Ed Cunningham's Comments

But back to my OP...Nebraska, for as much as I (and other Husker fans) love the program, it's still an uphill and incredibly difficult climb for Nebraska's coaches to sign truly elite talent. Here's an example: I read a story not too long ago where there is an OG, from Lincoln, who is rated as the 2nd or 3rd best OG for the 2013 or 2014 class. He's a high 4
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by most recruiting services. The problem is...he's a huge Alabama fan. His parents moved from Alabama when he was (trying to remember the story) in like the 9th grade and he grew up as a huge Alabama fan. So Nebraska is certainly recruiting him because he's in Lincoln, but all it will take is one phone call from Nick Saban and this kid will commit and sign with the Tide. That's the way it goes.

 
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This thread has devolved into two separate conversations so here is my 2 cents.

Our coaches do a commendable job of getting high quality 3 and 4 star kids to come to Lincoln. For the most part they are kids we would be proud to call our sons and grandsons. In some ways they almost are....we adopt them. They sometimes make bad choices...mine own sons did....but I still loved them.

Why do Nebraska high schools not grow the Husker running backs, receivers and linemen we did in the 80's and 90's? Just as individual high schools have good and bad years, I think we are in a downward trend of a football cycle here in the state. Instead of having 4 running backs all from Omaha (95 team) we have none. There are a few 275 - 300 lb kids in the state but not many are D1 prospects. There were none last year and only 2 that I can think of the year before.

How long has it been since the Huskers were relevant on the national scene? 2001 Rose Bowl? 1997 Fiesta Bowl? The kids in high school now were 3 years old in 1997 and 2nd graders in 2001. Most of them are aware only of the later Solich years and heaven forbid the Callahan years. I think for too long the glamour was gone. Hopefully the team will bring it back with some good years.

There may certainly be other reasons but this is all I have.

 
Random thoughts on this thread - Cunningham is an idiot and even he can see the hill NU has to climb in recruiting. Pretty sure no other bcs school has such a lack of population/talent within reasonable driving distance.

This has always been the challenge here and we've overcome it by great coaching and by winning. Part of osborne's genius was not only designing a brilliantly brutal offense but making it one that was easier to stock. Taking athletes at quarterbackand linemen that didn't always have prototype length for pass blocking meant we didn't have to outrecruit USC for the equivalent of five star recruits (though we certainly got our share of those as well). That style of play meant we could take walk on maulers, beef them up and coach them up and put them on the line. As mentioned, we stayed a the forefront of strength and conditioning (and nutrition and maybe "supplements") and this provided a definite edge that we don't necessarily have anymore.

As far as local talent, we did have a surprising run of talented skill players back in the day. I would guess per capita that Nebraska has produced much more than its share of talented football players over the year. Obviously we can't just rely on local talent though. What we can do is land the legit scholarship players and get borderline kids to walk on. I think we're doing an excellent job of that. The walk on program has completely been rejuvenated under pelini and we haven't really missed any significant local kids in a while. (the foster kid should be an interesting case though).

Since we no longer have the big edge in s&c and can't count on Ahman green or Johnny Rodgers coming out of Omaha every year and we apparently aren't planning to return entirely to a ground based attack, we're left with a few of the old keys - great coaching, out scouting and out hustling other teams in recruiting, high quality walk ons and, most of all, winning so much that we're known as a top program. (academic support, family environment, and other things obviously help as well). I think pelini and co are doing a great job in these areas. We are already consistent winners again, now it's a matter of pushing it a step further. I like how it looks so far.

 
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Enhance89 said:
One thing really hurting Nebraska right now is the lack of division one talent in Nebraska. Where'd it go? We used to pull talented running backs out of Omaha in the 90's like apples from a tree.
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Couple things here.

1. Our HS farm system under Osborne was producing talent specifically tailored to the Nebraska system. We've changed systems so many times over the past decade the HS's have become very diversified.

2. Scholarship limits mean getting some of those kids that we'd give scholarships to in the 80's and even early 90's aren't able to get one. Walk ons were always important but now for instate talent they are even more so...

3. Which leads to this, while we still get a bunch of good in state walkons, The athletes aren't there right now.. but the linemen still are - a significant number of linemen on both sides of the ball, from Steinkuhler on D to Choi, Cotton, Jackson, Long, Reeves, Pensick, Rodriguez, and even Nickens on O. That's a LOT of Nebraska bred linemen. And that doesn't count guys who are gone now like Crick and Caputo.

The biggest issue is that the skill guys, the guys that get noticed on gameday at the highschool level - they get scholarships to lower tier schools and aren't walking on to Nebraska right now. They used to, but it's simply too hard financially anymore to walk on to Nebraska as much as you want to play for the Huskers when it means turning down a free ride to school elsewhere.

 
Blackshirt316 said:
Couple things here.

1. Our HS farm system under Osborne was producing talent specifically tailored to the Nebraska system. We've changed systems so many times over the past decade the HS's have become very diversified.
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Good point. We used to be one of only three or four major programs running our style of offense and we were obviously having the most success with it. After switching to the WCO, we were competing against almost everyone for the same athletes.

 
Winning will help the most with recruiting. Alabama is not very far removed from the Shula days. But now they are winning and have arguably the top coach in the college game. If we win some Big 10 titles and BCS games, then recruiting will go to the next level.

 
TonyStalloni said:
This thread has devolved into two separate conversations so here is my 2 cents.

Our coaches do a commendable job of getting high quality 3 and 4 star kids to come to Lincoln. For the most part they are kids we would be proud to call our sons and grandsons. In some ways they almost are....we adopt them. They sometimes make bad choices...mine own sons did....but I still loved them.

Why do Nebraska high schools not grow the Husker running backs, receivers and linemen we did in the 80's and 90's? Just as individual high schools have good and bad years, I think we are in a downward trend of a football cycle here in the state. Instead of having 4 running backs all from Omaha (95 team) we have none. There are a few 275 - 300 lb kids in the state but not many are D1 prospects. There were none last year and only 2 that I can think of the year before.

How long has it been since the Huskers were relevant on the national scene? 2001 Rose Bowl? 1997 Fiesta Bowl? The kids in high school now were 3 years old in 1997 and 2nd graders in 2001. Most of them are aware only of the later Solich years and heaven forbid the Callahan years. I think for too long the glamour was gone. Hopefully the team will bring it back with some good years.

There may certainly be other reasons but this is all I have.
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Well the OL segment of this thread is certainly a separate discussion. But the point is that if someone as obtuse as Ed Cunningham can recognize the obstacles Nebraska faces in recruiting then why can't a segment of our own fans?

 
chamrocck said:
Winning will help the most with recruiting. Alabama is not very far removed from the Shula days. But now they are winning and have arguably the top coach in the college game. If we win some Big 10 titles and BCS games, then recruiting will go to the next level.
Click to expand...
Are you sure? Tom Osborne was one of the most successful college coaches in the history of the game and yet Nebraska rarely had top 10 recruiting classes. Now it's interesting to note, and speculate, how TO would have done in recruiting rankings if he had stayed on as head coach after the '97 season. The point remains, Nebraska is an extremely hard sell to kids in the south, Texas, and California who grew up as fans of the SEC, Texas, USC, Miami, Florida, etc.

 
'SkersRule said:
chamrocck said:
Winning will help the most with recruiting. Alabama is not very far removed from the Shula days. But now they are winning and have arguably the top coach in the college game. If we win some Big 10 titles and BCS games, then recruiting will go to the next level.
Click to expand...
Are you sure? Tom Osborne was one of the most successful college coaches in the history of the game and yet Nebraska rarely had top 10 recruiting classes. Now it's interesting to note, and speculate, how TO would have done in recruiting rankings if he had stayed on as head coach after the '97 season. The point remains, Nebraska is an extremely hard sell to kids in the south, Texas, and California who grew up as fans of the SEC, Texas, USC, Miami, Florida, etc.
Click to expand...
I think we'd definitely crack the top 10 in recruiting if we established ourselves as the BIG Dog of the Big 10. Right now, Ohio State and Michigan seem to carry that mantle so we need to beat these teams to do that. Osborne's offense was also suited for option football that made a more narrow selection on types of recruits. Yes, it worked very well but we are beyond that era now. And I have always said if we play aggressive attacking Blackshirt defense then we should compete for the very best defensive recruits. Unfortunately we have not had a stellar defense of late. Restore the defense and the playmakers will come.

 
chamrocck said:
'SkersRule said:
chamrocck said:
Winning will help the most with recruiting. Alabama is not very far removed from the Shula days. But now they are winning and have arguably the top coach in the college game. If we win some Big 10 titles and BCS games, then recruiting will go to the next level.
Click to expand...
Are you sure? Tom Osborne was one of the most successful college coaches in the history of the game and yet Nebraska rarely had top 10 recruiting classes. Now it's interesting to note, and speculate, how TO would have done in recruiting rankings if he had stayed on as head coach after the '97 season. The point remains, Nebraska is an extremely hard sell to kids in the south, Texas, and California who grew up as fans of the SEC, Texas, USC, Miami, Florida, etc.
Click to expand...
I think we'd definitely crack the top 10 in recruiting if we established ourselves as the BIG Dog of the Big 10. Right now, Ohio State and Michigan seem to carry that mantle so we need to beat these teams to do that. Osborne's offense was also suited for option football that made a more narrow selection on types of recruits. Yes, it worked very well but we are beyond that era now. And I have always said if we play aggressive attacking Blackshirt defense then we should compete for the very best defensive recruits. Unfortunately we have not had a stellar defense of late. Restore the defense and the playmakers will come.
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That's interesting and I mean that sincerely. Because what you've said (and I've put into red) equates to a "what came first the chicken or the egg" comment. Playing great defense attracts the top talent but typically you need the top talent to play great defense.

 
Football is a way of life in Tx. Cali. and Fla. Most of the kids from those states compete and practice year round. The farm system or PW and on through Jr. High and High school have some type of program for their kids. I know Kansas doesn't. Most states simply can't afford it.

 
And to put what Cunningham said into an actual real world application: 2011 Auburn signee, and current transfer to Nebraska, Jonathan Rose. Jonathan was, according to rivals.com, the 7th best CB nationally coming out of high school.

This is a kid who had practically every SEC and ACC school clamouring for his services. Nebraska was one of the few northern schools who actually recruited Rose and while he expressed some mild interest in the Huskers we were never really in his top five let alone top 10.

That's what Cunningham was driving at. When it comes to the truly elite southern, California, and Texas talent, Nebraska, despite our rich history and tradition, is at best an after thought. Most highly touted kids want to play close to home where mom, dad, relatives, and friends can come and see them play with relative ease. And to that end, Nebraska simply doesn't fit.

So as Ed said, given Nebraska's location and our proximity to the best talent it's a wonder we've been as successful as we have been.

Shame that nearly everyone on the "outside" of Nebraska football can see that but some of our own fans can not.

 
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When it comes to fans logic I'm afraid emotion cancels it out too many times. Nebraska fans over 35 have a sense of entitlement when it comes to rankings and tough losses by our Huskers. They remember the "Glory Days" and think it should be that way year in and year out. We're on our 3rd coaching staff since TO and while I think Bo is doing a great job under difficult circumstances, it will never be easy till the team climbs to the top. Even then it won't be as easy as Bama, LSU, Texas and USC have it.

 
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