grading the 2011 class

[dylan]

QB - A+ if bubba shows, A if he doesn't.

i am ecstatic over turner's signing. he seems to have the attitude and ability to win a lot of games.

 

RB - A+

green is a top notch back and abdullah is very impressive himself. could even be a better group if heard wanders onto campus this fall. also got nice walk-ons in the kid from prep and the kid from a top texas program.

 

WR - B-

obviously everyone wants to see us sign the next julio jones, but it's not like we struck out here. we got a couple of good athletes. if turner ends up playing at WR, the grade could go up quickly. of course, if davie doesn't make it and turner sticks at QB, it could go down pretty quick as well. watch for the walk-ons, burch and broekmyer part deaux.

 

TE - D

i hope mr. sutton proves me wrong and i wish him the best in his career. i will admit to knowing little about him, but TE was a big need for this class and a last minute back-up plan does not inspire confidence. the walk-on from elkhorn sounds like he might have some athletic ability, so maybe this won't be as bad as it looks.

 

OL - A+

would have been nice have have hobbi as the cherry on top, but we got some big time kids as it is. price is the only one that wasn't highly coveted and even he has a lot of potential. thought about giving this class an A instead of an A+ until i remembered the walk-ons. some good potential in the FIVE OL walk-ons.

 

DL - A-

would really give this an A for DT and a B for DE. can't complain about peat and williams, but would have really liked another high quality high school DE. i like pirman's potential though and love carter's chances for contributing early. adding peat was huge for this class.

 

LB - C+

i like santos a lot, but we really needed a second LB in this class. slaughter walking on does make me feel a little better about it though.

 

DB - C+

again, absolutely love the two guys we got here, but we badly needed at least one more quality high school DB, particularly a corner. losing tevin mitchell hurt quite a bit. it'll hurt even more if jackson doesn't qualify (D or D-).

 

K - A

a big need filled here, both for PK and KOS. seems like he has the leg to at least handle kick-offs and give us a shot on longer field goals. now we'll see if he's got any henery in him.

 

overall - A-

2-3 more kids at the right spots and i call this an A+ class, but i'm not complaining. the quality of these recruits rivals any class we've had here in a long time. what's even better is it mostlly addressed the spots we needed the help and is made up of high quality kids. throw in an outstanding crop of walk-ons and things are looking good for team pelini. i particularly love that we stocked up on big guys, as winning the battle up front is the key to winning football.

[macroboy]

I agree with most of this.

 

I think I grade the DB's higher. I agree we needed another but the guys we got appear to be quality.

 

I think this is the best class in years. Don't you?

[dylan]

I agree with most of this.

 

I think I grade the DB's higher. I agree we needed another but the guys we got appear to be quality.

 

I think this is the best class in years. Don't you?

 

i think jackson and stafford are both studs, i just don't think we filled all of our needs at DB, so i have a hard time giving it a good grade. i could see going as far as B-, but that might be a bit generous.

 

i agree that this is the best class we've had in years. a couple of callahan's classes had greater numbers, making it debatable, but i don't think we've had a class made up of this many high quality players for a long time, at least since the 90's.

[whateveritis1224]

I'd give the DBs a B. It would have been nice to get one or two more, but we already have a whole lot of depth in the Secondary (though most of it hasn't been tested).

 

LB and TE should definitely be our focus next year, along with DE.

[chamrocck]

First I love our class and want to say we did a great job!

 

My only point of disagreement is that we did strike out at wide WR. I am counting on Turner as a dynamic QB, not a WR. We are losing WR recruiting battles to Arizona, Virginia Tech, and Kansas. We are a ways off in this category. It is not like we lost WR's to OU, TX, and FL. We are not competing for WR's with even mid tier Pac 10 and Big 12 teams. I think the addition of someone like a Frost has to target this weakness and need. When we lose games it is because we our stacked against and teams play our RB's and running QB. That will get us about as far as we have been last two years and that is it.

[NoLongerN]

First I love our class and want to say we did a great job!

 

My only point of disagreement is that we did strike out at wide WR. I am counting on Turner as a dynamic QB, not a WR. We are losing WR recruiting battles to Arizona, Virginia Tech, and Kansas. We are a ways off in this category. It is not like we lost WR's to OU, TX, and FL. We are not competing for WR's with even mid tier Pac 10 and Big 12 teams. I think the addition of someone like a Frost has to target this weakness and need. When we lose games it is because we our stacked against and teams play our RB's and running QB. That will get us about as far as we have been last two years and that is it.

 

I concur with your comments on WR and those battles. You are "spot on"!

 

For me, this staff will be judged in a few years by what they did in hiring coaches/recruiters to stimulate and develop this area of the program.

 

SheepdogMark

[dylan]

I'd give the DBs a B. It would have been nice to get one or two more, but we already have a whole lot of depth in the Secondary (though most of it hasn't been tested).

 

LB and TE should definitely be our focus next year, along with DE.

 

the depth we have is nice, and we did bring in four DBs last year, but we need 7-9 DB's ready to go every season for 5 spots (this includes the peso position, which requires DB skills). given that we're recruiting for 3-5 years down the road, it hurts to have a recruiting class with only one high school defensive back. we'll have to really emphasize DBs next class, in addition to the spots you mentioned.

 

put another way, i'd give jackson an A+, stafford an A and then an F for the empty slot (or two) that they didn't fill.

[aholla3]

Id give our class an A. We got our biggest target, which was Aaron Green. Love Turner, absolutely love what we got on the O-line. Probably couldve done a little better at a couple spots, but we couldve done a lot, lot worse. I would agree in saying this looks like it could be our best class in years.