avg. stars

[Huskerlambs]

I've seen a lot of griping about recruiting.

We're going to have a small class, so we're not ranked that high, but go to Rivals, expand to the full list, and click on the average stars. We go from a #47 ranking to a #7.

We already have some strong young horses in the barn. This class will be small but elite.

[Axl_sued_me]

I've seen a lot of griping about recruiting.

We're going to have a small class, so we're not ranked that high, but go to Rivals, expand to the full list, and click on the average stars. We go from a #47 ranking to a #7.

We already have some strong young horses in the barn. This class will be small but elite.

 

I wish Bo would get more of the 4 and 5 star plug-n-play type of players on defense.

[Dan_F_31]

 

I wish Bo would get more of the 4 and 5 star plug-n-play type of players on defense.

So would all the elite SEC Defenses. Most of those type of players come from SEC country so your recruiting against location and results on the field. Everyone wishes we'd get more 4 or 5 star "plug and play" guys but there just aren't enough to go around.

[kchusker_chris]

I've seen a lot of griping about recruiting.

We're going to have a small class, so we're not ranked that high, but go to Rivals, expand to the full list, and click on the average stars. We go from a #47 ranking to a #7.

We already have some strong young horses in the barn. This class will be small but elite.

Regardless - 50% of the class won't pan out. So if we have 8 guys currently - only 4 will make much of an impact. I'd much rather have 20, with 8, 4* recruits and 12 3* recruits but a lower "star ranking" right now.

 

Comes down to roster management and red-shirting an entire class of 25+ in 2008. Notice Bo hasn't done that as much recently. He's paying for it this year.

[Mavric]

I've seen a lot of griping about recruiting.

We're going to have a small class, so we're not ranked that high, but go to Rivals, expand to the full list, and click on the average stars. We go from a #47 ranking to a #7.

We already have some strong young horses in the barn. This class will be small but elite.

Regardless - 50% of the class won't pan out. So if we have 8 guys currently - only 4 will make much of an impact. I'd much rather have 20, with 8, 4* recruits and 12 3* recruits but a lower "star ranking" right now.

 

Comes down to roster management and red-shirting an entire class of 25+ in 2008. Notice Bo hasn't done that as much recently. He's paying for it this year.

That class includes Stienkuhler, Compton, K. Reed, B. Cotton, Dennard, Meredith, and Marlowe who contributed a lot (plus R. Henry but he was a JUCO) as well as J. Williams, Fisher, PJ Smith, Whaley, K. Cooper, and C. Osborne who played. If that's how you "pay" for redshirting a class, sign me up.

 

And you can't sign more guys than you have scholarships for (unless you're in the SEC).

[caveman99]

I've seen a lot of griping about recruiting.

We're going to have a small class, so we're not ranked that high, but go to Rivals, expand to the full list, and click on the average stars. We go from a #47 ranking to a #7.

We already have some strong young horses in the barn. This class will be small but elite.

Regardless - 50% of the class won't pan out. So if we have 8 guys currently - only 4 will make much of an impact. I'd much rather have 20, with 8, 4* recruits and 12 3* recruits but a lower "star ranking" right now.

 

Comes down to roster management and red-shirting an entire class of 25+ in 2008. Notice Bo hasn't done that as much recently. He's paying for it this year.

That class includes Stienkuhler, Compton, K. Reed, B. Cotton, Dennard, Meredith, and Marlowe who contributed a lot (plus R. Henry but he was a JUCO) as well as J. Williams, Fisher, PJ Smith, Whaley, K. Cooper, and C. Osborne who played. If that's how you "pay" for redshirting a class, sign me up.

 

And you can't sign more guys than you have scholarships for (unless you're in the SEC).

You haven't disproven kc's point which is valid. Go back and look at how many players were solid to good contributers out each class. On average nationally it is about half, no matter how highly ranked the class is. On top of that, look at the solid contributers and determine just how hey would rank in a conference, i.e. are they playing because no else is available. Point being it is about quality in quantity. I actually don't have a big gripe about Bo and Co recruiting prowess, I think they have shown they can and do land big fish consistently. What does hurt is not managing a roster effectively to ensure the standard attrition does bite you in the end, LB is a classic case of this.

[Mavric]

His point is valid but it's useless. I'd rather have 20 guys with a mix of four-stars and three-stars as well but it's not going to happen. We only have so many scholarships available so we have to try to get the best players we can with those scholarships. You'd hope we are getting - on average - better players with the limited scholarships we have. And we are.

 

My point was I don't see how redshirting (mostly) the entire 2008 class was hurting us this year. We have seven players who are multi-year starters as Juniors this year (excpet for Dennard, who is a Sr.) plus Marlowe who played all the time this year. Then you have six players who played some including a couple who everyone seems to think should be playing more. That's about half that class so we're right on schedule. I didn't understand what the problem was with how this class was handled.

[caveman99]

His point is valid but it's useless. I'd rather have 20 guys with a mix of four-stars and three-stars as well but it's not going to happen. We only have so many scholarships available so we have to try to get the best players we can with those scholarships. You'd hope we are getting - on average - better players with the limited scholarships we have. And we are.

 

My point was I don't see how redshirting (mostly) the entire 2008 class was hurting us this year. We have seven players who are multi-year starters as Juniors this year (excpet for Dennard, who is a Sr.) plus Marlowe who played all the time this year. Then you have six players who played some including a couple who everyone seems to think should be playing more. That's about half that class so we're right on schedule. I didn't understand what the problem was with how this class was handled.

Yes it is irrelevant this year, the observation made is more of what needs to improve in the future. I agree with both of your points, I am generally happy with the type of talent Bo seems to be recruiting, at least according to the rankings, especially the last two years.

 

Redshirting the 2008 class is not the only reason the class is small, I felt that at the time it was a good idea and I still do. What that also did though was keep non contributers on the roster 1 more year. That is roster management. It is a touchy subject, but I think Bo should be finding 2-3 more spots a year. You mention guys who have played or have contributed, I don't think that is the standard you should be looking for. A great team has quality players across the board, not just solid contributors. If you are only taking 16, then you can expect to see 8-9 at least be solid contributors and the number of quality players will be even fewer. This is why it is important that in the future Bo finds a way to bring a larger class. The other way is to hope and pray that the class has a higher than average success rate, why would you want to lower your odds?

[kchusker_chris]

His point is valid but it's useless. I'd rather have 20 guys with a mix of four-stars and three-stars as well but it's not going to happen. We only have so many scholarships available so we have to try to get the best players we can with those scholarships. You'd hope we are getting - on average - better players with the limited scholarships we have. And we are.

 

My point was I don't see how redshirting (mostly) the entire 2008 class was hurting us this year. We have seven players who are multi-year starters as Juniors this year (excpet for Dennard, who is a Sr.) plus Marlowe who played all the time this year. Then you have six players who played some including a couple who everyone seems to think should be playing more. That's about half that class so we're right on schedule. I didn't understand what the problem was with how this class was handled.

That's the point though - we only have so many scholarships available right now because of the 2008 class. Bo essentially took away 8-10 scholarships from this class w/ that decision. It won't be useless when we are counting on this class (2012) in the future and there is no one left. You're looking at the 2008 class in terms of the 2012 season. But this is the recruiting forum...and 4 years from now we'll be wondering why we lack depth in areas and everyone will look back to these last 2 classes, where we will be lucky to total 30 players. That means if 75% stay, and 50% contribute we'll be looking at maybe 15 upper classmen in the 2 deep in 14/15. No one will probably look back to the 2008 class as part of the reason we lack depth in 2014-15 though...but in reality it will be a big reason.

 

Some of that is hypothetical, and a lot can happen between now and then, but to discount it's impact on recruiting and our roster management for the future would be uninformed.

[Mavric]

OK. I didn't quite understand what you were saying earlier.

 

I still don't think there was really any way around it, though. What were our other options? Play marginal players as true freshmen so they're out of here earlier? Not take a full class? It's pretty easy to look back now and say we should have done it differently. But that was a gripe a lot of people had about Callahan - that he never red-shirted anyone so we lost a year with very little contribution. Then Pelini does it the other way and people gripe about that. Moral of the story - people gripe.

[kchusker_chris]

haha - very true. Pelini just took it to the extreme that year. I think it's going to pay off because as you said, that class is going to have some major contributers next year. I just worry it will be at the expense of seasons down the road. I expect next years class, which will be large due to the graduation of this 08' class to include 5-7 JUCO players to balance things back out. I'd rather not have to go down that road, but it's the reality of the postion we're in. Good thing Pelini kicks a$$ w/ the JUCOs.