Rivals.com College Football Staff
OTHER RECRUITING STORIES
? Notre Dame DE Ross Browner
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Tommie Frazier was a star quarterback from Bradenton, Fla., who left the Sunshine State to play college football at Nebraska, a school that lost bowl games to Miami or Florida State almost annually during that era. Frazier ended Nebraska's Florida hex by leading the Cornhuskers to back-to-back national titles and undefeated seasons in 1994 and 1995. The 1994 team knocked off Miami in the Orange Bowl and the 1995 squad completed one of the all-time great seasons in college football history by destroying Florida 62-24 in the Fiesta Bowl.
Frazier discussed his college selection process last week in an interview with RivalsRadio.
"I just went to the place where I felt the most comfortable. All the Florida schools ? they didn't want to give me the opportunity to play quarterback ? so they were off my list early. It would have been nice to go to a school in Florida, but what I wanted to do was go somewhere to play quarterback. Of all the schools that said they'd give me an opportunity to play (quarterback), I felt more comfortable (at Nebraska) with the fans, the people, the coaches and the players who were already there.
Tommie Frazier won a national title at Nebraska.
Frazier admitted it took some time to adapt to the Nebraska weather after growing up in Florida.
"There was an adjustment stage. Don't let anyone tell you there's not an adjustment stage. There was. When you get in a situation where you have good people around you and good friends, it makes the adjustment a lot easier."
Frazier remembers the recruiting process being a busy time.
"The letters, the last-minute phone calls from schools trying to get you to visit. I hadn't committed yet, so the phone kept ringing off the hook. They were saying, 'We'd really like you to come here. What would it take?' Also, just the people in the community wondering where you were going. That was always pretty hectic. Everyone in the community had a different school they wanted you to go to. They'd put pressure on you that way." Frazier eventually narrowed his choice down to two schools.
"People always thought I was going to Notre Dame, but when it was all said and done, it came down to
Nebraska and Clemson.''
Frazier said former Clemson assistant coach Rick Stockstill ? now the head coach at Middle Tennessee State ? offered a persuasive sales pitch. He remembered hearing from other recruiters who weren't nearly as convincing.
"Rick Stockstill was a great salesman. He was the one recruiting me from Clemson. It was a close competition between Nebraska and Clemson. One thing I was looking for was for a guy to come in and not tell me what I wanted to hear. Tell me what they think is going to pan out and let me decide. You hear a lot of coaches these days? going into a kid's home and telling them what they want to hear. When it's all said and done, and it's not like (the way the coach said), the kid is going to leave. Just tell me the opportunity that I have and don't guarantee me that I'm going to start. Say, 'Hey, if you have an opportunity and you go there and learn the system, you have a good chance of playing. Whether you start or not, that depends on you.' (Former Nebraska assistant and current Alabama defensive coordinator) Kevin Steele and Rick Stockstill, they didn't sell me on the school. They sold the school on me."
Frazier doesn't particularly like how the recruiting process has changed since his own college experience.
"When I was being recruited, you didn't have all this outside media attention. People speculated, but no one knew where the player was going until that player committed. And usually when a player committed, he stuck to that commitment. These days, you see a guy commit here or there, then he decommits from that school. With everything that's going on, it's commercializing the whole deal. It's not as fun as it was in the early '90s when I was being recruited."
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