LJS: Riley Must Find Right Recruiting Formula

[Mavric]

Good luck to conference teams trying to catch Urban Meyer, "the standard-bearer for head coach recruiting in college football," says Mike Farrell, national recruiting director for Rivals.com. "He's the guy."

To catch "the guy," you better have a sound plan, a formula that doesn't necessarily require consistent top-10 recruiting classes because those are difficult to churn out, particularly in the hinterland. Maybe the plan is something along the lines of what Mark Dantonio uses at Michigan State.

"What Dantonio has done is he rarely plays true freshmen — at least to the extent that most schools do," says Josh Helmholdt, Midwest recruiting analyst for Rivals.com. "So his teams are generally older, with a lot of fifth-year seniors."

Michigan State's average recruiting class ranking since 2010 is No. 31, according to Rivals. That's partly because the Spartans' classes have been relatively small. The downside of the plan is the fewer players a team signs, the less margin for error. You better get the right guys.

Michigan State has won at least 11 games four of the past five seasons, with Rose and Cotton bowl victories the past two. Nebraska starves for such success. By the way, the Huskers' average recruiting ranking during the past five years is 26th, but it didn't feel like there was an overriding year-to-year plan.

"I believe Dantonio feels a senior-driven ball club is a better ball club," Helmholdt says. "There are some strong arguments for that. On the other hand, kids want to play early. So it might hurt you in recruiting."

New Nebraska coach Mike Riley at some point will take a step back and develop a long-term philosophy. His main objective, to this point, has been holding together what appears to be a solid class.

 

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[alexhortdog95]

Let's get Greg Mattison to recruit for other teams against us. Seems to work pretty well.

[BigRedBuster]

I like this.....

 

Sean Callahan retweeted

Brett McMurphy ‏@McMurphyESPN 2m2 minutes ago

Of 15 schools w/new coaches only Wisconsin (29) & Nebraska (32) have @ESPN Top 40 recruiting classes

[Count 'Bility]

Ermahgerd

 

No harbaugh? No florida?

[Mavric]

Ermahgerd

 

No harbaugh? No florida?

 

Will be interesting to see. Not really the same situation as both those ships had been slowly sinking for a couple years. Recruits were already bailing well before the coaching change. Not sure how much momentum Florida has going but I'm not going to say much about Michigan until this time next week.

[Moiraine]

We're not going to out-recruit Ohio State.

 

And I'm not saying Meyer isn't a good recruiter, but Tressel did well there too. In 2008 and 2009 he had top 5 classes. It's easy to recruit there.