Blake and Recruiting

[Benard]

Seemingly on cue, John Blake's cell phone rang during his speech at Friday's Extra Point Club luncheon.

He didn't answer it, but did peek at the number on his caller ID.

"Looks like a recruit," he said, smiling.

The timing of the incident was perhaps too uncanny, considering Blake, the defensive line coach at Nebraska, had been telling those at the luncheon the importance of recruiting.

"You can win the Kentucky Derby with a thoroughbred a lot easier than you can with a mule," Blake said, drawing laughter from the crowd.

"We've got to get more and more talent."

Blake is regarded by many as not only Nebraska's best recruiter, but one of the best recruiters in the nation.

"Recruiting is something I take pride in," Blake said. "I don't consider it recruiting. I call it a relationship ... because it's a lifelong commitment."

Blake's primary recruiting areas are California, Texas and Oklahoma. Of Nebraska's 10 verbal commitments for 2005, six are from those states.

"We have a lot of places that we're recruiting that probably had not been touched (before)," Blake said. "Nebraska's been pretty good to develop players here in the state, and going to New Jersey and finding key guys, but we're all over the place nationally."

When asked how he's able to recruit to a cold-weather state such as  Nebraska, Blake offered one of his standard responses.

"I tell them Santa Clause can't come if there ain't snow on the ground," he said.

 

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