AndyDufresne

No insider information, but from everything I've read and heard I think all signs point toward Mullen. Didn't like the idea at first, but it seems a lot more palatable after I threw up in my mouth from the Bielema scare.

Actually, walk-on attrition is much greater than that of scholarship players. Lots of them go to Nebraska for a couple of years and see how they compete, and if it is clear that they will never see the field they head to a lower division school to finish up their eligibility. There is nothing wrong with that and I believe the coaches even encourage it. There is a pride associated with earning that scholarship, and that dangling carrot is also an incentive for those that walk on to forego a South Dakota State or service academy in hopes that if they can compete at the highest level, they will be rewarded accordingly. A scholarship to a walk-on not only recognizes that particular player, but also shows appreciation to the entire walk-on program. Sure, we could not offer Spencer Long (2nd team All Big Ten) a scholarship and instead give it to a commit that only hopes to achieve his kind of success, or we can reward a player that has earned it and is a proven commodity; the publicity of which will only bolster other great athletes to walk-on at Nebraska in the future. There are certainly things that Pelini could do to infuse more talent into the program such as limit or eliminate walk-on scholarships and pull ships from recruits that have underperformed, but I for one am glad he does not.

Most other top 25 schools also sign way more kids from their home states than Nebraska does. A kid from Detroit doesn't need to fly to Ann Arbor. The remoteness disadvantage for Nebraska is compounded by the fact that there just isn't a sizable instate pool of talent to tap into.

I agree with Zoogies that we should have used every available ship. There will likely be attrition in the Spring that will free up a few scholarships for walk-ons. I see The Dude's point, but the walk-on program is something that should help offset our inherent recruiting disadvantages instead of cover up for not using each available scholarship. Speaking of walk-ons, reading through this entire thread I noticed at least one poster seemed to have some disdain for the walk-on program. This makes no sense at all. The walk-on program is a distinct advantage and even though walk-on players do take ships that might go else where, 100% of those that do are starters or significant contributors. This is a much higher ratio than commits on scholarship. Since 2008, 6 out of our 36 different all-conference players have been walk-ons. That is a nice luxury to have, and one that I know Wisconsin has also used effectively to supplement their recruiting classes in order to compete with the likes of Ohio State and Michigan. As to the quality of this class, I will reserve judgement. The last time I professed my love for a recruiting class was in 2006, and that class ended up having two thirds of it's members either totally bust or significantly underachieve (and that is putting it nicely in several cases).

I agree with your major contributors. For my analysis, I require that a player have 6 career starts (half of a regular season) to be considered a starter. With the guys that you mentioned, it is most likely just a matter of time.

I feel better about the team after this week than last. We had so many opportunities to score but just shot ourselves in the foot time and again. It's not like Idaho was stopping us. I would be a lot more concerned if that were the case. Penalties and fumbles are correctable. Time for Bo to focus more on the offense in this week's practices.

As of now, the only changes would be Whaley and Williams moving up to major contributors. Once we get 6 games into the season when some of these guys will be racking up a half season of starts, we'll see guys move up to starters and possibly start to separate themselves as stars.

After seeing them vs K-ST, I think he probably CAN start right away! Very doubtful. Prince missed fall camp due to injury, which explains a lot of the rust and inconsistency you saw vs K-St. But the WRs didn't do Prince any favors with all of their drops and it certainly didn't help that the O-line was decimated with injuries during camp. The main problem, however, was the run D. Hundley reminds me a lot of Josh Freeman. This is a big get for the Bruins. There is no way UCLA should have lost to KSU if you go by the recruiting rankings. 4 out of the last 5 recruiting classes for UCLA have been ranked in the top 20. KSU hasn't had a top 25 class in their last 5 and 3 out of these have been outside of the top 40. I'm not sure that there is such a thing as a huge get for UCLA as long as Neuheisel is coach, as I just don't see him doing much with whatever talent they bring on board.

Ricky is from omaha not colorado and went JUCO in one of the Dakotas i think south That means that Colorado was his only other scholarship offer. That is correct. After the rating are quality BCS offers. Ricky also had a listed offer from Wyoming, but I didn't list it.

Thanks for the link. Not a bad game for Jamal. His team doesn't appear to have any other weapons (or any defense).

Wasn't LaTravis at LB in 2008 when we were playing guys like Tyler Wortman, Matt Holt, and Blake Lawrence? If he wasn't injured and he couldn't crack the starting rotation then, why would he be able to add anything to the position now when depth is even better despite losing Fisher and Compton?

That was my guess as well at first Andy. But we did accept Admire's committment for awhile; granted it was under a few conditions, but the fact was that we accepted his committment, and continued to recruit both him and Hobbi. That tells me that the plan may have been to take 6 OL the whole time if that makes sense. I hate forced attrition, but understand it's a necessary evil. If we are going to take 6 OL, I hope that the coaches "make room" for more than the 6 or 7 scholarships that we currently have open for the 2011 class.

I'll just go to a bar and watch. As long as it's not a nail biter, I shouldn't spend $35-$40 on beer.

My guess is we are interested in Mordi-Price, but won't take both him and Hobbi. I think we'll slow play him until we know where we stand with Hobbi.

I usually have a systemic approach when placing players into categories. Starting punters, kickers, punt returners, and kick returners go into major contributors. For starters, my cutoff is that they have to have started at least a half a season. Perhaps I should increase this number to a full season, but for now I think it suffices.

I thought it would be interesting to take a look at Bo's first recruiting class, not only as an indication of our staff's ability to evaluate talent but also as a way to evaluate and predict several key contributors to our 2010-2012 teams. 2008 Class Overview 28 total members = 2 from the junior college ranks (7%) and 26 from high school (93%) Rivals team ranking = 30th Scout team ranking = 21st ESPN team ranking = 22nd Rivals average stars = 2.96 Scout average stars = 2.86 The following is a breakdown of class members by category. I will include Rivals ratings and quality BCS school offers (i.e. no Indiana or Iowa State): Stars: 2 (7%) Alfonzo Dennard - 3* (5.7) - Clemson, North Carolina - 9 career starts Notes: While Prince received all of the accolades and media attention, Dennard was nearly as good in 2009. Despite playing most of the year with a shoulder injury, he still managed 8 pass break ups and 31 tackles. Stats don't tell the whole story though, as there were games where his blanket coverage relegated Dennard to ghost status - he simply wasn't seen or talked about because the opposing QB rarely tried to throw to Alfonzo's guy. Future prospects: Dennard is a 1st team all-conference caliber corner. He will have NFL opportunities after this season, I just hope that he opts to stay one more year. He and Prince have a chance to be the best cornerback tandem to ever play at Nebraska. Ricky Henry - 3* (5.5) - Colorado - 14 career starts, 2009 AP all-Big XII honorable mention Notes: There weren't too many bright spots on our injury-plagued 2009 o-line, but Henry shined. Despite being bothered by nagging injuries himself, Henry's play just got better and better as the season progressed. No other offensive lineman put opposing defensive linemen on the turf more often than Henry last year. Future prospects: Henry is the primary reason why I think that we will run to the right quite a bit this year. If he can stay healthy, I think he will emerge as one of the premier guards in the conference and will be NFL bound after he graduates. Starters: 2 (7%) Will Compton - 4* (5.8 ) - Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Missouri, Notre Dame - 8 career starts Notes: Will looked a little lost and was slow to react in many instances early last season. By the end, he was a more competent linebacker despite seeing limited playing time due to the emergence of Dillard and the dime package. Future prospects: While he won't ever have the physical tools of a guy like Eric Martin, Will's intelligence and knowledge of the system will serve him well. I think he has a chance of moving up to "Star" status by the time his career is done, and he will be sorely missed while he nurses a foot injury during the early part of the 2010 season. Sean Fisher - 3* (5.7) - Arizona State, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Oklahoma, Wisconsin - 6 career starts Notes: I could probably copy Compton's notes, paste them here and be mostly accurate. Sean had a good game against Virginia Tech last year, showing flashes of why the coaches have raved about him for two offseasons in a row. His broken leg is the most devastating injury of fall camp. Future prospects: Perhaps I've been buying what the coaches have been selling or perhaps it is because I always root for native sons, but I think Fisher has an incredible amount of potential. He needs to improve his tackling ability, and his issues with maintaining weight combined with his unnatural height for the position almost insure that he will never be the same kind of 'backer as Dillard or Stew Bradley. Still, I think he has a better chance of being a star than Compton. Major Contributors: 7 (25%) Khiry Cooper - 3* (5.5) - Arkansas, Michigan - 4 career starts Notes: Despite missing all of spring ball, Cooper still established himself as the #4 receiver with 13 catches last year. While it doesn't appear he will crack the starting lineup in 2010, I think he will contiue to be the first guy off the bench. Future prospects: We would all love for Khiry to quit baseball and concentrate on football, but I think he can still establish himself as a starter even if he doesn't. He has shown that he has good hands and can run precise routes, he just needs to be more consistent. Ben Cotton - 3* (5.7) - Iowa, Kansas, Wisconsin - 1 career start Notes: Cotton appeared in all 14 games last year. He came on strong late last year, hauling in 3 of his 5 catches and his only TD reception against Colorado. Ben is the most complete tight-end on the roster. Future prospects: For the coaches to move McNeill to the adjuster position, they must really like what they see in Ben and Kyler. While he doesn't have the big play ability of Herian or the amazing hands of McNeill, I think Ben has the chance to be a star. Tim Marlowe - 2* (5.1) - No other offers - 14 appearances Notes: Tim averaged 23.7 yards per kick return last year. I don't know what the minimum number of returns is to be listed among the conference leaders (Tim's 12 does not meet the minimum), but that average was good enough for 5th in the Big XII in 2009. Future prospects: Tim is the lowest rated recruit that Nebraska has signed in recent memory. The fact that he saw the field at all last year probably comes as a miracle to some. I'm not sure that Tim will ever crack the two deep at wide receiver; but his speed, ball handling ability, and vision demonstrated in 2009 make me think that he will be a fixture on the kick return unit for the next several years. Cameron Meredith - 3* (5.7) - Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Oklahoma, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington - 14 appearances Notes: Cam had 21 tackles, 5 TFL, and 1.5 sacks last year. Pretty impressive numbers for his limited backup time. He has cemented himself as the bookend opposite Pierre Allen in 2010. Oh, and his mom is kind of hot. Future prospects: My only question is - Who will have more sacks, Cam or the Camstache? I am as high on Meredith as any other prospect from 2008. Jason Peter has stated that Meredith reminds him of Wistrom. Now I'm not under the impression that Peter thinks Cam is Grant reincarnated, but they both have similar traits (like a non-stop motor). Along with Dennard, I think Meredith is the most likely to earn 1st team all-conference and possibly all-American honors. Kyler Reed - 3* (5.6) - Colorado, Kansas, Missouri - 1 career start Notes: Kyler appeared in 11 games last year, He had a reception in 6 of them. He has big play ability with uncanny speed for his size, he just needs to establish a more physical presence on the field. Looked good in the spring game. Future prospects: Kyler has the chance to be a special athlete, but it doesn't seem like he's found his niche. He would be underutilized as an h-back, but doesn't fit the do-it-all mold of a tight-end like Ben Cotton does. I'm also not sure if he has the pass-catching ability to fill the adjuster role after McNeill leaves. I hope the coaches find a role to fit his unique skillset, as it would be a shame to waste his talent. P.J. Smith - 3* (5.7) - Arkansas - 14 appearances Notes: P.J. was a special teams demon last year, racking up 10 tackles on coverage. He also saw some time at safety, breaking up a pass against Arizona to help preserve the shutout. Future prospects: I've heard conflicting reports on whether Smith or West will be the starting safety in the peso. Regardless of who starts, the other will come in as a safety in the dime and P.J. will see plenty of playing time. I know he didn't spend a lot of time at safety last year, but there didn't seem to be much of a drop off when he did come in. Considering that both of our safeties last year were all-conference, I think P.J. is a star in the making. Baker Steinkuhler - 5* (6.1) - No offers - 13 appearances Notes: The only 5 star Nebraska native in Rivals database, the expecations for Baker are high. Not only does Baker have to deal with that, but he also has to battle an auto-immune disease that attacks his joints. So, far, he's responded by racking up 17 tackles and 2 pass breakups in backup duty last year. Future prospects: I'm not confident that Baker is going to be an impact player on the defensive side of the ball, but I'm not confident that he won't either. It will be hard to hold off Randle and Rome. Regardless, I think he will at least be a solid contributor throughout his career. Minor Contributors: 8 (29%) Antonio Bell - 2* (5.4) - West Virginia - appeared in 6 games Notes: Bell had one catch last year for 3 yards, despite appearing in 6 games. He has moved over to DB and early reports are that he has performed well. Future prospects: We haven't had a lot of luck with position changes in recent memory. Hopefully Antonio can establish himself as a starter or major contributor before his career is over. By all accounts, he didn't make the two deep coming out of fall camp, but he does have a redshirt available to get him more acclimated with his new position. Collins Okafor - 3* (5.7) - Iowa, Kansas, Stanford - appeared in 1 game Notes: Collins has a career 9 yard per carry average. Of course, he only has one career carry in mop-up duty. I'm actually surprised that he is still on the team after quitting for a day last year. Future prospects: I will be surprised if Collins ever sees time on the field in a meaningful game situation. Courtney Osborne - 3* (5.5) - Kansas - 6 appearances Notes: Courtney's appearances have mainly been on special teams. He has one career tackle (against Texas). Future prospects: While there is a lot of inexperience at safety, we are loaded at the position talent-wise. Osborne certainly has time to establish himself as a challenger for a starting spot, but I would guess that by the time his career is over he will only move up to "Major Contributor". Steven Osborne - 3* (5.5) - Kansas - 2 appearances Notes: Steven appeared in the Louisiana-Lafayette and Colorado games last year, but did not record a reception. Future prospects: I haven't heard a thing about Steven from any of the practice notes that I have read or from anyone that I have spoken with that has attended practice. That usually isn't a good sign that he's going to be contributing any time soon. Brandon Thompson - 3* (5.5) - Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Virginia - 3 appearances Notes: Brandon saw limited time in mop up duty last year. After Barney gushed about how well he was doing in 2008, I think many Husker fans have been waiting for Brandon to emerge. Future prospects: The light can come on at anytime, but Brandon's prospects for breaking into the starting lineup are really starting to dim. Not only is he being passed up by younger players, but one of the best offensive line recruiting classes in the nation will be arriving next year. Mason Wald - 2* (5.1) - No quality offers - 13 appearances Notes: I know many who absolutely loved Mason's high school film, but I was never enamored with him as a prospect. He did fill a vital special teams role in 2008 before he left the team (some say he was homesick, but I believe that he got in trouble in Lincoln). Lester Ward - 2* (5.4) - Missouri, UCLA - 5 appearances Notes: Lester was injured his senior year in high school, and it was thought that he was a real steal on the recruiting trail. Lester mostly appeared in mop up duty last year, but provided some needed depth when he had 7 of his 10 total carries in the Baylor game. Future prospects: Lester is quickly becoming buried on the depth chart. Anything can happen, but I don't think he will ever compete for significant carries. Josh Williams - 3* (5.7) - Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech - 3 appearances Notes: Josh looked good last year, making 3 tackles in very limited playing time. Future prospects: Josh came to Nebraska way underweight. Now that Dobson has him actually looking like a Nebraska defensive end, I expect Josh will see the field this year as the top backup for both starting ends. I also believe that he will be the favorite to replace Pierre Allen next year. Non-Contributors: 9 (32%) David Grant - 3* (5.6) - Texas Tech Notes: While it isn't listed on Rivals, I remember thinking it was a foregone conclusion that Grant would bolt when A&M offered. I will remember Grant for sticking with his commitment to us, even though it didn't matter in the end when he became another academic casualty. Tyson Hetzer - 3* (5.6) - Arizona State Notes: Hetzer was overrated by Rivals. I am not an expert talent evaluator, but even I could tell that this offer was a major reach. Unfortunately I was right, and Tyson left the program after a year. Micah Kreikemeier - 2* (5.2) - No other offers Notes: Micah has had two surgeries in two years and hasn't seen the field. Future prospects: Coming back from one knee surgery can be difficult, so I can't imagine how hard it would be to come back from two. I think Micah has the will and desire to overcome his setbacks, but I'm not sure that will be enough. I hope I'm wrong, but my best guess is that if he sees the field at all, it will be on special teams. John Levorson - 3* (5.5) - No other BCS offers Notes: John was an incredible athlete and had shown promise in his brief time with Nebraska. He decided that certain "recreational" activities were more important than football and left the team. Justin Rogers - 3* (5.6) - Auburn, Clemson, UCLA Notes: For some reason, I thought Rogers left because he was homesick. I haven't confirmed it is the same person, but it appears that Justin is now a cornerback commit for Texas Tech after spending a season at Arizona Western Community College. Kody Spano - 3* (5.7) - Oklahoma State Notes: By now, this kids knees must be held together by chewing gum and bailing wire. Future prospects: I will be shocked if Kody ever contends for the starting QB position. It would be an awesome "feel good" story though. Quentin Toailoa - 3* (5.5) - Arizona, Oregon State Notes: Named to the all 3 star team by one Rivals writer as an underrated prospect, I think fans expected Quentin to challenge for a starting position on the d-line. Instead, the coaches moved him to the offensive line and Quentin dropped into obscurity before he left the team. Alonzo Whaley - 3* (5.6) - Arizona State, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M Notes: Alonzo has not seen any game action to date, although he was the leading tackler at the 2010 spring game. Future prospects: Alonzo's status is one day away from vaulting up to major contributor. This is his chance to prove himself, and by all accounts he has a good chance to do just that. From everything I've heard, Whaley performs very well in scrimmages even if he isn't exactly a regular practice warrior. David Whitmore - 4* (5.8 ) - Missouri, Oklahoma State Notes: Many were surprised that David stuck by his commitment throughout the coaching change, and it is too bad that such a loyal commit didn't qualify. I believe he is playing for Iowa Western this year.

Am I the only one that thought Whaley looked like the best LB on the field in the spring game?

I'm not going to mess with best case or worst case. For most likely, I keep vacillating between 10-4 and 11-3. I think our defense will be good, but not on the same level as last year. I think we'll put more points on the board, but our turnover ratio will be worse.

Should the criterion be add up all the values and let the lowest value decide who starts. You're using an ordinal scale (ranked, but the difference between 1 and 2 isn't twice as much) so it would be silly to say the person who has no last place finishes should clearly be started. That being said the scores were Lee-11 Green-9 Tmart-9 So by your system, either Tmart or Green should start. Sorry for being a smart(synonym for a donkey here) but seems kinda arbitrary in a lot ways, but good start to a discussion. You forgot to add in the most important category (according to a couple of "insiders"): In the coaches doghouse: Tmart - 0 Green - 0 Lee - minus 10 So the new totals would be: Tmart - 9 Green - 9 Lee - 1 Which is why Tmart and Green are co-starters and Lee is 3rd string.

Sounds fair. But you are right he needs to win. If we lose 4 games this year he will be on the hot seat. no way. he'd have to do worse than that to be on the hot seat Say he costs us the Texas game by being nasty to a ref.. you will all bump this back up and agree with my comments. Everyone that turns out to be right is thought to be crazy or just plain wrong at first. Nice way to acclimate yourself to Huskerboard. Our coach is a mean loser who needs to be fired so we can hire Turner Gill - is that about right so far?

I'm actually pretty sad to hear all of this. Let your offensive coaches do their job. I love Bo's defensive acumen, but this sort of thing is really hard to get on board with. Why? Did you not follow Nebraska at any time prior to 2004? There are very few head coaches that don't dictate the general direction of both the offense and the defense. The coordinators are there to do what the head coach wants.

Lee has been getting plenty of praise. Here's just one, the first one that popped into my head: I stand corrected.

You're probably right, but there shouldn't be any upset people here. The guy who starts is going to be the guy who impressed the coaches the most in practice. If that's Lee or Green or Martinez or Kellogg or Washington or Carnes, what's the difference? The people who are going to be upset about whichever quarterback starts are the people whose posts I'm most likely to ignore while reading threads. Just because you put a Husker t-shirt on your back doesn't mean you know what you're talking about. I don't know Knapp. Coaches can make wrong decisions, too. It could be the QB that most impresses the coaches, but it could also be a bad decision that the coach will have to answer for. You can go back to Bill Callahan choosing Sam Keller - who won the job, but didn't have the team. That was a part of his downfall. Back then, if someone wasn't happy with the decision, would they have been ignored? Probably, and so were people not happy with Bill Callahan (at least until the USC game and afterwards)... I love Bo, but he's not faultless or anything. There's room for criticism of his decisions. Message boards tend to have a "if you're a fan, you must agree with the HC always" mentality. For me, I think I'll be pretty skeptical of Bo's decision if he really goes with Martinez...and I'll have to wait for Martinez to prove me wrong. I could well be wrong, but I tend to stick by players I root for and I'm very much in Zac's corner. There are several players who have said that Ganz was the better QB during fall camp of 2007. If you listen to the buzz in this fall camp, there aren't any players talking about Zac Lee. There are several that are talking about T-Magic though. My guess is that you haven't seen practice. My guess is that you don't have the expertise of our coaches. Why be critical of our coaches if they make the decision that they think is best for the team based on all that they have seen? All that we have seen is a QB that looked good in 3 games last year and pretty crappy in the rest. That same QB threw for 14 TD's and 10 int's, which isn't a very good ratio at all. If Lee is the starter, I will hope for improvement and support him. If it's Green or Martinez, I will support them as well. I've never rooted for individual players. I want the whichever players that give us the best chance to win to play.

On another board, a poster with a source that has proven reliable in the past is stating that T-Magic has practiced exlusively with the 1's so far this week, while Lee has practiced with the 1's and 2's. Take it FWIW.

On one hand, it is well deserved. On the other, I kind of liked the idea of his dad having to give some of his A&M paycheck to NU.