Slow start this year?

[Huskerzoo]

I've only spent a few recruiting cycles paying any real attention to recruiting, so forgive me if this is naive. Are we off to a slow start this year, seems as though a lot of other schools that we should arguably be a head of are off to better starts (Northwestern comes to mind). Is this an artifact of our small class size for 2014 (15-20)? If not, any other ideas of what's going on?

[swmohusker]

Not much different than most years. The kids we go after have a hard time making to campus on their own dime. They will take officials in season and love it, then the staff will let them go home and think it over. Kids that want promised playing time will go elsewhere, kids who really love the husker experience will be in. We have our early local committ that is going to try to help recruit this class. Seems to be right on track with most years.

[HuskerFowler]

Slow start for sure. Spring game turn out was very underwhelming.

 

Hopefully BRW is a home run like it was last year. Im betting it will be.

[swmohusker]

2010 pre may committs A-Rod, mike moudy.

 

2011 pre may commits Reeves, Moore, klatchko, Kevin williams

 

2012 pre may committs 0

 

2013 pre may committs banderas, love, natter

 

A-Rod, banderas, Reeves in state kids and Moore is legacy kid. So we pulled 5 out of staters in 4 years before May. So I would say this is a typical class. Lots of kids have visited practice and spring and have is really high on their list. Peyton Newell, fenstermacher, Elmore, and dj foster to name a few.

 

This class is right on our typical pace and I trust how the staff is recruiting kids. Hopefully this summer we can land our qb (darlington) and he can start recruiting Florida hard for is this year and we can have a nice recruiting haul this year. But I don't think u have any reason to be alarmed with how this class has started out.

[EZ-E]

Product of the different approach to the spring practice schedule.

[Atbone95]

Product of the different approach to the spring practice schedule.

Especially with the schedule this year, I kind of like how they're approaching the recruiting. It has a chance to bite us in the ass if it doesn't work out, but.... We're not going to reel in tons of upper 4-5 star guys. Get the offers out to them, stay in touch. Take care of business like we should and be 8-0 coming into Michigan. Hit the high profile guys harder while we're a Top 10 team and let them know we're still here.

I really hope this is how it plays out, but you never know right?

[Mavric]

Only once since we hired He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named have we had more than three commits before May. The one year was 2011 which was helped by Reeves (in-state) and Moore (strong ties) committing really early. One or two is pretty common.

[HuskerFowler]

Im not necessarily talking about commits. We hardly had anyone visit, no big names and very few from outside of NE. With how many kids we have in the 500 mile radius, the spring game was a very poor showing, especially considering we moved it so it wouldn't conflict with the ACT.

[OH HSKR FAN]

This article touches on some of the points that have already been discussed in this thread.

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/76405/nebraska-must-be-patient-in-recruiting

[AllNRed]

Normally, schools that get a great deal of early commits, are gaining them from kids from a relatively short distance from the program (within a 300-500 mile radius). These kids have normally been by the campus either for unofficials or a game before their senior year. That's where the location advantage comes to play for programs like Bama/Florida/USC/OSU/Michigan/Texas/etc......the talent in their back yard is the talent that programs across the nation are recruiting. Those programs have to wait to get official visits (which the school pays for) until their senior year. Only a talented kid staying in Tallahasee, FL/Austin, TX/ Baton Rouge, LA will visit Lincoln, NE before his senior year is if his parents have the funds to get him here. While waiting to get that opportunity, they are a hop/skip/jump away from other big name programs (UF/FSU/UT/USC/UCLA/etc.) or lower tier programs (FAU/Lousiana Lafeyette/Nevada) that may give them the opportunity to play early and still not be too far from family and friends attending his games. NU, historically recruits nationally due to the pool of talent that we have to pull out of versus the programs we are trying to compete against, because of that disadvantage early in the recruiting cycle. Now with more and more kids being recruited at young and younger ages (read somewhere that an 8th grader was offered), I wouldn't be surprise to see the NCAA allowing official visits earlier in the process. At least up to after their the previous class official signing day.

[Mavric]

Interesting OWH Article. Some highlights:

 

“You can't compare us to Ohio State and Michigan and Notre Dame,” Els told ESPN's Big Ten bloggers. “We will not fill up that quickly. If we're filling up that quickly, it's either because we just won the national championship and everybody wants to play for us, or we might be not very selective in who we're taking. We don't throw offers out there just to throw 'em out there.”

 

First, Nebraska's offering more players this year than it has in any other year under Bo Pelini. There's a strategy behind that, I think. It doesn't mean Nebraska's “throwing” offers out there.

 

Second, Els has brought more clarity and organization to Nebraska's recruiting process than other recruiting coordinators under Pelini. He did not rush or panic to hire giant recruiting staffs for NCAA rules changes that never made it past April. He created good Junior Day tentpoles in the winter and the summer with Big Red Weekend. Just months after the best class of Pelini's tenure, it's wildly premature to suggest the Huskers are lagging or lacking.

 

But there are times when Nebraska's staff — with encouragement from some local media — dwells too much on its limitations and not nearly enough on its considerable advantages. Even accounting for a decade of mediocre football, NU's recruiting rankings tower over the rest of the Big Ten West. Here are the average Rivals recruiting rankings for the last 11 classes, 2003-2013:

 

Nebraska, 25

Iowa, 42.9

Illinois, 43.8

Wisconsin, 48.2

Purdue, 52

Minnesota, 53

Northwestern 66.3 (This is a 10-class average since 2004 is not available for the Wildcats.)

 

The gap between Nebraska and the rest of its division is larger than the gap between the Huskers and Ohio State (13.2) and Michigan (11.5). And that average takes into account NU's 2003 and 2004 classes, which finished 42nd and 58th in the Rivals rankings. NU's average rank during the last nine years is 19.4.

[KJ.]

I find it interesting that Els is quick to basically say "We're not on the level of Ohio State or Michigan" and is completely fine with that. You'd think that would be something to shoot for, instead of trying to justify the fact that they're better than us.

[Mavric]

I find it interesting that Els is quick to basically say "We're not on the level of Ohio State or Michigan" and is completely fine with that. You'd think that would be something to shoot for, instead of trying to justify the fact that they're better than us.

Or it could be that they have a HUGE advantage because they have significantly more in-state and surrounding talent that they can pull from, who has grown up rooting for them and instantly jump at the chance when offered. But feel free to always look on the dark side.

[QMany]

I find it interesting that Els is quick to basically say "We're not on the level of Ohio State or Michigan" and is completely fine with that. You'd think that would be something to shoot for, instead of trying to justify the fact that they're better than us.

Is that what he is saying? That's just putting words in his mouth. His words are right above your rubbish.

He talks about how you can't compare how fast we fill up. That is not the same as saying we can't compare. That's straight bullsh*t, KJ.

[swmohusker]

Filling up early like Michigan is not always a great thing. Look at Texas. They have slowed their recruiting down a little to evaluate kids a little longer. We have to be very diligent in our recruiting and try to find the best talent. Not who rivals tells us who is the best bc some kid went to a camp and played catch on air.