dylan

Yeah, prospects (and opposing coaches) have a way of noticing when you drive a winning program into the ditch in your first year.

Bo was typically around a top 25 class, so this class has a ways to go to be a "Bo-like class", particularly given how well it actually started under Bo. For all the talk of the new staff revolutionizing our recruiting, they sure haven't shown a whole lot in actual results.

Let's not forget about recruited walk-ons when discussing Bo's in-state recruiting. We have a huge number if high quality ones in the program. Yes, some of them would have gone to NU no matter what, but not all. Hopefully that continues to be an emphasis going forward. And to answer the original question, I highly doubt Bo has any interest in stepping foot back in Nebraska.

Against "good" quarterbacks? So far it seems to be against EVERY quarterback. And sacrificing a season rather than playing to your players' strengths is not acceptable and not what we were promised.

We had the 6th best pass efficiency defense last year, so I wouldn't say the secondary has been all that weak lately. Davie, Cockrell and Kalu all looked significantly better in 2014. I fully recognize that trading coaches changed the emphasis of the defense. However, it's still shocking how much worse things look so far against the pass, particularly when we have almost all of the same players. Like I said, I just don't like seeing the drop off in play blamed on a lack of talent. It's always easy to say that coaches need more talent to work with. Give any coach enough talent and eventually they'll win. The test of a coach is using what he's got to the best of their ability, and we've got a lot of players back from a 9 win team (that almost won two others). Let's not start acting like the new staff are working with scraps.

I think it's obvious that our defensive system had som flaws under the last staff. Flaws that really good running teams could exploit. However, we seem to have traded that for a defense that anyone can exploit through the air. There's a difference between getting dusted by the best running back in the country playing behind a great line and having a team that almost lost to Texas State make Swiss cheese out of your defense. I'm not saying things were perfect before, but they sure don't look better so far and blaming the players or a lack of talent is a cop out.

And fwiw, you forgot Chuck Jackson and Aaron Williams on your list.

Ha! I'm pretty sure our secondary looked a lot better last year with most of the same players. In fact, we've had good to great pass defenses for the last seven years. On the other hand, Banker and Riley have had consistently bad defenses at OSU. Suddenly we have a horrific defense. Hmmm....what conclusion can we draw from these facts? Must be the players

That is among the more ridiculous things I've read on the internet recently. Taking away kids' college education does not fall on the same scale of morality as ineffective coaching.

Fyfe was on scholarship. And then he wasn't. I don't know what happened with any of these guys, santos, gladney, etc. Maybe they all had justifiable reasons to pull their scholarships, but I'm starting to be concerned about the smoke. Turnover happens with any coaching change, but usually it's the kids making the decision to leave. I just hope we still have a program that treats kids the right way.

I'm not surprised there are Nebraska fans that have this attitude (just like I'm not surprised to hear racist comments directed at players at the games), but it still blows my mind. "More than Winning" "Not the Victory but the Action" "Through these Gates..." "Just win, Baby" And to be clear, I don't mind bringing this guy in. I do mind running off players SEC style. These are peoples lives. People that were promised the world to come here. Speaking of which, I'm a bit concerned about how and why kids like Gladney and Fyfe are suddenly off the team.

If they really didn't contact the kid for six weeks, then that's a grevious oversight regardless of their other responsibilities. Phone calls to all current commits seems like a pretty basic move. If this is the worst mistake these coaches make, we'll obviously be fine. I just think it's funny given all the hype about how polished and organized the new staff is. That said, if NU is your home town dream school, I don't know how you pass on them, regardless of the lack of communication.

Bubak made it pretty clear in the world herald article that he only reached out to ASU when he didn't hear from our new coaching staff for 6 weeks. For all the talk about our new focus on recruiting and locking down local kids, that doesn't look real good.

Seems like Strong took a lot of questionable kids at Louisville that had been booted from other programs. If you're taking kids that were too bad for Auburn, I've got to question his high character.

Nice.

Besides the stupidity of making an offer that isn't really an offer, it's just plain unnecessary. And no, I don't believe it's something that "everyone" does or that the previous staff did. You can recruit a kid without making an offer. That obviously happens all the time. You can make more offers than you have spots and make the offers contingent upon a spot still being available. Those are still commitable offers, they just have an expiration if you don't commit in time. Obviously everyone does that (and should). Making an offer that a kid isn't able to immediately accept is just plain dumb and dishonest. It's not an offer and NU doesn't need to do it to compete. It doesn't really gain you anything.

Double post

I hope that's not true. It's not the worst thing in the world, but it is dishonest and hardly representative of Nebraska values (not to mention pointless). If you make an offer, you stand by it (as long as the kid acts in good faith).

Yup. And that is how you end up with an NFL washout, a coordinator with no head coaching experience and a guy that was on the hot seat at a middling program. Unless we have a brilliant AD making the hire (ha!), we'll have to get lucky to get another great coach. Because, as much tradition as we have, there will almost always be an easier gig available for the hot coaching hire of the moment. (Riley may very well be that home run hire, but we'll obviously have to wait and see if he truly was held back by his previous program or if he simply is what his record says he is.)

It's worth noting that the one highly ranked class cally brought in had 31 players total, 12 of them jucos. Hardly a recipe for sustained recruiting success. I think NU will always have a hard time doing better than 15-20th ranked classes due to location alone. Even under TO, when we were a national power, we often stayed in that range (though he also certainly had some very highly ranked classes). That's why coaching acumen is so important at a place like this. We have to scout better than other places, work harder in recruiting and then out coach them as well.

http://a.espncdn.com/ncf/s/2002/0205/1323070.html

I'm not going to spend much time researching this, because I remember clearly that Mack came in and lit the world on fire in recruiting. But here's one link to Tom Lemming' rankings from 1998-2002, and he had Texas in the top 5 for 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. Two of those as the number one class. So, to act as if Texas only recruited well after they won it all is demonstrably wrong. They may have had a few lower ranked classes prior to the title. I suspect that relates more to class size, though I don't really know or care. My point stands though that he completely tore it up in recruiting long before he won the title in 2005.

Way wrong there. Mack brought in stellar recruiting classes from the time he was hired in 1998, including the star studded class that Vince Young was in. While success makes recruiting easier, there are countless example of staffs having recruiting success right off the bat and Mack Brown is one of them (though anyone should be able to recruit to Texas). For further examples, look at other staffs that were hired this year that are already having success.

Right? Now I just feel like I've been lied to the last 7 years. I mean you more or less were. BC recruited respectable classes if memory serves me right. BC got more hype for his early recruiting (thanks in part to Tom Lemming), but Pelini's recruiting was right there with him if you judge by stars. I'll be pleased if Riley can get to that level. His second four star recruit is a start, but only that. That said, great job here by the staff. Kid looks like a talent.

I'm not certain whether we are actually seeing more effort or just better PR, but I'll judge them on their effectiveness.