blarson3

Still no news here?

SJB is a projected 2nd-3rd rounder. Protoypical NFL corner with great ball hawking skills. Love our staff's ability to evaluate JUCO talent.

Completely agree. We already had a very promising line and this class is adding to it. Nothing against Thad Randle, but having Clink (another Valentine sized monster) up front is going to improve our run defense almost immediately as those two almost demand a double team due to their size, freeing up our line backers to make plays (assuming Clink contributes as expected). The biggest issue last year was that offenses were able to get blockers out on our linebackers as their linemen could handle Randle up front one on one.

Like him at DT a lot. Looks ridiculous at TE haha

By this do you mean a "hard" commit? He has been a "soft" commit there for a bit.

So he may have been the best pure runner but really struggled in other areas. Perhaps he wasn't getting shafted as much as he just wasn't the best all-around back? He got shafted. I didn't say he deserved Ameer's carries or even should've taken any from Ameer (although I think the staff has been more than lenient with players and their fumbles). I'm just saying he got shafted because the coaches lied to his face then Marrow sold him on a fresh, new start. You shouldn't promise a player playing time if they move back to the spot you moved them from to begin with and then tell them "Oh, too bad." Especially when said player was hesitant to move back to RB to begin with. He did what was best for the team, was sold lies, and then got mad because promises were broken. He didn't leave because he was beat out, he left because he didn't (couldn't?) trust this staff anymore and was unhappy with a staff that he didn't believe in. For those of you who think he was beat out and left - remember they were creating a new position for him, to keep him on the team. You don't do that for scrubs. I agree Heard was not a scrub. But he was beat out because they had to create a new position for him on the team. If he wasn't beat out he wouldn't have been moved and maybe Ameer would have been. But definitely no scrub I agree, and the situation was handled horribly by the coaches. Maybe they could have redshirted Cross if there weren't enough carries for everyone, especially since Rex (assumed healthy at the time) is a more than capable goal line back.

Rivals rates players from 4.9-6.1. Number of stars depends on that ranking. I have always been confused by that. Thanks man.

Rivals rankings.... Ameer - ATH 3* #17 (5.7) Rex - RB 4* #9 (5.8) David - LB 4* (5.9) Gregory - DE 4* (5.8) Martinez - ATH 3* #51 (5.7) Dennard - CB #25 3* (5.7) Long - NR 3 4* and 3 3*.. All 3* were 5.7, so high end 3* players. Not exactly finding "diamonds in the rough" per se. How does the "5.7" work?

No, I don't think his injuries were the reason he left. But even if he wasn't injured, he wasn't playing as much because Ameer is better according to the coaches. Tough sh#t. I think, like all things in life, it was a combination of several things and not just one entire thing. Was he injured a decent amount of 2012 which affected his number of carries? Yes. Should he have gotten more carries? Yes. Do 18-22 year old kids always make justified decisions? No. He left because he wasn't getting what he wanted. That's fine, go after it. But whether or not he was right in wanting whatever it was that he needed to leave for is not for any of us to decide. My apologies. I misinterpreted what you were saying. I thought you were saying he was injured and left because he was injured and not playing due to that injury - which would make no sense. He clearly got jerked around... and CJax is getting jerked around as well... CJax's jerking around is at least on the same side of the ball and not as enormous of a shift. But hopefully his move to CB is his last move.

Abdullah's class had two backs rated well above him (Green and Heard) and he chased them off the team. Makes you wonder about scout ratings in general sometimes. Also, I doubt they factor work ethic into the ratings and that is something we seem to be good at recruiting. id also like to know how much consideration a players upside is taken into the ranking equation. a lot of times 5 star players are finished products ready to step in freshman year and contribute. and that's fine, I get why such a player would deserve that ranking. also how often is a 3 star LB a 3 star cause hes 5'11 and not 6'2? or an OT a 3 star cause hes6'4 and not 6'6 and maybe his arms are 2 inches too short? I would love to see the criteria that the scouts for a particular site grade against. I am sure they have a form that is universal to that position for that scouting site and first grade against that and then add any additional thoughts on the player as well. But the universal criteria I would love to see.

He was injured a good amount of that time. Lets be reasonable here.... Do you think he would've left if his *injuries* were really the reason he wasn't playing? What player goes "Gee, I have a serious hamstring issue. I should really be playing more though. HMM. I'm transferring." No one. Not a single player. He got shafted from fall practice on. Still think he was probably the best pure runner of the 3, but he really struggled with pass pro as well as some other play calls. lets be reasonable here, you have the best profile picture of all

point made. I agree with you. I think he had the best pure talent on the team and definitely deserved the ball more, especially when Rex was so banged up. I kind of stand by the "chased off the team" statement though because Abdullah playing the way he was was the reason Heard got pushed to CB originally, because they wanted to find another way to get him on the field. I agree that they should not have done that to the kid however. In hind site I guarantee the staff would handle the situation much differently.

Abdullah's class had two backs rated well above him (Green and Heard) and he chased them off the team. Makes you wonder about scout ratings in general sometimes. Also, I doubt they factor work ethic into the ratings and that is something we seem to be good at recruiting.

I would have probably left Gregory off and put Spencer Long on the list. I just believe that Gregory is going to be beyond great Forgot about Spencer. I was hoping my boy Alex Henery was 2008 but he was 2007.

Looking through his twitter photos --- I know Willis is a LB but damn he makes him look like a high schooler. No joke he does dwarf him. And same with Kaep.

Hopefully ASU becomes an Amish school before then to downgrade the main attraction...

Kid is enormous.

No doubt about that. Just happy to hear he can take contact again. If that is what he means by playing in January that is. I admittedly read that pretty fast but I didn't see anything saying he would actually be practicing. Did I miss it? I would guess he will be in drills but will be no contact through spring ball. But that's totally a guess on my part. I assumed when he said he would be playing in January that he meant he would be cleared for normal work in practice again. If not I would have thought he'd say something along the lines of" I will be continuing my progress back to the field once I enroll in January." But clearly this is way open to interpretation. He'll practice without contact. Makes sense. Why risk anything when he is redshirting.

So as I have finals all week, I thought that I should rank the top 5 recruits that Bo Pelini has signed in his years at Nebraska. I based mine solely off of what they did in their years at Nebraska and not on the NFL. But hell, do whatever. I mean David could win DPOTY in the NFL this year! My top 5 are: 1) Lavonte David 2) Taylor Martinez 3) Alfonzo Dennard 4) Ameer Abdullah 5) Randy Gregory

Yeah I agree with this post. I was mostly trying to say that Nebraska used to always have one of the best offensive lines in the country. You are right that they never landed the best classes (although there were some great signings under Osborne. Winning changes everything). But, again, even without Gates these last two offensive line classes have been very solid and last years o-line would have been pretty dang good had they stayed healthy.

No doubt about that. Just happy to hear he can take contact again. If that is what he means by playing in January that is. I admittedly read that pretty fast but I didn't see anything saying he would actually be practicing. Did I miss it? I would guess he will be in drills but will be no contact through spring ball. But that's totally a guess on my part. I assumed when he said he would be playing in January that he meant he would be cleared for normal work in practice again. If not I would have thought he'd say something along the lines of" I will be continuing my progress back to the field once I enroll in January." But clearly this is way open to interpretation.

Our OL recruiting is fine and I don't know how you can complain about the coaching when they put a pretty good line out there this year despite losing our best lineman and having a slew of injuries to so many others. I'm pretty impressed with where the line is overall. We do need to get another in this class, but I think we've recruited quite well there lately. Sucks to not get this kid, but it's not like he's from our back yard. I think HeyBakerMark's point was that traditionally Nebraska was one of the top school that offensive linemen thought about and we are no longer one of those schools. I personally think that although we should take another OT this year, Bo and company have done a good job finding talent at O-line. After last years O-line haul we can stand to have a lighter year in that area this year. Also DJ Foster and Tanner Farmer are pretty exciting prospects so it isn't like we are taking the scraps left over. But I would agree that we are no longer considered one of the top schools for O-linemen. That being said, had our line stayed healthy this year I think we would realize just how well our coaches have done teaching.

No doubt about that. Just happy to hear he can take contact again. If that is what he means by playing in January that is.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/blogs/recruiting/os-chris-hays-the-prospector-zack-darlington-looks-to-nebraska-20131216,0,7629095.column In this article Darlington states that he will play in January. Great article. We have ourselves another true leader at QB.

Did Stoltenberg play OT in high school at all?