The Screaming Pelini

Top 10 recruitng classes(Rivals) from last year, here's what they did on offense: 1. Alabama: Passing yards per game- 218 Rushing yards per game- 227.5 2.Florida St.: Passing yards per game- 264.9 Rushing yards per game- 205.9 3.Texas: Passing yards per game- 263.2 Rushing yards per game- 171.5 4.USC: Passing yards per game- 282.3 Rushing yards per game- 150.6 5. Georgia: Passing yards per game- 285.1 Rushing yards per game- 182.6 6.LSU: Passing yards per game- 200.5 Rushing yards per game- 173.7 7. Auburn: Passing yards per game- 156.6 Rushing yards per game- 148.4 8. Clemson: Passing yards per game- 321.6 Rushing yards per game- 191.1 9. Oregon: Passing yards per game- 222.2 Rushing yards per game- 315.2 10.Notre Dame: Passing yards per game- 222.8 Rushing yards per game- 189.4 NEBRASKA: Passing yards per game- 207.4 Rushing yards per game- 253.4 So Barney Cotton started three walk- ons and coached an offense as good or better than almost every team in the top 10 in recruiting from a season ago, I'd also add that the 10 on this list have been the best recruiting teams over that last 3-5 years as well. Our offense was almost dead even with Alabama and was better than Notre Dame, they played for the National Title this year and consistently bring in the best recruits in the country. Rosters full of four and five star recruits get the same production, or less, than an offense with three walk- ons starting. Hmm, must be a problem with coaching. =]

Maybe because they have a sense of entitlement being highly rated, knowing that they could go almost anywhere they want and start immedietly. Except at Nebraska. It's such a travesty that Barney picks the guys who work the hardest and perform the best in practice and not pick the guy with four or five stars next to his name. Not every four or five star recruit goes on to the NFL, if I remember right, of the top 150 players rated by NFL Network the average for those players was like 3 stars. Four and five star recruits actually have quite a track record of not doing a damn thing in the NFL. Just sayin' =].

Thank you. Just simply, thank you. I knew I couldn't be the only one who sees this.

Do any of you even read everything I post or do you just read segments of it and try to decipher my hidden agenda for Barney Cotton? Pretty obvious not too many of the people commenting on this have ever played or coached football at a high level, and if you have you weren't a lineman or a line coach. Because I have watched every one of those games and I've watched them multiple times. Did we make mistakes? You bet. Was our talent sub par? Yeah it was. We've come up with millions of excuses for failures of the coaching staff in other spots, yet refuse to give Barney any credit at all. You think those losing seasons that almost killed our program didn't effect the OLine & the ability to bring in top recruits? Come on, be realistic. This guy has been an instrumental part in turning our offense and our program around. Anyone who says different, anyone who wants to say Barney isn't a damn good OLine coach, well you're just ignorant. But that's the great thing about message boards, you don't need credibility, you can just come on here and say as many misinformed things as you'd like. =]

Zac Lee and Cody Green would be the worst QBs on our roster this year. Can you give even one example of this? Not another person's testimonial, but actual evidence. A particular play or series of plays even? Lets also not forget that Barney took over an offensive line built to throw the ball under Callahan, then had the offense changed to whatever that was under Shawn Watson, and then again changed under Tim Beck. Entirely different offensive line prospects each year.

Since 2009 PPG: 25.1, 30.9, 29.2, 34.8 Rushing yards: 2059, 3466, 2824, 3547 Passing yardage: 2460, 2108, 2115, 2904 TDs scored: 40, 54, 46, 61 Sacks allowed: 44, 31, 21, 31 Record: 10-3, 10-3, 9-4, 10-3 So Barney and the OLine had one year of sub par offensive production, mostly due to a lack of recruiting(apparently all on his part) and a QB who lacked real fundamentals. Not to mention an issue with the playmakers holding on to the ball, a combined 133 fumbles in the last 4 years, thankfully for us the NCAA does not track dropped passes either. So yeah we should probably get rid of the bum.

Unless I'm off on dates, those were all Callahan recruits. Meaning they came in after Barney was here the first time around in 2003. And those four years would be in large part by the players on the roster from the tail end of Solich's recruiting. I don't see any of the oline guys graduating this year getting drafted. What I do see is a lot of guys who have come in with star ratings, and then doing nothing, or transferring out. Really? Have you ever heard of Spencer Long? 1 guy in 5 years? That's the defense? 3 walk ons starting on the Nebraska O-Line, completely unacceptable. He quite probably ran off his best guy before last season started. Weird, sounds like an issue with recruiting. Good thing nobody has said that yet. =]

This isn't anything like that. We had a recruit who was committed to Nebraska and followed Marrow to Kentucky when Marrow left. And Braylon Heard is not allowed to transfer to Kentucky. To me it just seems like some people are upset and maybe they have a right to be...or maybe not...but nothing like a hush-hush scandal kept on the grapevine. Yeah my bad on Nicks. He did not get coached by Barney.

Unless I'm off on dates, those were all Callahan recruits. Meaning they came in after Barney was here the first time around in 2003. And those four years would be in large part by the players on the roster from the tail end of Solich's recruiting. I don't see any of the oline guys graduating this year getting drafted. What I do see is a lot of guys who have come in with star ratings, and then doing nothing, or transferring out. Really? Have you ever heard of Spencer Long?

how many of those guys were recruited by him? i dont think he has done much with the guys he has brought in but to be fair he is not a bad coach just average and nebraska fans want someone who is going to be exceptional especially when it come to the O-line its been a while since the pipeline days and fans want more out of the offensive front So we've established he's not a great recruiter, I acknowledged that already. In what ways has Barney been average? This is what I'm saying, nobody has given a single valid opinion with any factual evidence as to where Barney has faltered in his coaching.

Yoshi Hardrick & Ricky Henry, both were on NFL rosters but since have been put on practice squads. Never said his tradition had anything to do with his coaching, but one of the biggest things we recruit on is tradition. Having a guy on your coaching staff who played during those glory days and was an NFL draft pick certainly can't hurt him.

I totally understand moving him to open up positions for more coaches, but to say he's a bad coach, I just don't agree. There are 7 (5 drafted) Nebraska offensive lineman in the NFL since Barney came back to Nebraska in 2008, you know how many we had during the 5 years he was not at Nebraska....ZERO! Not to mention you have a living piece of Nebraska tradition on your coaching staff. If he's not a good recruiter that's fine, don't have him recruit! But to say he isn't a good coach is just asinine.

Does anyone even have a valid reason for firing Barney or having him leaving our program? I get so sick of hearing this.

None of this will ever happen. The ratings are great so obviously there is interest it it. For the players to give up Hawaii at the end of the season for Canton, Ohio at the beginning of the season is ridiculous. A lot of players opt out now I would expect nothing but second team and scout team players to show up in Canton. Not to mention that the coaches would throw a fit. T_O_B Not that I ever expected it to happen, hence the title. The ratings are far from great, they're good, but I don't believe a 7.7 would qualify as great. This is also the thrid consecutive year the ratings have gone down, down by 3% this year. When are people going to want to watch the Pro Bowl more, the week before the biggest game of the year? Or the first game of the year when nobody has watched football for over 6 months? Not to mention this would give the Super Bowl players an opportunity to play as well. You don't think they'd give up taking a trip somwhere they could go on their own to witness their idols be inducted in to the Hall of Fame? Players opt out now because it's the end of the season, they're injured, they're tired and they don't want to play football. As for your point that the coaches would throw a fit, who cares? It's not about the coaches. You take the entire Pro Bowl roster and make a 4 deep depth chart based on votes and cap the playing time to one quarter per squad. Nullifies any bitching from coaching staffs because that's the same ammount they'd get that first pre-season game. And at the same time it gives these coaches a pre- season game to evaluate the new rookies, and existing players without their All Star counterparts. Also I think the HOF inductees that year should be caoching those squads, I have a feeling these all star players wouldn't mind being coached by Warren Sapp or Chris Carter for a game instead of a coach in their conference who they may or may not hate. Oh pleeze. This is a paid for vacation for these players. They don't have a shot at the SB and now you want to send them to Canton , Ohio????????????????????????? What did they ever do to you? Hawaii/Canton , Hawaii/Canton, Hawaii/Canton, what are you thinking? Lastly how does ths give a coach a chance to evaluate Rookies? This is the Pro-Bowl, no rookies allowed. T_O_B Either your reading comprehension is that of a 3rd grader, or you were just too lazy to actually read any of what I said. Either way I refuse to elicit your ignornace with any ammount of response beyond this. Had you read what I posted the Pro Bowl would be in place of the first pre season game, thus the all star players would be away from the team for the first pre season game. Also, just to reinforce my point of your ignorance, there were 7 rookies in the Pro Bowl this year. =]

None of this will ever happen. The ratings are great so obviously there is interest it it. For the players to give up Hawaii at the end of the season for Canton, Ohio at the beginning of the season is ridiculous. A lot of players opt out now I would expect nothing but second team and scout team players to show up in Canton. Not to mention that the coaches would throw a fit. T_O_B Not that I ever expected it to happen, hence the title. The ratings are far from great, they're good, but I don't believe a 7.7 would qualify as great. This is also the thrid consecutive year the ratings have gone down, down by 3% this year. When are people going to want to watch the Pro Bowl more, the week before the biggest game of the year? Or the first game of the year when nobody has watched football for over 6 months? Not to mention this would give the Super Bowl players an opportunity to play as well. You don't think they'd give up taking a trip somwhere they could go on their own to witness their idols be inducted in to the Hall of Fame? Players opt out now because it's the end of the season, they're injured, they're tired and they don't want to play football. As for your point that the coaches would throw a fit, who cares? It's not about the coaches. You take the entire Pro Bowl roster and make a 4 deep depth chart based on votes and cap the playing time to one quarter per squad. Nullifies any bitching from coaching staffs because that's the same ammount they'd get that first pre-season game. And at the same time it gives these coaches a pre- season game to evaluate the new rookies, and existing players without their All Star counterparts. Also I think the HOF inductees that year should be caoching those squads, I have a feeling these all star players wouldn't mind being coached by Warren Sapp or Chris Carter for a game instead of a coach in their conference who they may or may not hate.

I'm tired of hearing useless ESPN analysis of what to do or not to do with the Pro Bowl, and the consensus seems to be to just get rid of it all together. I have a better idea, make it the first preseason game. Do away with the Hall of Fame Game and let the Pro Bowl be the start to the season. You can still play the game in Canton, which makes more sense to me than Hawaii anyhow. The way I see it is you give the best players an opporunity to prepare for the season, and kick off some of the off season rust, by playing against a comperative level of competition. They all half ass it in the Pro Bowl as well as the preaseason games, so combine the two and give people a reason to watch, as well as give the athletes a reason to care about the Pro Bowl. Thoughts?

How many of those Nebraska players we had from 1970-2001 were 5 or even 4 star recruits? Not many. It's called being a coach and developing the talent you are afforded. Nebraska has never been a hotbed for high profile recruits, but the athletic ability and faith these kids have in the program is what has created such a successful program. We are not and never will be one of those schools where 5 star recruits flock to. NU had several high ranked classes that featured some of the best athletes in the country. NU can get 5 star talent. The trick isn't having a team of 5 stars the trick is having a bunch of high level 3 stars and 4 stars as your foundation and sprinkling in a few 5 stars to push you over the top. That appears to be the formula NU has used as well as an established walk on program that helps with depth and also gives us a few pleasant surprises. If you read my post you'll notice I stated only that the Nebraska kids we brought in were not 5 stars. I Understand whole heartedly where you come from, but I think you misunderstood the angle I was getting at. What I was saying is that we have traditionaly never had 5 or even 4 star recruits in this state. We developed that underrated talent in to the stars they became, we channeled their love for this program, and created an enviroment in this state that doesn't require a 5 or 4 star rating.

I have a hard time believing with the way Pelini responded to Walker's decomit that he wouldn't have been equally as angry about this. Something tells me that with Marrow and Stoops, who are both close friends of Bo's (grew up with both of them same graduating class in HS), taking the opportunity at Kentucky that perhaps Bo may have let this happen. Just adding two and two together here but I see two of his close friends and alumni of the same HS, a potential star in the making (at least at Kentucky) in McWilson, who is also from Cardinal Mooney. We look even further at the competition he would be up against to get a starting spot here and it ever increasingly makes sense why Bo would let this one go. Those are perhaps two of his best friends trying to overhaul a program in SEC country. I can't ever imagine how helpful those conections could be. =]

How many of those Nebraska players we had from 1970-2001 were 5 or even 4 star recruits? Not many. It's called being a coach and developing the talent you are afforded. Nebraska has never been a hotbed for high profile recruits, but the athletic ability and faith these kids have in the program is what has created such a successful program. We are not and never will be one of those schools where 5 star recruits flock to.

Would love to get him, the offense they run looks very similar to ours. Even if we don't get this kid someone tell Tim Beck to take a look at some of the plays they run for this guy. Those screens and WR options are lethal!

Couldn't agree more, especially with that 2nd point. I think we have some deserving local kids in not only Nebraska but Iowa as well. If we really want to be succesful we have to get those local kids. All the years that we were great we usually had at least a handful of Nebraska kids who came in and worked harder than everyone else and had a passion for the university and the state that really fueled a lot of what was being done. I don't see a lot of that same passion from these out of state guys, in turn making me believe we need some of these in state athletes to remind them and push them, to show them what Nebraska football is about. If you want to be successful you have to make sure any and all in state talent stays here, period.

Dominic is a lot better On what basis?

Agreed. By all means I don't think he is a slot guy, but his hands give him the ability to run those underneath and crossing routes and still be highly succesful. When I watched Walker I didn't see much that made me think he was a slot receiver either, actually less so than Gladney. Walker most of the time lines up way outside and just runs down the field. Gladney lines up in every WR position and doesn't rely on single coverage to make a play.

Hopefully.... From what I've watched Gladney has by far the better hands. I think Walker is faster, but Gladney is a much more versatile, polished receiver who I think can split out wide or line up inside at the slot and still be a threat. Walker relies on his speed far too often where Gladney knows he has speed, but also has the hands and route running ability to make a difference in parts of the field where Walker's speed would be limited. Really when I look at the two I think Gladney is just a far better coached wide receiver. Walker still looks a bit raw and apparently immature.

Kevin Gladney > Dominic Walker. GBR!