Will it ever happen?

[C N Red]

Will there ever come a day soon when we get a top 5 or 10 recruit in the nation? We never get those "Wow" guys. I would think we'd be able to pull one sometime. Why wouldn't a "Wow" guy want to come here, be the man, and get national coverage? It just makes no sense to me why they all seem to want to go to the same schools. They do know if they go to a school like Texas, USC, Florida that they have alot of "Wow" guys ahead of them and they may only get a year to start if they get a chance at all right? Just boggles my mind.

[Huskers Forever]

These kids want to play for teams that they know will be in the hunt for a national championship, and right now, we are not one of those schools. And some of these " wow" kids don't pan out, so I love the fact that Bo can develope " wow" players who might not that highly ranked out of high school. Be patient man, I think our recruiting will get better each year from here on.

[glm09]

Wow players often times think of themselves as wow players. They think they belong at the wow school to fit their amazingness. That is why you see a lot of them going to those schools right now. USC, Floria, OU, Texas, LSU just to name a few are schools that those types of players think they belong at. It is my opinion that how they fit, PT down the road don't quite factor into the thinking like we, on the outside of it all, think it should.

 

Also, when we are a wow school again we won't think top players are dumb for coming here just to start for 1-2 years, will we?

[Captain K]

The L in UNL still stands for Lincoln, doesn't it? And the N is for Nebraska, right? There's the two biggest problems right there! Painful, but true.

[huskers1]

I see what you are saying, we don't have beaches or warm weather all year round and from a perception standpoint we don't have any hot women here. However, usually when recruits get on campus they come away saying that Lincoln is nothing like what they would thought it would be and that it is actually a pretty nice city. Perception of Nebraska and the midwest is what is hurting us. People from the coasts literally think that we just have cows walking around all over. When we start winning with consistency that perception will not matter anymore.

[DeathCultArmaggedon]

I will echo what others have said. Location, location, location. As 'nice' of a city as Lincoln is, there are much more exciting college towns across the nation.

 

To most young dudes entering college, that plays a huge role. If we do get one of those 'wow' players, it will be because the kid has a different perspective than 95% of the high school seniors in his class, and picks his school for purely football related reasons.

 

Also, it's not like we haven't gotten a 'wow' guy before. Marlon Lucky was one of the best RBs in the country (like top 3). We beat out USC (and the Messiah himself, Pete Carroll) in a head-to-head to get him to come to Nebraska.

[huskerguy]

We just got a top 10 recruit in last years class

[Ohio Pete]

As 'nice' of a city as Lincoln is, there are much more exciting college towns across the nation.

Like Norman or Lubbock? Are Athens, Auburn, Gainesville and Blacksburg better?

 

No beaches or big cities, but they are closer to the recruits which is a bigger factor than if Will Ferrell is on your sidelines.

[Ohio Pete]

We just got a top 10 recruit in last years class

Nah, as soon as he committed to Nebraska, they dropped him in the ratings. If he'd have gone to Texas or Notre Dame, he'd be in the top 5.

[C N Red]

I will echo what others have said. Location, location, location. As 'nice' of a city as Lincoln is, there are much more exciting college towns across the nation.

 

To most young dudes entering college, that plays a huge role. If we do get one of those 'wow' players, it will be because the kid has a different perspective than 95% of the high school seniors in his class, and picks his school for purely football related reasons.

 

Also, it's not like we haven't gotten a 'wow' guy before. Marlon Lucky was one of the best RBs in the country (like top 3). We beat out USC (and the Messiah himself, Pete Carroll) in a head-to-head to get him to come to Nebraska.

 

I don't know if we beat Carroll so much as Marlon and his family were looking for a "nice safe place" for him to go to school. If they weren't worried about him getting caught up in gangs, etc, he never even would have thought about Nebraska. So, I guess in this case, location actually helped us.

[huskerguy]

We just got a top 10 recruit in last years class

Nah, as soon as he committed to Nebraska, they dropped him in the ratings. If he'd have gone to Texas or Notre Dame, he'd be in the top 5.

 

#8 in the Top 100 of 2008

[hskrpwr13]

The whole location argument is crap. It didnt seem to hurt us during the Devaney/Osborne years. Unfortunately, we ended up with a coach in Solich that let recruiting slip, and then a coach was brought in that destroyed the program. As said by another, winning will cure all.

I've lived in Phoenix for 20 years now. Loved my youth in Omaha. Other than '96, ASU's done nothing There are many hotties out here and not too many places have better year round weather.

[HuskerJen]

Will there ever come a day soon when we get a top 5 or 10 recruit in the nation? We never get those "Wow" guys. I would think we'd be able to pull one sometime. Why wouldn't a "Wow" guy want to come here, be the man, and get national coverage? It just makes no sense to me why they all seem to want to go to the same schools. They do know if they go to a school like Texas, USC, Florida that they have alot of "Wow" guys ahead of them and they may only get a year to start if they get a chance at all right? Just boggles my mind.

 

Yeah you're right, none of these guys: Baker Steinkuhler, Cody Green, Will Compton and Chris Williams are "wow" recruits.

 

I'd be surprised if these guys could walk and chew gum at the same time. [/sarcasm]

 

Looking ahead to next year's class the Huskers have already received the committment of the #1 OG in the nation.

[HuskerJen]

The whole location argument is crap.

 

No it's not.

 

In the process, the three most important factors in college football recruiting have become location, location and location.

 

An SI study of 2004-08 recruiting data for the 65 BCS-conference schools and Notre Dame revealed that programs which draw at least 50 percent of their players from within 200 miles or from within their home state stand a far better chance of winning consistently than those that did not. Of the nine schools that won 50 or more games from 2004-08, seven signed more than half their recruits during that span from within their state or from within 200 miles of campus: Texas (93.2% from in-state, 71.8 percent from within 200 miles), USC (72.0, 61.0), Georgia (63.6, 70.1), Florida (62.3, 47.9), Ohio State (55.8, 66.3), Virginia Tech (54.3, 44.0) and LSU (50.4, 56.5). Oklahoma barely missed the cut, with 49.1 percent from within 200 miles.

 

Recruiting and Location

[hskrpwr13]

We'll have to disagree, Jen. Maybe if every other factor is equal then it comes into play, but certainly location hasn't been a huge factor for NU throughout the years in terms of the level of player they've been able to bring in versus the likes of ASU, any Cal. school other than USC in recent years, and even Texas pre Mack Brown.

 

I would think, proximity to home is going to be a consideration for any recruit. Especailly those that grow up rooting for a specific program, much like Husker kids pre Callahan. But based on what I've seen throughout the years, when it comes to those that are the "star" recruits, location must be #3 on their lists, and it must be a far cry below #s 1 and 2.