AndyDufresne

I think that we may be on the same page, though I believe your choice of words to describe your support for the program is interesting to say the least. This is a process. It will take longer than some think. While at least one ESPN writer had us as BCS game participants after the Missouri game, most fans prior to Missouri were thinking 8-4 or 9-3 in the 2009 regular season. Both of these records are still attainable. I think the meltdown over the Tech game is both how bad our offense looked, and how many had bought into the Missouri hype generated by the national media. BUT - I don't think that we have "sucked for a long time". We certainly haven't been consistently among the powerhouses this decade, but we have been anywhere from subpar to very good. I also don't think that our roster is full of leftovers. I believe that our defense, despite having many of the same players that we had in 2007, is right there with OU and Texas as the best in the Big XII. I do follow recruiting closely and have read many articles about it. It is simply not realistic for Nebraska to recruit at the level of Florida, USC, or Texas. The #1 reason why a recruit chooses a school is location. We are not located in a hotbed of high school football talent. As for results, there is a strong positive correlation between recruiting rankings and onfield results for about the top 7 recruiting teams averaged over a 5 year period. After that, things get a lot more murky. And if you want to use examples in the Big XII about elite recruiting teams, stick with Texas, Oklahoma, and maybe OSU. Texas Tech recruits at about Nebraska's level according to the services. Texas A&M recruits well, but plays terrible. Kansas and Missouri are both decent, but usually fall below Nebraska in the rankings. Everyone else is a notch below the other teams mentioned.

Good for you. Don't support the starting QB. Don't support the program. After all, "we have sucked for a long time". The team is full of "leftovers". Congratulations. I'm not saying that your "wife" is a liar. I am saying that I don't buy your story. Derron Smith's other listed offers are Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico State, San Diego State, and UNLV. Why would he disparage his best offer by far? Why would he call Nebraska a loser when we would destroy any of the other schools that have offered him? Of course, he must not be worth a damn if those are his only offers. Why don't you have your wife relay to his mom that you personally don't want him at Nebraska because he is just a "left over" and he obviously wouldn't help us?

This topic is nuts. First and foremost, I call BS on the Derron Smith comment about playing for a loser. Second of all, the job of a recruiter is to get a recruit that they are interested in to visit, regardless of reciprocal interest. Getting them on campus is half the battle. Third, we had 11 recruits at this time last year, compared to 9 this year. Here are the targets who committed after October 21st: Jason Ankrah - 12/21 Rex Burkhead - 12/15 Dejon Gomes - 12/9 Andrew Green - 12/14 Brandon Kinnie - 12/1 Eric Martin - 2/1 Lazarri Middleton - 12/8 Jeremiah Sirles - 10/24 Dijon Washington - 11/25 3 of those were 4 stars and 3 were the highest rated 3 stars that Rivals awards (5.7), for those who put much stock into recruiting rankings. I'm sure it doesn't matter though, being that most of our roster consists of "leftovers" anyway. By the way, do you know who haven't been leftovers recently: 2007 - Demetrious Davis - Alabama offer 2007 - William Yancy - Oklahoma offer 2006 - Cruz Barrett - Florida, Florida State, and Oklahoma offers 2006 - Seth Jensen - Oklahoma offer 2006 - Andre Jones - USC offer 2006 - Kenny Wilson - Florida and Tennessee offers I'm not trying to disparage any players currently on the roster, as I applaud all of the young men wearing the scarlet and cream, just trying to prove a point. As for Pelini's recruits, the recruits from his first class are now redshirt freshmen. Can we really tell much of anything about the quality of talent that he has brought in at this point in time? Step away from the ledge people. And skersfan, don't drink and post.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20091020/BIGRED/710209825 I like how Mitch Sherman says that we should have had a plan for an offensive identity in August, yet fails to mention how Roy Helu's sprained shoulder (that is what he has folks - same as Sam Bradford), Rex Burkhead's broken foot, and Quentin Castille's bad habits might have altered that identity. We are trying to adjust this identity on the fly.

Completely agree. We have no gamebreaker. Nobody possess that breakaway speed. Its frustrating when somebody gets loose and can't seal the deal because they are too slow. speed kills and we don't have it. At this point, I don't necessarily care about speed. I would just like someone who runs crisp routes, can get open, and can consistently catch the ball.

I don't think Zac Lee's real problem is his accuracy. It is his indeciciveness and constant checkdowns when more yards are needed. Zac rarely steps into the pocket and makes a pass. He scrambles way too early and, unlike Ganz last year, he just isn't able to make plays on the move. He reminds me a lot of Sam Keller with being afraid to go down field. Would starting Cody Green do more harm than good? It is hard to say, as he did have a turnover today and Zac did not. I think if we're going to make a change, this week is as good as any. It's time to have the QB under center a bit more as well. Our o-line did so much better in our last TD drive against Missouri when they were able to be more agressive because of the playcalling.

Not long before this topic was started and before USC said anything, Bubble_Gum_II over at HI (a.k.a. HTO), started a topic telling everyone to remain calm and try to keep focus on Texas Tech. BGII has been reliable in the past, so IMO something is up. Also, the reason there isn't any info over at HI is I have seen three topics on rumors rapidly deleted.

There was a post about Meno not being part of the team on the HI free board, but it lasted all of 2 seconds before the mods deleted it.

If he's scared of competition, Nebraska is not the right place for him. If we have a shot at getting Sean Robinson to switch, I would be really happy with that. Maybe with Green and Robinson, we would finally begin to morph into a Florida/Oregon type offense that Bo prefers (and I believe is more effective in the college game than the pseudo WCO that we currently run).

On the Husker tailgate show on 1620, Kugler said that Roy was having major stomach flu issues after the game. I'm not sure if he had any "incidences" during the game or not.

I agree. Gabbert has the size and things just like Freeman that the NFL loves. However, he was pretty disappointing last night. 3.1 yards per attempt? This is horrible. I also noticed that he seemed to limp a lot more after an incompletion. Then, you have to wonder how much pain he was actually in considering they kept running QB draws and the option with him. He might be a great QB or become one, but I can't see anything from last night's performance that would indicate that he's already a great QB. But Freeman had a horrible, horrible cast of players around him. And a really bad coach. All the talent in the world can't overcome obstacles like that. Freeman has a lot of raw skill. He needs a lot of refinement after getting basically none in college. Put him with a decent QBs coach and a playmaker or two around him, and for goodness' sake, give the kid an O Line, and then let's see what he can do. Gabbert is a lot like Freeman IMO, but he has better talent around him and a better coach (although Pinkel did some bonehead things again last night). Both are big, athletic, big-arm QBs with the ability to move. Gabbert was accurate last night considering the conditions. Gabbert was hindered by a nightmarish pass rush that never let him get comfortable, and by the fact that this was his fifth game. Gabbert has potential. It remains to be seen if he develops that potential at Missouri, but I have a feeling he'll be pretty good. And remember - I went into this game a detractor. His arm strength and guttiness have gone a long way toward changing my opinion of him. Freeman had a 1st round draft pick for a wide receiver to throw to. A Nebraska QB hasn't had that luxury since the early '80's. Which wide receivers on our roster would you not trade for Alexander? Face it, Gabbert was outplayed by a QB also making his 5th career start, but so many are quick to praise the opposing team's QB without doing the same for our own.

Word is that if Gabbert does go to Mizzou, there would be good news on the QB recruiting front shortly after.

Interesting that Rivals shows no offers. I would guess that they once did if the offers are listed in the initial post.

"Athlete" does not always translate to "football player." Is that why FSU and Miami sends their players in BOATS to the NFL year after year?? Yet...how many title's have they won in the past 15 years? Your last comment made absolutely no sense when it come's to winning in college football! Exactly. I'll take successful college football players over pure athletes/pro types any day. See Frazier, Tommie. Edit: Frazier might not be the example I am looking for because he was an amazing athlete. The point I was trying to make is that numbers of players drafted is a pretty terrible indicator of how successfully they played in college. Quick example: would you rather have Josh Freeman last year or Joe Ganz? I'd take Ganz in a heartbeat . . . but Freeman got drafted. I guess my anti-NFL bias is showing. That's a cop out Carl. And Tommie would of made it to the NFL if it wasn't for blood clots. And Josh Freeman > Joe Ganz. He was on a horrible team. By what measure is Freeman a better college QB than Joey? 2008 stats Ganz 67.8% completion percentage 3,565 yards passing 25 TD's 11 Int's 153.69 QB rating Freeman 58.6% completion percentage 2,945 passing yards 20 TD's 8 Int's 136.49 QB rating Even when Freeman had all-American Jordy Nelson to throw to, he never approached Joe's completion percentage or QB rating. Sure Josh is taller and has a stronger arm, but that alone certainly doesn't make for a very good college QB. So I call BS on this assessment.

"Athlete" does not always translate to "football player." Is that why FSU and Miami sends their players in BOATS to the NFL year after year?? Yet...how many title's have they won in the past 15 years? Your last comment made absolutely no sense when it come's to winning in college football! Weird time period that you chose, as they have both won one title each in the last 15 years. Looking at the last 4 years, Nebraska has a better winning percentage than either Florida State or Miami while playing in a tougher conference.

Is this a good time to point you to these two threads from last year then, when everyone was freaking out about our class around this time? While it doesn't seem like our recruiting results have changed much, Axl's opinions sure have.

Yeah because we all know that stars mean so much in a recruits talent! No, but stealing a recruit right out of the pockets of McNeese State, Toledo, and Louisiana-Monroe does. These guys were all recruited by Mizzou, Okie St, Standford, Utah, Arizona, Arizona St., Texas A&M and in Ashburn's case, LSU was playing a wait and see during his senior year. You'll never be satisfied until we get guys that Florida, Texas, OU and USC recruit, which may never happen. Talent is not based on how many stars Rivals and ESPN hand out and I have a feeling that the coaches here know a little more than you do. Actually, I won't be satisfied until we get players that will get us to the NC. I was very happy with last year's class. But we are not even close to that this year. I would like to hear why you think that this year's class is inferior to last year's. From my uneducated eye and the articles that I've read, I think that this year's class is shaping up to be quite similar to last year's and the composition is again mainly made up of players from winning programs with solid, if not spectacular offers and good measurables.

Really? I watched that entire game and I was not that impressed. Wearing your BIG RED blinders?? Florida State and Miami have always been fast and athletic. It still hasn't kept Florida State from losing to Wake Forest 3 years in a row or Miami from losing to NC State 2 years in a row. I would say that you have blinders on, as your view of recruiting and college football is very narrow indeed.

Perhaps you would care to share why these players are all D listers? We would all be interested to know the offer dates of these commits compared to other prospects on the board. We would all like to know your personal evaluation of their film. We would love if you shared your intimate knowledge of the recruiting board with us. BTW - Harvey Jackson has had an offer since Sept. 2008. Yep, "D lister".

"Good gets" can't really be determined until they step on the field regardless of star ranking or whatever criteria you are using to judge Ciante. As for the playoff loss, keep in mind that Adam Carriker's team went winless his senior season. He seemed to work out okay for us.

Gut feelings without any other info are usually pretty worthless, especially since you probably don't know anything about Walker. Now whether he will sign or not, I really don't know; but I know many had similar gut feelings about Dijon Washington and David Whitmore.

Walker Ashburn - DE from Louisiana

A quick search on Rivals reveals no other prospects in their database from his high school. Anybody know who he is visiting with?

THis kid is gonna be epic... i thikn he has the heart and spirit of a lion... like he is really hungry and has something to prove... dont know him personall but its just a gut feeling that i have.... seems like a beast and a warrior..... something i didnt nessiarily feel that a. rod of 09 has..... not saying that a. rod sucks balls i think he has A LOT of natural talent but i think this kid has that plus lots and lots of heart.... Why don't you think Rodriguez has heart? Really, it would take more than a gut feeling for me to post something like that.

Florida, Oklahoma, USC, Texas, Ohio State, LSU, Florida State, Miami, and Nebraska are the only teams that have competed for a national championship this decade (no Georgia). Also, Pensick hasn't helped us at all yet (he was part of the 2009 recruiting class). Lastly, you can go the other way on comparisons such as yours. Would you rather have walk-on (and even though injured, starting MLB for the Eagles) Stewart Bradley or 2005 #3 rated LB recruit and career USC backup Luthur Brown?