious that people can only believe one of two things: either that the coaching staff feels this kid displays athletic potential deserving of a scholarhship or that they are purposefully taking a kid with lesser potential (presumably due to nepotism).

if you, or anyone else, believes the second option, then i dont think you understand bo pelini. that man seemingly wants to win as much or more than any coach we've had. we've had coaches sons walk on in the past and at least one (ben cotton) get a scholarship (apparently with good reason). i think it's obvious that the difference is talent. just like every other offer, they go to the kids the coaches think can be significant contributors.

if you at least agree that the coaching staff sees something in this kid, the question becomes whether or not they are correct. as others have said, we won't know the answer for a few years. but, to this point, i'm willing to trust our staff's ability to evaluate prospects more than i trust recruiting services (or even other schools) to first find and then properly evaluate every player.

for what it's worth, i wouldn't mind grayshirting this kid, or any other lineman that could use a year to develop and is willing and able to do so.

also, NCAA rules are unlikely to have anything to do with it. adam watson and austin cassidy are both current walk-ons.

I’m not worried about rivals or scout lack of stars. Supposedly he didn’t play the game with them so they didn’t evaluate him. I can believe that. What troubles me is that this offer literally came out of nowhere. It appears nobody was expecting this, there had not been any rumblings about his performances at past NU camps, etc. Usually a good prospect in the state of NE attracts these things, and I would think especially so when his family is very prominent with the NU athletic department.

By shaddy, I mean at least baffling for the reasons listed above. Take the white, NE part out of the equation. Say this is just some kid from Mississippi or Wyoming – wherever you like. Woudn’t it seem strange to offer a kid from these areas nobody has ever heard, and whose biggest interest to date had been mostly DII schools? For me, this has nothing to do with “hating” on NE kids.

Imagine a politican awarding a very important and highly lucrative contract to some small engineering firm nobody has ever heard of. Seems strange yes? Now imagine the owner of this firm is related to the politician. In such a situation wouldn’t we all question the honesty of what is going on? To me, similar questions arise with this offer.

I don’t doubt Bo wants to win, but I suspect part of Bo’s management style is not to micromanage his assistants. I can see them having a lot of leeway in determining players they want and making offers. Could be a situation where Bo trust Barney to choose his OL, but Barney is not being impartial enough when he looks at his own son. Something like this is what I fear.

so you question either the honesty of the staff or bo's ability to prevent his employees from pulling a fast one on him. got it.

Essentially. Again, hope i'm wrong.

 

[AndyDufresne]

Did your brother and high school teammate have a brother on the team and his dad as a coach? I would bet not, so the odds that Cotton walks on go up dramatically. Like I said, I'll give ya Evans possibly attending a smaller school that gave him a schollie and I am aware of guys like Dietz and Hinz this year choosing to go other routes. I'm aware of James Davis last year choosing to go to Ohio or Homer, I understand that. Cottons situation is completly different with his dad on staff tuition goes down. His dad makes damn good money anyway so its not like he couldn't afford to pay his full tuition if necessary.

Jake couldn't take the reduced tuition without being on scholarship because his dad hasn't been employed for 5 years. It's in the NCAA rulebook.

There are players on our team right now that are on scholarship whose parents make a LOT more money than Barney Cotton. Perhaps they should have all walked on too.

There are players on our roster whose parents are former players, yet they are on scholarship.

Really, your arguments don't hold a lot of water. I'm sure you didn't bring up these same arguments about Ben because he was Rivals rated and had several other offers. You are only bringing these up regarding Jake because he isn't rated and doesn't have other offers. The coaches felt he was worthy of an offer. I'll hold judgement until he either proves or disproves this.

 

[Reebsker]

Did your brother and high school teammate have a brother on the team and his dad as a coach? I would bet not, so the odds that Cotton walks on go up dramatically. Like I said, I'll give ya Evans possibly attending a smaller school that gave him a schollie and I am aware of guys like Dietz and Hinz this year choosing to go other routes. I'm aware of James Davis last year choosing to go to Ohio or Homer, I understand that. Cottons situation is completly different with his dad on staff tuition goes down. His dad makes damn good money anyway so its not like he couldn't afford to pay his full tuition if necessary.

Jake couldn't take the reduced tuition without being on scholarship because his dad hasn't been employed for 5 years. It's in the NCAA rulebook.

There are players on our team right now that are on scholarship whose parents make a LOT more money than Barney Cotton. Perhaps they should have all walked on too.

There are players on our roster whose parents are former players, yet they are on scholarship.

Really, your arguments don't hold a lot of water. I'm sure you didn't bring up these same arguments about Ben because he was Rivals rated and had several other offers. You are only bringing these up regarding Jake because he isn't rated and doesn't have other offers. The coaches felt he was worthy of an offer. I'll hold judgement until he either proves or disproves this.

Who are they? Were they instate probable walk-ons receiving scholarships as freshmen?

 

[huskers1]

Regarding the statement you made about Ben is EXACTLY what I'm saying. He had offers to choose from so why would we say hey I'll turn down full rides from Iowa, Iowa St, Kansas, Louisville, and Wisonsin to come walk on to NU. I guess Jake could have said I'll turn down offers from.......oh wait he didn't have any did he? I dont see how my arguments dont hold water. He was a sure fire walk on, could have opened up a spot for a guy who actually has to choose from several schollie offers, and when he did develop into his body he could have earned a schollie. What doesnt hold water about that?

 

[dylan]

Regarding the statement you made about Ben is EXACTLY what I'm saying. He had offers to choose from so why would we say hey I'll turn down full rides from Iowa, Iowa St, Kansas, Louisville, and Wisonsin to come walk on to NU. I guess Jake could have said I'll turn down offers from.......oh wait he didn't have any did he? I dont see how my arguments dont hold water. He was a sure fire walk on, could have opened up a spot for a guy who actually has to choose from several schollie offers, and when he did develop into his body he could have earned a schollie. What doesnt hold water about that?

you keep assuming he would have walked on, when you really have no idea whether he would have. you also keep discounting the possibility that he accepts a full ride to UNO or NWMS over walking on, just like so many other kids do every single year. maybe he already said that he wasn't willing to walk on if he didn't get an offer. maybe other schools were starting to sniff around. maybe he was ready to start sending tape to other schools. maybe our coaches just decided he had shown enough to be next on our board and chose not to d!(k the kid around. maybe barney has pictures of bo in drag.

we both can make all the assumptions we want, but the fact remains that a coaching staff that appears to know what the hell they are doing decided to give him a scholarship. i doubt it was out of either charity or incompetence.

 

[BigBL87]

Regarding the statement you made about Ben is EXACTLY what I'm saying. He had offers to choose from so why would we say hey I'll turn down full rides from Iowa, Iowa St, Kansas, Louisville, and Wisonsin to come walk on to NU. I guess Jake could have said I'll turn down offers from.......oh wait he didn't have any did he? I dont see how my arguments dont hold water. He was a sure fire walk on, could have opened up a spot for a guy who actually has to choose from several schollie offers, and when he did develop into his body he could have earned a schollie. What doesnt hold water about that?

Div. I offers, no. However, he did have other offers from lower teir schools. I'll never understand why people assume that players would walk on @ NU rather than get their school paid for. Honestly, I'd love to play for NU, but given the choice between going to school for free and going to NU I'd get my school paid for. Has it occured to anybody that maybe his parent's don't/won't pay for his schooling? My parents, even if they made enough money to pay in full, would not have paid for all of my schooling. It comes down to the fact that if I pay for it, it means more. There are alot of idiosyncrasies in this that I think people aren't considering.

Also, like I mentioned before, Mike Huff had no other D1 offers, and he turned out ok. The coaches probably have more info on Cotton than any other kid and know his abilities, upside, etc.. I honestly don't think that the coaches would offer a scholarship in the name of nepotism because I think they know better. When you only have 85 scholarships, you don't give one to a coach's kid if he doesn't deserve it. I swear, some people must think that our coaches are complete idiots.

 

[bbeerma2]

Regarding the statement you made about Ben is EXACTLY what I'm saying. He had offers to choose from so why would we say hey I'll turn down full rides from Iowa, Iowa St, Kansas, Louisville, and Wisonsin to come walk on to NU. I guess Jake could have said I'll turn down offers from.......oh wait he didn't have any did he? I dont see how my arguments dont hold water. He was a sure fire walk on, could have opened up a spot for a guy who actually has to choose from several schollie offers, and when he did develop into his body he could have earned a schollie. What doesnt hold water about that?

Div. I offers, no. However, he did have other offers from lower teir schools. I'll never understand why people assume that players would walk on @ NU rather than get their school paid for. Honestly, I'd love to play for NU, but given the choice between going to school for free and going to NU I'd get my school paid for. Has it occured to anybody that maybe his parent's don't/won't pay for his schooling? My parents, even if they made enough money to pay in full, would not have paid for all of my schooling. It comes down to the fact that if I pay for it, it means more. There are alot of idiosyncrasies in this that I think people aren't considering.

Also, like I mentioned before, Mike Huff had no other D1 offers, and he turned out ok. The coaches probably have more info on Cotton than any other kid and know his abilities, upside, etc.. I honestly don't think that the coaches would offer a scholarship in the name of nepotism because I think they know better. When you only have 85 scholarships, you don't give one to a coach's kid if he doesn't deserve it. I swear, some people must think that our coaches are complete idiots.

Come on now boys, do we look like Colorado to you?

 

[huskers1]

No I don't think the coaches are idiots but I do question this decision to offer Cotton. Are you telling me that you guys never question any decision made by a coach, whether it be a play call, an offer, a discipline to a player? Does that mean that you think the coaches are idiots? Yes, I really do think that Cotton would have walked on. However, Dylan brought up a point that I hadn't thought about, and that is if Cotton told him that he had offers from lower level schools and said he would go there if he didn't get an offer. I guess if he said that and the coaches really wanted him then yes obviously you have to offer. IMO I just don't think that was the case. I really think we could have gotten him as a walk on and saved a schollie. Just my opinion, either accept it or don't I guess.

 

[zoogs]

Yeah, I don't think people are saying the coaches are idiots. People are looking at this as nepotism and a favor to Cotton, and frowning on that. This isn't the first time Barney has gotten the special ole pal treatment either. For one, he was hired back, and two, he hasn't been fired yet.

 

[RedDenver]

This is definitely nepotism!! No way a 6'7", 250 lbs. player could ever succeed in football!! And I'm also sure none of the coaches has ever met him, seen him play, or watched film on him! I mean come on, the posters on Huskerboard have obviously watched and analyzed his play. So why can't the coaches do it and come to the same conclusions? I mean, they get paid for it right? Stupid coaches will never be as good at analyzing talent and recruiting players as us anonymous fans on the internet.

P.S. :sarcasm

 

[zoogs]

Come on. You're looking at his size only. That doesn't mean anything either. Take a look at his offers and tell me we found someone. Quincy is getting major attention after our offer. What is Cotton getting?

And I'm also sure none of the coaches has ever met him, seen him play, or watched film on him!

Are you serious? One of the coaches is his dad!

Look, if this kid were a no-star completely unheralded product at a position of recruiting need like Quincy, I would say "coaches must have found someone". But he's not, he's the son of one of our assistants, he's not even sniffing any other Div-1 attention, so it's natural to ask these questions. A (more) comparable case might be Kreikemeier (sp?) who I don't believe sniffed any offers either, but was only offered to create a sense of "we're going back to Nebraska roots".

I'm not analyzing talent or anything. I haven't seen any film of this guy or heard much about him. I'm just looking at the situation, throwing up my hands and saying "WTF?" Just like many others, including those much more knowledgeable about the recruiting scene than I, have done.

Now maybe he is a baller and a steal. But you know what? So are a lot of walkons. He hasn't built the resume in HS, for whatever reason, to merit other offers. Why not ask him to be a preferred walk-on if that is the case?

 

[Overland Park Husker]

Come on. You're looking at his size only. That doesn't mean anything either. Take a look at his offers and tell me we found someone. Quincy is getting major attention after our offer. What is Cotton getting?

And I'm also sure none of the coaches has ever met him, seen him play, or watched film on him!

Are you serious? One of the coaches is his dad!

Look, if this kid were a no-star completely unheralded product at a position of recruiting need like Quincy, I would say "coaches must have found someone". But he's not, he's the son of one of our assistants, he's not even sniffing any other Div-1 attention, so it's natural to ask these questions. A (more) comparable case might be Kreikemeier (sp?) who I don't believe sniffed any offers either, but was only offered to create a sense of "we're going back to Nebraska roots".

I'm not analyzing talent or anything. I haven't seen any film of this guy or heard much about him. I'm just looking at the situation, throwing up my hands and saying "WTF?" Just like many others, including those much more knowledgeable about the recruiting scene than I, have done.

Now maybe he is a baller and a steal. But you know what? So are a lot of walkons. He hasn't built the resume in HS, for whatever reason, to merit other offers. Why not ask him to be a preferred walk-on if that is the case?

I think you missed the :sarcasm

 

[zoogs]

...did I? I think you missed the point of the :sarcasm sign.

if I did, apologies for going overboard. I think the topic has been discussed and rehashed at length anyway.

 

[caveman99]

Come on. You're looking at his size only. That doesn't mean anything either. Take a look at his offers and tell me we found someone. Quincy is getting major attention after our offer. What is Cotton getting?

And I'm also sure none of the coaches has ever met him, seen him play, or watched film on him!

Are you serious? One of the coaches is his dad!

Look, if this kid were a no-star completely unheralded product at a position of recruiting need like Quincy, I would say "coaches must have found someone". But he's not, he's the son of one of our assistants, he's not even sniffing any other Div-1 attention, so it's natural to ask these questions. A (more) comparable case might be Kreikemeier (sp?) who I don't believe sniffed any offers either, but was only offered to create a sense of "we're going back to Nebraska roots".

I'm not analyzing talent or anything. I haven't seen any film of this guy or heard much about him. I'm just looking at the situation, throwing up my hands and saying "WTF?" Just like many others, including those much more knowledgeable about the recruiting scene than I, have done.

Now maybe he is a baller and a steal. But you know what? So are a lot of walkons. He hasn't built the resume in HS, for whatever reason, to merit other offers. Why not ask him to be a preferred walk-on if that is the case?

Well he most likely doesn't have a lot of offers because, as was pointed out by several posters earlier in this thread, Jake or Barney didn't allow Jake's coach to send out film on him and second he was coming off an injury that prevented him from having any really film or camp data prior to this season. Kind of hard to get recruited if no one really knows about you. Still managed to get offered by schools who make regular trips to NE HS Games looking for talent, yes they are DIV 1AA Schools but they still offered him solely on what they saw at games. I don't think KS, MU, or any other DIV 1 schools have recruiters spend time going to NE scouring for talent unless that talent is known because they sent film out and/or went to camps.