Article about Irving and Londen Fryar

[Ohio Pete]

Didn't Cally recruit about 100 receivers? I seem to remember that being the case, although with Swift and Peterson as the senior guys now I'm wondering if my memory is a bit blurry... At any rate, the kid is 5'9", so the fact that he didn't get a scholarship offer maybe shouldn't really be a mark against Cally.

Yeah, he could have at least been a candidate for walk on though, but not if the coach isn't returning his phone calls.

[teleman77]

I hope Callahan rots in hell for what he did to Nebraska...............the program and the fans.

 

There is NO excuse for his arrogant, egotistical and iresponsible actions. NONE!

[junior4949]

Dude. He was a WR. Irving Fryar gave Callahan tape of him as a WR prospect, but never got called back. It was only at WMU that he converted to D.

 

 

After thinking about it for a while, I think one can come to the conclusion that London wasn't an exceptional WR. He was switched to D at a college that quite frankly is in the MAC. BC more than likely didn't think he was an exceptional WR either, and as I said before didn't really recruit very hard on the defensive side of the ball. Granted, BC should have called Irving back. However with all of the faults and debacles of the BC era, I just can't put this in there as one other than him not returning a call from a former Husker great.

[hack]

all this brings to mind a story that charlie mcbride tells every now and again...

 

straight from an interview he did...

 

The best story I have is when I went to North High School in Wichita, Kansas to recruit a young man who was a friend of ex-husker Jeff Smith. Jeff now lives in Wichita and works in the justice system. He’s a parole officer. Through the years Jeff has gotten to be really good friends with this one particular kid and, I didn’t know this, but the player came up to me and said, coach, I’m so and so and I really want to go to Nebraska. He said Jeff has been one of my friends and he’s talked to me about Nebraska. He got his degree there and that’s what I really want to do.

 

I looked at the kid and he was just a little guy. I look at this film and I’m saying to myself, you know we need to scholarship this guy. He was probably 155 – 160 pounds, probably 5’9”. So I went back and showed Tom the film and he said, Charlie we can’t recruit him. He said we’re bringing in Johnny Rogers son and we cannot take two small running backs. We just can’t do it.

 

So I went and turned the kid down.

 

His name was Barry Sanders.

 

So I’m famous for turning Barry Sanders down and a lot of people through the years called me a lot of names, but of course after they read this segment, they may call me more. It was bad because Johnny’s son Terry got hurt and never really played much. Barry Sanders was like trying to tackle an eel. The guy was probably the best back I ever saw, as far as running the football.

 

We were at Oklahoma State and the teams both went to the same movie theater. After the show Thurman Thomas, Oklahoma State’s running back actually came on our bus. Broderick Thomas and Neil Smith were sitting up in the front of the bus. Thurman said “there’s nobody on this bus that can take me one on one.” I remember Neil Smith saying, “Well we believe that, but there’s eleven of us that can”.

 

In the third quarter he had seven yards rushing and they put Sanders in and he had 77 in the fourth quarter. I looked at Tom and said “that’s the guy we turned down” and he just shook his head and said, “Yeah I see that.” Then we had to put up with him for the next three years or so.

 

hindsight is always 20/20.

 

nebraska went with roger's son terry and turned down barry freakin' sanders. just *imagine* what nebraska could have been like with sanders in scarlet and cream.

 

did callahan turn londen down because he didn't have the potential or didn't have the room? was he offered a walk on? i dunno.

 

thing is, osborne did the 'right' thing and gave terry rogers a shot that cost sanders a spot on the team. callahan did the 'wrong' thing by not paying attention to heredity, looked solely at over-all talent and now londen is looking at nebraska from the outside going in.

 

coulda. shoulda. woulda. it's all water under the bridge now.

 

and gameday cannot come soon enough.

[jayhawk]

Not calling him back was not cool. That said, the best players should play, it should not matter who you dad is, just like it should not matter how much money you have, religion you are or race you are. You should be judged on your talent, or someone else who is better is being treated unfairly when they take you. I am not saying ignore members of your family, I am sure that gets you at least a look and maybe a tiebreaker, but if he is not good enough, he should not get the offer.

[Cali Sker (in Boston)]

all this brings to mind a story that charlie mcbride tells every now and again...

 

straight from an interview he did...

 

The best story I have is when I went to North High School in Wichita, Kansas to recruit a young man who was a friend of ex-husker Jeff Smith. Jeff now lives in Wichita and works in the justice system. He’s a parole officer. Through the years Jeff has gotten to be really good friends with this one particular kid and, I didn’t know this, but the player came up to me and said, coach, I’m so and so and I really want to go to Nebraska. He said Jeff has been one of my friends and he’s talked to me about Nebraska. He got his degree there and that’s what I really want to do.

 

I looked at the kid and he was just a little guy. I look at this film and I’m saying to myself, you know we need to scholarship this guy. He was probably 155 – 160 pounds, probably 5’9”. So I went back and showed Tom the film and he said, Charlie we can’t recruit him. He said we’re bringing in Johnny Rogers son and we cannot take two small running backs. We just can’t do it.

 

So I went and turned the kid down.

 

His name was Barry Sanders.

 

So I’m famous for turning Barry Sanders down and a lot of people through the years called me a lot of names, but of course after they read this segment, they may call me more. It was bad because Johnny’s son Terry got hurt and never really played much. Barry Sanders was like trying to tackle an eel. The guy was probably the best back I ever saw, as far as running the football.

 

We were at Oklahoma State and the teams both went to the same movie theater. After the show Thurman Thomas, Oklahoma State’s running back actually came on our bus. Broderick Thomas and Neil Smith were sitting up in the front of the bus. Thurman said “there’s nobody on this bus that can take me one on one.” I remember Neil Smith saying, “Well we believe that, but there’s eleven of us that can”.

 

In the third quarter he had seven yards rushing and they put Sanders in and he had 77 in the fourth quarter. I looked at Tom and said “that’s the guy we turned down” and he just shook his head and said, “Yeah I see that.” Then we had to put up with him for the next three years or so.

 

hindsight is always 20/20.

 

nebraska went with roger's son terry and turned down barry freakin' sanders. just *imagine* what nebraska could have been like with sanders in scarlet and cream.

 

did callahan turn londen down because he didn't have the potential or didn't have the room? was he offered a walk on? i dunno.

 

thing is, osborne did the 'right' thing and gave terry rogers a shot that cost sanders a spot on the team. callahan did the 'wrong' thing by not paying attention to heredity, looked solely at over-all talent and now londen is looking at nebraska from the outside going in.

 

coulda. shoulda. woulda. it's all water under the bridge now.

 

and gameday cannot come soon enough.

 

True, yes, agree, and totally. BUT...call the guy back. Takes about a minute. "Sorry, Irving, your kid looks pretty darn good, but we think we have some guys with more talent coming in. Thanks for the tape and I hope your kid finds a school that's the right fit. Go Eagles." How hard is that? Disrespecting former players and pi$$ing on the tradition of the program was no small part of what got him fired. Hopefully he remembers things like this when Joe Namath calls.