Danny Bateman

In conclusion, why do we have such a hard time turning the highest rated kids we get into dominant college players on the OL?

Look, Polar, we're not trashing the staff or the walk on program at all. Both Enhance and I recognize that Long is a damn good lineman and we're lucky to have him. He's an AA and the walk on program deserves some recognition for that. On the other hand, it says something about the ability of the staff to develop talent if too much of the depth chart is filled with walk ons. The offensive line has traditionally been a very walk-on rich area of the team, as it is easier to find a cornfed Nebraska lineman who is willing to work his tail off, add the necessary size, and give everything he has to get playing time there than it is to find an elite athlete within Nebraska's borders who isn't highly recruited, walks on for us and ends up being a great success story. There just aren't the athletes in Nebraska to provide very many walk-on skill position starters. But let's not throw the recruiting services totally out the door. Players are ranked on a combination of size, athletic ability, projectability to the next level, and number of offers from big time schools. The reason the scholarship OL get more :star's than walk ons is because it is the consensus that they will be more successful at the college level than a small town Nebraska kid with only regional offers. If OSU, Florida, Bama, USC, and NU all offer a kid, it's a pretty good bet a lot of people think he will be a pretty good player at the college level. So lets not throw stars out the window. The reason kids get stars is because the recruiting experts believe they will have success at the college level. So what is wrong with questioning WHY a large number of those kids don't pan out when they come here, and WHY those "high potential" guys don't end up getting drafted higher when they're done at NU? And yes, it is a legitimate complaint about Moore and Klachko, because when they arrived here, they were the two most heralded OL recruits that year. Sterup and Reeves were both in state kids and thus more lightly recruited (I believe Iowa made a good push at Sterup but that's about it), and Mordi-Price was a late addition who was the lowest rated kid. I don't think either of us think Barney is a terrible OL coach. He's got the run game working damn good and their ability to grind defenses down throughout games is quite impressive. But we're questioning if he's the BEST we could be doing-- as having the BEST OL coach we can have will make it that much easier to get over the hump and finally win the big games-- as it appears Barney is not very skilled at developing lineman who pass protect well. Also, Barney's track record of improving and getting the most out of highly rated recruits (who SHOULD be easier to turn into dominant players) is suspect.

Buster, don't cherry pick points to support your argument. I think you're missing the point. Long is an anomaly for the walk ons and we're lucky to have him. But look at Choi and Jackson. Neither garnered national pub. They weren't world beaters, but they WERE the best we had. That is telling. I think the running game stats are a by product of the offense we run and having a fantastic running QB and one of the best stable of RBs NU has had in years. When evaluating something, look at the strengths AND weaknesses. Totally agree with Enhance. We're questioning Barney's proficiency in perfecting pass pro and developing and improving kids with good potential. To a lot of us, it seems they show up in the program with that potential, and it goes largely untapped while here. They don't tend to get noticeably better, and thus aren't highly valued in the eyes of NFL scouts.

Nice info man. That's actually really funny to hear about one of the guys I had almost forgotten about...

Well, this whole conversation piqued my interest, so I looked up all of our scholly OL since BO has gotten here. They are as follows: 2008: Baker, David Grant, Ricky Henry, Brandon Thompson 2009: Nick Ash, Jesse Coffey, Qvale, Sirles 2010: Yoshi, Mike Moudy, ARod, Jake Cotton 2011: Klachko, Tyler Moore, Sterup, Mordi-Price, Reeves 2012: Corey Whittaker, Paul Thurston 2013: Zach Hannon, David Knevel, Matt Finnin, Chongo Kondolo, Dwayne Johnson Now, it's a bit too early to judge the kids from the last two classes, so I'll omit them. But I would lump them as follows: Hits: Yoshi, Cotton, Qvale, Sirles, Henry Misses: Baker, Grant, Thompson, Ash, Coffey, Moudy, ARod, Klachko, Moore Unproven but hopeful: Mordi-Price, Reeves, Sterup, and everyone from the last two classes. I suppose if you were to make it into a contributor/non-contributor list, you could definitely include ARod and Baker on the hit list, but Baker never contributed a thing to the OL (which is what this thread is about), so for our intents and purposes he's a miss. ARod is just straight up a bust at this point in my mind. I'm least hopefuly that Mordi-Price will make a contribution of the hopeful list at this point, based on those rumors of him transferring a while back. Where there's smoke, there's usually fire, and if he hasn't cracked the two deep at this point I doubt he ever will. The point is, we've had a larger number of recruiting misses than we have hits at this point in Bo's OL recruits. Some of that is likely out of coach's control-- like with Klachko and Moore and their respective situations-- but you have to question how much of it lies on Barney's shoulders, development wise. Even with Moore going out like he did, throwing a temper-tantrum and storming off because he wasn't handed a position, I still wonder if there is any creedence to the thought that any of his frustration was precipitated by Barney playing favorites and getting a little goofy with his OL rotation. That would lead me to believe he's just not a very solid OL coach. Also, with a player like ARod, or even Sterup or Klach for that matter, they were given four stars basically based on their projectability to continue to grow and develop into good college o-linemen. I think lineman to a greater degree than skill positions players, probably earn stars based less on what they SHOW on film in high school vs. their frame and how their athleticism projects them going forward. ARod was given 4 stars, even though he was an extremely raw football player in HS, because he had the body to develop into a solid offensive tackle at the college level. As you can see, he now looks overweight and too slow to play T in our scheme, and most of you would agree he would appear to be be better suited as a G at this point. But who knows how much of his mismanagement falls on Barney, the strength or nutrition staffs, or Andrew himself not doing what he needs to do (I get the sense the last is to blame). The point of my rant is that with the high number of highly rated guys not excelling and mid-tiered guys not contributing at all, it is only natural for us to question how much Barney is at fault. It IS his unit, after all. There will always be busts at every position, but at Nebraska where we're at a huge recruiting disadvantage anyway, we will always have to overacheive and squeeze 110% of the recruits we do get anyway. And consistently failing to do so on the OL is seriously hindering our leap to the next level. If Barney cannot get the most out of the guys we give him (and though we're NU we HAVE given him his fair share of very talented prospects), it is about #$*@ time we had him take on other duties and find someone who can.

Pretty cool the kid has the balls to call out programs like that. Reminds me a lot of the Adam Taylor situation. Will be interesting to see where he winds up.

Love that! That comment moves him to the top of this class as far as I'm concerned. Just fantastic! I was never really enamored with this guy throughout the process. He committed early on and seemed solid the whole way through, so there really wasn't much to get worked up over. But now that he's signed, everything I hear about the kid, I like. He seems like a guy who is 1000% tailor-made for NU and exactly the type of guy this team needs more of. One of those lunch pail guys like Rex. Sorry for taking your for granted A.J.! Tear some heads off in the future kid!

In other news... Who GAF?

What if some random internet stranger tweets you? Would that have any effect on you? Idk, what's you twitter handle? @LongRod_VonHugenDong19 +1'd for Family Guy reference.

Yes, but take quotes that were gathered while they had a big red c$%k gun to his head with a grain of salt. Edit: What? Huskerboard has a FILTER? I was unawared.

I'm not sure there wasn't more to the Hunt situation than just us voluntarily stopping recruiting him. Almost seems like there has to be more there.

Agreed man. I like him better at CB too. Our WR corps is pretty stocked right now. The last two guys we took that could've been on either side of the ball are both gonna be there anyway (Moore and Dixon)... CB is one position where if you're physical and smart you can make up for a lot of deficiencies in speed IF you have a good safety behind you. I wouldn't mind bringing this kid into the fold to further restock the D backfield along with Martinez. I guess I agree with you though. Could we do better next year? Yeah, probably. I guess for me a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Especially since you never know what's going to happen or who will bust. Look at Aaron Green, Klach, TyMoore...

What don't you like about the guy RR? Admittedly, his offer list is underwhelming. But I watched his film. Offensively, he doesn't have burner speed, but his greatest asset appears to be his shiftyness and ability to make people miss in the open field. Good agility and change of direction. Reminds me a lot of Burkhead in that sense. Defensively, pretty strong in run/swing pass support from what I saw. Not blocked easily for a smaller guy. Again, doesn't have burner speed, but our stud NFL CB tandem from a few years ago didn't earn rave reviews about that aspect for their game either. Plays the ball in the air well-- seemed to intercept well and usually at least got a hand on the ball. I'd take him and put him somewhere. RB, WR, CB... We're recruiting him as a WR/CB right? Where do you like him EZ-E?

Aaron Green was a 5* to some sources. HA! That worked out. I almost prefer that Taylor and Newby weren't 5 star guys, looking at how the last couple 5 star RB's have worked out.

As long as we have California/Florida weather and $EC money to compete against, we're more than likely not going to get next year's Priest Willis... or any year's Priest Willis for that matter. Not saying we should focus on recruiting the 1/2 star guys just to fill the classes, but if the staff likes what they see and thinks they can find room for the lower-tier recruits, I don't see the harm in making an offer. If we win championships, as in National championships; we will get our fair amount of top talent, including some 5* sprinkled in.... How do we do that without taking the best available talent we can get NOW? I'd love to wake up tomorrow and have the fumbling and sub par defense be magically gone, but I don't think it's gonna happen. Gotta get more talented bodies...

Oh for f*cks sake, someone send in the picture the kid tweeted of him flashing a wad of cash. How much more obvious could it get? The idiots in the SEC and their idea of how things work just make me

This is TOO rich now. We HAVE to lay the beatdown on Kentucky sometime soon. Please, football god of karma, make it happen!

I wish all the young men we recruited here had this kind of character. Regardless of what is the norm now, in my world the word commitment still means something. I agree but if that was the case we wouldn't have a few of the top recruits that we have in this class! It goes both ways Yeah. It seems like the only time this whole "commitment is your word, and that USED to mean something" conversation comes up is when we're LOSING a guy. But to me there's a difference. With McWilson, I understand since Vince was the one recruiting him and was the best Ohio connection we had. The kid just grew comfortable with him and committed to the coach. I don't see anything wrong with going to Kentucky to follow Vince. Now, it's a little goofy since Vince won't even be his position coach, Kentucky is a GARBAGE football program... etc. But I can still understand. Now, wafflers like DanSam and LaCouture I have NO respect for. Especially LaCouture. Best of luck flaming out at LSU.

This whole things has to be SOOOOO AWKWARD for MM. Man. If he thought Jano was getting most of the reps LAST year.... if he wants to touch the ball AT ALL this year he's gonna have to

Why the f#$@ is this thread back from the dead?