National perception of Bo Pelini

[FLU]

Recruiting has been an issue over the past several years, and I wonder what is the root cause of the problem. And as far as I can figure, it's that kids nationally don't get excited thinking about playing for Bo. Others have told me that I'm wrong and that he's "highly regarded" in coaching circles, but we're not talking about coaching circles; we're talking about high school kids. They want to play for guys like Saban, Meyer, Miles, and Kiffin. As stated in another thread, I had one of my own D-1 prospects tell me that the Nebraska coach is "kinda crazy." How can we expect to get elite players if they don't consider Bo to be an elite coach to play for?

[808Husker in KCMO]

My guess... There is no National perception.

[southernoregonhusker]

My guess... There is no National perception.

 

I agree with this. Winning brings national perception and we don't do that anymore.

[nebraskaman]

I'm a Husker fan, born and bred in Nebraska, but I now live in So Cal. Not sure about the national perception of Bo, but he looked like an ass a couple of years ago during the big 12 championship. These images last. Not even close to the class of Mr Tom Osborne

[Nobody]

[CheeseHusker]

Yep..... the photo pretty much describes it.

 

I was gonna say a mediocre coach with a bad temper. Which is not that far off from my own perception.

[FLU]

Ok, just making sure that I wasn't the only one who felt this way, because I brought it up last night and got hounded and ridiculed for it.

 

Personally, I like Bo. I just think he's reached his peak as a HC. And if elite players don't want to play for him for whatever reason, how can we ever expect to become an elite program again??

[Nobody]

Ok, just making sure that I wasn't the only one who felt this way, because I brought it up last night and got hounded and ridiculed for it.

 

Personally, I like Bo. I just think he's reached his peak as a HC. And if elite players don't want to play for him for whatever reason, how can we ever expect to become an elite program again??

 

I don't necessarily buy that Bo can't go out and get the guys. But I know think that he hasn't.

[Brouhaha]

Ok, just making sure that I wasn't the only one who felt this way, because I brought it up last night and got hounded and ridiculed for it.

 

Personally, I like Bo. I just think he's reached his peak as a HC. And if elite players don't want to play for him for whatever reason, how can we ever expect to become an elite program again??

 

 

because if you haven't noticed he's starting to get great recruits. We have been raving about all these freshmen all summer. Will Tommy be second string? Will Imani redshirt or be a third back? Will the three DL monsters play? I think that his recruiting is starting to improve drastically. We're the leader for the best JUCO TE in the country. That's quite good news. We finally got an elite quarterback. Im not saying everything's hunky-dory, but as recruiting goes, it's noticeably improving. Even with Abdullah, Aaron Green (obviously left), Jamal Turner, i think the recruiting is doing much better than when he started. He's also getting good defensive players.

[zoogs]

You know, as much as I have had specific criticisms of Bo Pelini, I think the national perception is highly flawed.

 

I think he's a good coach who, for his students, is maybe the best thing for them. He isn't perfect even in that regard, but his sideline temper is a total non-issue. It's just something that people will pick on, if they want something to pick on Bo for. I think he's running this program, by and large, the right way and that is what ultimately matters. Even more than W's and L's, but of course, this 'perception' talk isn't so much about his abilities as a coach as it is about whether or not we should issue indictments of his character. I don't think we should.

 

I'll draw an analogy to our former coach, Bill Callahan. His sideline fire was highly commendable on a number of occasions. His players were getting harassed by OU fans and he urled a pretty awesome, and pretty memorable expletive back at them. He would get in refs' faces a number of times when he felt the call was bad. Of course now he's ridiculed for both those things, including the widely misinterpreted throat-slash ('I've had it up to here').

 

The point is, coaches that do good work for the student athletes in the program, their character often gets unfairly dragged through the mud when we find it convenient to. When we dislike the job a coach is doing we try to blow them up into some larger evil...when such a dramatization is very, very rarely fair.

 

All recruits need to know is that Bo's troops would run through a brick wall for him. Our issues with recruiting have not been Bo - they've been with organization and effort and treatment of the recruiting process (IMO).

[HuskerShark]

 

I don't even think it looks like he is yelling here. The whole "Bo has a temper" thing is freakin' stupid if you ask me. If he wins a title, nobody will mention his temper anymore. IMO, Saban and Brian Kelly have a much more apparent temper than Bo, but you don't hear much about them...

[HuskerShark]

Ok, just making sure that I wasn't the only one who felt this way, because I brought it up last night and got hounded and ridiculed for it.

 

Personally, I like Bo. I just think he's reached his peak as a HC. And if elite players don't want to play for him for whatever reason, how can we ever expect to become an elite program again??

 

 

because if you haven't noticed he's starting to get great recruits. We have been raving about all these freshmen all summer. Will Tommy be second string? Will Imani redshirt or be a third back? Will the three DL monsters play? I think that his recruiting is starting to improve drastically. We're the leader for the best JUCO TE in the country. That's quite good news. We finally got an elite quarterback. Im not saying everything's hunky-dory, but as recruiting goes, it's noticeably improving. Even with Abdullah, Aaron Green (obviously left), Jamal Turner, i think the recruiting is doing much better than when he started. He's also getting good defensive players.

 

+1. You hit the nail on the head with this post.

[FLU]

What do you consider to be "great" recruits? Just because they're better than the ones he was getting before, does not make them great. Barely cracking the Top 25 in recruiting every year does not equal great recruiting, IMO.

[sd'sker]

saban, miles, kiffin: what other recruiting advantages might they have other than their 'perception' and personalities? let me do some research, i am sure i can come up with something.

[FLU]

Look at Bama and LSU and USC -- those are great recruits. And don't give me any BS about how hard it is to get kids to come to Lincoln, because neither Baton Rouge nor Tuscaloosa have anything that Lincoln doesn't have. The difference is that their programs have coaches who kids want to play for, and they don't care where the school is located. I have no doubt that if Saban began coaching in Alaska, he'd still finish in the Top 5 for recruiting.