dylan

Weird, a school that covered up a child rapist and still venerates the man that likely led the cover up, hired a president from a school that apparently had another football related rape cover up (FSU) and a coach that apparently cheated by setting up a group of "hostesses" and then inserted himself into the investigation when one of then got raped.

You stay classy, Penn State. I can definitely tell you've turned over a new leaf and will never let football come before basic human decency again. For real, this time.

I agree about the openness of our coaches. Part of that is the way we explain to the kids what a commitment means to both sides of the agreement. We can't consider him a commit and plan our class at his position around him if he's flirting with and visiting other schools.

I hope that he's done with recruiting now, but if he's not, then our coaches are obligated to keep other options open. It's not about playing chicken, it's about being clear and open about where each side stands.

Some of our fans and media have been calling for Bo's head for 4-5 years now. He's still here. Coaching staffs getting fired or leaving for another job is a fact of life in D1 football and is not unique to NU. It should definitely be taken into account when choosing a school. However, it doesn't change the definition of "commitment". If a kid is flirting with other schools, he is simply not "100%" and we need to be working on our own backup plan.

He hasn't given us any reason to call him unreliable.

He just visited another school immediately after reaffirming his commitment to us. He then says he's 100% committed at the same time he says he has to consider other options. That sounds like a reliable commitment to you?

I hope the guy sticks, but I'd be making back up plans if I'm the coaches.

That is not consistent with being "100% committed" or being done with recruiting, like he said recently. I hope we're keeping in touch with other backs at this point. Bussey looks like a stud and we've got a good shot at keeping him, but he hardly seems reliable.

As mentioned in the original post, it is not at all clear how the different schools allocate and keep track of recruiting expenses, so the numbers aren't exactly comparable. But, they do provide a general idea, and it's nice to see us putting funds where it's needed. Given our unique position in major college football, we need to spend more money traveling for long distance recruiting than other schools, so I hope we can continue to support the staff in this manner.

Perhaps if we also support them with some semblance of job security, we won't have assistants bailing for lateral moves to A&M in the future.

Chase Rome, Kevin Williams, Todd Peat, Vincent Valentine, Maliek Collins, Peyton Newell and the Davis twins (all of whom had some damn good other offers), might disagree with you on the Suh effect.

Just because some of the early ones on that list didn't pan out for whatever reasons (behavior and injuries) doesn't mean that they weren't impressive recruits at the time or that we struck out on capitalizing on the best DT the game has seen.

Yup, but the better questions are whether he gets an offer that large and whether he'd pass on the six figure offer he's more likely to get.

I agree with most of that. I think we'll take one more HS DE unless the coaches find a game changer or find that guys aren't developing come fall.

I don't think we have enough room in this class to take a juco just for depth, but sure, stud jucos are always welcome.

We (or at least the coaches) will have a much better idea of our need there come fall, when we can better assess not only the freshmen, but what kind of progress keels and natter are making. Seems like the early returns on keels were a bit disappointing, but some time over the summer to condition and learn what he's doing could go a long way. There were some rumblings last year that natter looked like a future contributor, but he was slowed by injury this spring, so he's still a bit of an unknown in my mind. The only real known quantities are Gregory, whom I wouldn't count on being here in 2015, McMullen and Moss.

Considering we are 1.5 years away from the 2015 season, I don't think it's that unusual to have some unknowns. The important thing is that you line up enough potential players to give yourself a shot. I think we're doing fine on numbers, so it'll come down to this fall to see if we've got the right quality in numbers.

2014

Gregory

McMullen

Keels

Natter

King

Wills

Gangwish (solid walk-on)

We also have other possibilities like Newby in rush situations, Collins if necessary or in the 3-4 rush package, maybe Newell, maybe Stoltenberg?

Depth at DE this year is one of the bigger question marks on the team due to the number of unknowns. I feel like it's less of a concern for the following year (when we'd be recruiting a juco for), as that will give all of keels, natter and however many freshmen, time to develop.

2015

Gregory? (Wouldn't count on it)

Moss

McMullen

Keels

Natter

King

Wills

Gangwish

Others as listed above

Neal (raw frosh, probable redshirt)

So, as I said, we'll know a lot more about our needs for 2015 come this fall when we get a better idea about some of these guys. As it stands, I'm not particularly concerned about numbers.

Would I still take a juco end for 2015 if he was a flat stud? Definitely. But that's the case every year. I just don't see a big need for it yet unless we find out come fall that a couple of these guys don't look like they're going to work out.

Boy, if Gregory does come back for 2015 though, that defense could be downright frightening with the returning talent at every level.

Pretty sure Moss is staying in Lincoln, indicating he expects to be back on the team next year. That's way better than getting a juco.

Unless there's an unforeseen issue with him or the guys we've already got, I wouldn't expect a juco end. Now, if we run across one as talented as Gregory, we'll offer no matter what are needs are.

Ya franklin is tearing it up. He's responsible for all the commits. Pretty impressive start for them. I hope we finish 15-20 in all services. That would be an excellent class. Being as small as it is it's going to hard to finish much better than 15.

Maybe I just don't get recruiting, but I totally don't understand how Penn State can still be pulling in such great recruits. I know Pennsylvania is in more fertile recruiting territory, but the University itself is in the middle of nowhere, not to mention the fresh stink of the worst scandal in sports history still attached to it. What the hell is PSU doing on the recruiting trail to sell itself so well?

PSU has always recruited well, due to the amount of talent nearby, as well as their history as the major football power in the northeast. There are very few schools to challenge them in the northeast, so their recruiting footprint extends further in that direction. Between the NE and Pennsylvania and the neighboring states, they have a pretty large pool of talent to draw from year after year.

Obviously they aren't the powerhouse they once were, but you add an energetic new coaching staff to a legendary school with fertile recruiting grounds and this is what you get.

Wow. That's impressive. I think this kid might surprise some people.

OL makes up about 23% of the starting positions on a team (5/22), so taking four in a class of 16-18 kids doesn't seem out of proportion at all.

This is especially the case when we finally have a class that lacks any dire needs. Sure, there are some positions we need more than others (DL, DB), but unless something changes drastically by next Feb, we're not desperate at any given position for the first time in years. We've really balanced out our roster with talented young players at this point, allowing for a balanced, if small, 2015 class.

 

QB - 1 (Dillman committed)

RB - 1 (Bussey committed)

WR - 2-3

TE - 0-1

OT - 2 (Gaylord committed)

OG - 1

 

DL - 3-4 (C. Davis and K. Davis committed)

LB - 2-3

CB - 2-3 (Lee and Anderson committed)

S - 2-3

I know a recruit said that, but I'll be surprised and disappointed if we only take 3 OL. I know it's a tight class, but that's a position that needs to stay stocked moreso than any position but QB and maybe DT. I also can't see us taking 3 WR after how many we took this year, maybe 2 if Harrison doesn't make it, otherwise we've got bigger needs elsewhere. Anyway, I'd put it about as follows:

1 QB

1 RB

1-2 WR

0-1 TE

4 OL

4-5 DL

2 LB

2-3 CB

2 S

Or a red balloon

With Cotton and Moody leaving after next season, Tanner's got a golden opportunity for playing time his second year on campus in what should be a pretty stout line returning three (maybe even four) starters. I have no doubt that he'll put in the work to compete for one of those guard spots in 2015.

Not quite on topic but I thought I'd put it here.

 

HuskerOnline ranked their 10 best Nebraska HS players of the last 10 years. Hernry was great and I didn't realize Zuerlein was from Pius but it's a little sad that the best two in the last 10 years were both kickers. And only 5 of those 10 went to NU.

Omitting Spencer Long, all BIG and 2nd team AA, pretty well discredits this list.

I also think that there are some people currently on roster that could make this list a couple years down the road. Heck, a few on the OL alone could have a shot.

Some guys take longer than others. By the end of his junior year, he was one of the best safeties in the league. He should have a big senior year.

Phillips' issues weren't about hanging with the wrong crowd and playing gangster. He pretty clearly had mental issues from a rough upbringing. Not a good comparison.

In any case, I hope Calvin gets his act together and uses his talent to make something of his life.

Kid has a great opportunity to take a starting spot in what should be a good line. He'll have to earn it though with the depth we're building.

Never know whether a kid could have turned out differently in another environment.

Which of our recruits did we stop communicating with? What evidence do you have that our coaches "coast"?

And which other major schools have to recruit nationwide like we do? Be specific. Oklahoma? Schools in the south? Ohio State and Michigan? Notre Dame?

They also have a history of not keeping in touch with the recruits that commit before the season and allow other coaches to change thier mind.

Feel free to post the statistics you have to prove this happens more to us than anyone else.

I'll even make it easier for you (since I know you have no such statistics): Simply go through the decommits we had this year and explain why they decommitted.

 

I won't go as far as AF did, but Mavric, do you think the staff could put more effort into bringing kids in for OVs during the season. By my count, we had 16 uncommitted 2014 recruits come in during OV's during our home games. We are allowed 56 total throughout the entire cycle. In your opinion, would you at least like to see that number improve quite a bit, considering our game day atmosphere is generally considered our #1 selling point to recruits?

What makes you think they're not putting effort into it? Do they have direct control over when and if kids can visit? The scheduling of early games hasn't helped much in that regard either. I will also add that the administration needs to make sure they are doing everything they can to support the coaches in recruiting. Two lowly paid recruiting staff positions and access to private planes at the end of recruiting season is nice, but we can and should do more to help the coaches with what is already a difficult task.

How many other coaching staffs have to canvas the whole country and dig for diamonds as much as ours do? To criticize their effort when they already have to work harder than other major programs is ridiculous.