AndyDufresne

How many exceptions can you have before it is a trend? 2009 3. TCU 4. Cincinnati 6. Boise State 7. Oregon 9. Georgia Tech 10. Iowa 2008 2. Utah 7. TCU 10. Oregon 2007 4. Missouri 6. West Virginia 7. Kansas 9. Virginia Tech 10. Boston College 2006 5. Boise State 6. Louisville 7. Wisconsin 10. West Virginia So are 45% of the top 10 for the last four years not being among the recruiting elite an exception? Is a 55% success rate for the recruiting services' team rankings "the rule"?

You are misrepresenting the facts to fit within your star-centric view. You mention that Iowa should have had 3 more losses, but don't mention that (based on the assumption that your only basis for this is a close game), Ohio State should have had 2 more (Navy and Iowa), Alabama should have had 2 (Tennessee and Auburn), Texas should have had 2 (Oklahoma and Nebraska), and Florida should have had 1 more (Arkansas). You state that Bama is consistently in the top 10. They have been top 10 two of the last four years (including this year). So have TCU and Boise State. With stars, people see what they want to see. There is plenty of evidence for both sides to point to in order to prove their point.

I remember when we were incredibly excited about our #5 recruiting class in 2005. I remember when Colorado was excited about their #15 recruiting class in 2008 and Darrell Scott. I remember when KSU was excited about their #18 class in 2004. I could go on. I am surprised that so many are this interested in (or concerned about) Missouri's recruiting. We'll see what happens when some of these players actually take the field.

I think Jackson was a 9/1/08 offer. The coaches must have really been high on him to offer him the first day possible.

Chill man. Every team has attrition. Every team has players that don't live up to the hype, and every program has players that step up and perform beyond expectations. Nebraska isn't any different. We lost a player with potential, but that is all he was. Were you expecting Dejon Gomes to be performing at an all-conference level when we signed him? Most people thought he was a "nice" player, but were probably much more excited about Dijon Washington. We can only have 22 positional starters. There will be lots of players that don't make it, and some of them will choose to go elsewhere. The coaches cannot put anyone ahead of the team. If you are a walk-on or a 5 star, you have to have the desire and attitude to succeed. And looking at the depth chart, we are fine at linebacker.

That's the thing.....we needed defense in this class which no one seems to realize. It's very hard to compare MUs and NUs classes because we are staked full of defense and they are stacked full of offense. I really think both classes are full of quality gets and both should be rated between 25-30 on rivals as classes. I have a hard time thinking MUs class is the 17th best class in the country. If Lucas commits, I'll be eating my words. Mizzou's class is looking pretty good. I could buy it. I think our class is very good on the defensive side of the ball. Offensively we're currently light on WRs as well as RB and QB is a glaring hole. Not number-wise. With only one RB and one QB on the field at a time, we have 3 scholarship QB's that are sophomores or younger and 5 RB's. If you are talking talent-wise, I think that it is a bit early to tell. Looking at only sophomores and younger on the depth chart, we have good scholarship numbers at most positions. We could use another defensive back or two though (preferably safeties or players that could project as either a safety or cornerback).

I didn't want him here, but I'm also very glad that K-State seems to be out of the running.

Yeah, but I'm not too worried about it either. I think we should focus on Cooper, Hill, Heard, and Lamb and call it good this year. Then go after 2 QB's next year. With the recent events at S. Florida and Levitt if an athlete like Carnes wants N I THINK we will make room for him. I know one way that would get Carnes N. Hire his cousin Tommie Frazier as a Recruiter/QB coach. Frazier could help us snag Florida recruits. Hiring a coach to get a recruit is rarely a good idea. Just ask Houston Nutt.

I should have followed up my with a . I find it funny how some Mizzou fans are totally pumped about Rivals #17 ranking, but totally waived off their Richardson-less #51 ranking last year (see Rivals 2009 enrolled team rankings - Nebraska was #24 BTW). Not to say that we don't have our own fans that aren't the same way, but this topic isn't about them.

Missouri has vaulted up to #17 in Rival's team rankings while Nebraska is currently sitting at #33. Let the meltdown commence

Don't forget Dejon Gomes. He was all-conference HM and a finalist for defensive newcomer of the year. He was a 3-star last year with his only other BCS offer coming from K-State.

I will take it if you give me 3 star guys, which I think is fair. Oh, you are on. In fact since you thought last years NFL draft sums it up so well, let's figure out a way to do random picks of the recruiting class from 4 years before and see how it turns out, so we don't have to wait for 4 years. Or take the year of your choice. All we need is a list of all of the 3 and 5 star recruits from then and some fair way of randomly picking them, like using the last digits of the future stock market indices or something else that is unpredictable. For example, the Dow closed on Friday at 10,471.50. If there were 1000 in your pool to look at we'd use the last 3 digits and pick number 150 off your list. If there are 100 in my pool we'd use the last 2 digists and pick number 50. Choose the number of indices to use and for how many days in the future to pick your 25 and my 20, and we'd have our random lists. Then see how many off of each list got drafted. It sure is a good thing that our coaches don't just pick random 2-star and 3-star players to offer instead of doing research and evaluations.

Here are some facts to chew on: According to Rivals, from 2002 through 2007 Nebraska recruited: 5 unrated or 1-star players 21 2-star players 74 3-star players 37 4-star players 4 5-star players The following received at least all-conference honorable mention during their careers (so far): 40% of unrated or 1-star players 9.5% of 2-star players 28.4% of 3-star players 35.1% of 4-star players 50% of 5-star players The following received at least all-conference 2nd team: 20% of unrated or 1-star players 0% of 2-star players 17.6% of 3-star players 18.9% of 4-star players 50% of 5-star players The following received at least all-conference 1st team: 0% of 1-star players 0% of 2-star players 9.5% of 3-star players 8.1% of 4-star players 25% of 5-star players Sample sizes for unrated and 5-star prospects obviously aren't large enough to draw too many meaningful conclusions. The 2-star players recruited have not fared very well. The difference between 3 and 4 star players is fairly insignificant, especially when looking at the upper echelons of all-conference performers with 3 star players actually outperforming 4 star players in all-conference 1st team recognition. Now before you go and say that the percentage of 3 stars is higher because we recruited more 3 stars, that is irrelevant with these numbers, as the calculation is total 3-star 1st teamers divided by the total number of 3 stars recruited, and the same with 4-stars, etc.

I think that Niles is only a disappointment when compared to expectations based off of his Rivals top 100 ranking. He was an honorable mention all-conference WR by the coaches and an honorable mention all-conference all-purpose player by the AP this year. I also think it is WAY too early to pass any judgement on redshirt freshmen that haven't seen the field yet. Now let's take a look at recruits from Texas during the same time period that you used (2005-2008): Wallace Franklin - did not qualify Cody Glenn - stayed four years and was a contributor all four, including major contribution as a senior before he was dismissed from the team Brodrick Hunter - did not qualify Will Henry - no significant contributions to date, but has seen limited playing time in a back-up role Anthony Blue - played in all 12 games in 2007, including 2 starts - playing time mainly limited to special teams in 2009 after sitting out after surgery in 2008 Quentin Castille - major contributor in 2008, dismissed from team in 2009 Currenski Gilleylan - contributor in first half of 2009, benched mid-season Adi Kunalic - contributed every year he has been here, limited to kick-offs Marcus Mendoza - no significant contributions to date, but has seen limited playing time in a back-up role Shawn Sullivan - left team Patrick Witt - left team after very limited participation David Grant - did not qualify Courtney Osborne - no significant contributions to date Steven Osborne - no significant contributions to date Kody Spano - no significant contributions to date, injured in 2009 Brandon Thompson - no significant contributions to date Lester Ward - no significant contributions to date Alonzo Whaley - no significant contributions to date, but has shown much promise on the scout team David Whitmore - did not qualify Josh Williams - no significant contributions to date Now from 2005-2008, we have signed 104 scholarship players. 14 of these players have been from Nebraska, which is 13.5%. 3 of these scholarship players are among the 22 offensive and defensive starters right now, which is 13.6%. Seems the contribution of in-state players is right in line with expecations. Also, these three starters were all recognized as at least honorable mention all-conference by either the coaches, the AP, or both in 2009. Zach Potter is included in the 14 scholarships, but not in the 3 starters. I am also not including Matt O'Hanlon in the calculations as he initially walked on. Account for these players (or at least Potter) and the percentage of starters goes up fairly significantly.

I think Cotton ends up on the OL. I think Evans is starting out as a receiver. With these assumptions, we have 9 defensive scholarships and 7 on offense. Now assuming that I didn't miscount, not including seniors we currently have 40 players on offense on scholarship compared to 28 on defense. Not including juniors, we have 27 scholarships on offense and 21 on defense.

i'm not convinced it's a huge need this class unless we can get a really good one. we've got young QB's in spano, green and martinez and bigger needs at other positions. That's just it. At this stage of the process there are no good ones because they have all committed elsewhere. Naming QB as the number one priority for the rest of the class is like trying to find something edible in the garbage can. Sorry we missed the expiration date. Yet again let a big commit out of our grasp. BS. There are still good players available, whether they are rated highly or not and whether they are currently on someone else's commit list or not.

Neither has Gabbert. At least Spano, Green, and Martinez put up good numbers in high school and proved they could win. Gabbert has proven he can throw the ball threw a hoop at a Rivals camp. I'd rather have Bronson Marsh. what the kid does in high school doesn't mean sh#t if he can't translate that to the next level (college football)...and we haven't seen anything at the college level from the 3 kids dylan mentioned You mean an injured redshirt freshman and two true freshmen? Hopefully you haven't cast judgement on these guys already. Now I'm not saying that we don't need a QB recruit this year, as I believe we do. I for one am happy that the QB recruit won't be a Gabbert.

Neither has Gabbert. At least Spano, Green, and Martinez put up good numbers in high school and proved they could win. Gabbert has proven he can throw the ball threw a hoop at a Rivals camp. I'd rather have Bronson Marsh.

Hopefully the AP makes up for this like they did with Henery last year.

And if it was true do you think that he would just let everyone know his intentions? Look, Chase Rome rated his visit a "7" and then committed shortly thereafter. If Demien is interested in putting out some feelers, he can't exactly be forthright with his intentions while he is committed to another school. A couple of posters at HI think this is more than a call for a "friend".

Interesting rumor that he has contacted our staff and made an inquiry if we are still interested. Don't know if this has any legs or not, but it is interesting and he is definitely at a spot of need.

Jake couldn't take the reduced tuition without being on scholarship because his dad hasn't been employed for 5 years. It's in the NCAA rulebook. There are players on our team right now that are on scholarship whose parents make a LOT more money than Barney Cotton. Perhaps they should have all walked on too. There are players on our roster whose parents are former players, yet they are on scholarship. Really, your arguments don't hold a lot of water. I'm sure you didn't bring up these same arguments about Ben because he was Rivals rated and had several other offers. You are only bringing these up regarding Jake because he isn't rated and doesn't have other offers. The coaches felt he was worthy of an offer. I'll hold judgement until he either proves or disproves this.

From 1990-1997, Nebraska's average class size had 22 recruits. During that same time period, we averaged 6.25 instate commits per class. T.O. didn't ask every instate kid that he wanted in the program to walk-on, so why should Bo? Also, Ryan Hill had no other offers and was not rated by the services in 2006 when we offered. He played in class 5A for Arvada West in Denver, so it's not like he should have been totally under the radar. I didn't hear the teeth gnashing about this offer, especially when Rivals "validated" the offer with a 3-star rating and listed him as the 41st best TE prospect in the nation.

So has anyone actually seen him play or are the 's just because he's Barney's son?

Visiting this weekend. Some think he might pull the trigger.