Dirk on recruiting local

[VA Husker Fan]

Trevor Robinson wasn't missed by choice.

 

I don't know the answer, but I'd be curious to see the % of in-state commits that were non-contributors vs. out-of-staters. Defining "non-contributors" is tricky, maybe anyone who never started a game? Injuries can happen and they aren't indicative of bad recruiting but that probably balances out.

[Elf]

Things are definitely different than they were 20 years ago. Scholarship limits are much less, and the price of college education has sky-rocketed. That alone is one reason the walk-on program isn't what it once was, and that's why you're not seeing as many kids turning down scholly offers from schools like Iowa State or FCS schools to chase the dream of playing for Nebraska. Some still do, but that number is a lot less than it once was.

That's not entirely true. In 1973 the 105 limit was established, in 1978 in dropped to 95. It dropped again in 1992 to 85. A lot of people don't realize that the last scholarship cut was 23 years ago and even then it was only 10 scholarships.

[NUance]

 

Things are definitely different than they were 20 years ago. Scholarship limits are much less, and the price of college education has sky-rocketed. That alone is one reason the walk-on program isn't what it once was, and that's why you're not seeing as many kids turning down scholly offers from schools like Iowa State or FCS schools to chase the dream of playing for Nebraska. Some still do, but that number is a lot less than it once was.

That's not entirely true. In 1973 the 105 limit was established, in 1978 in dropped to 95. It dropped again in 1992 to 85. A lot of people don't realize that the last scholarship cut was 23 years ago and even then it was only 10 scholarships.

 

 

The elimination of partial qualifiers had an effect too. The Whorns pushed the Big 12 to eliminate partial qualifiers in the conference. I think this was aimed squarely at Nebraska.

[Pedro Guerrero]

Totally in agreement that our state still needs to be a priority and that there are undeveloped players waiting in the rough, ready to be fully realized on their potential.

 

 

 

One question I have though, what is the state of Nebraska high school football? When I was playing, and even to a higher degree years before, it seems like everyone all ran triple option offenses, which made the transition into the Osborne/Solich Nebraska teams a bit easier. Has HS football caught up with the times in the state? History is a dangerous precedent to use here, because of the ever increasing devotions and resources high school kids in bigger metro areas and more populated states are getting year round.

 

I went to all the Westside home games so I saw a handful of the Class A schools. (heres what my untrainded eye noticed about the offenses I saw) It appeared Westide like to run a pretty tradition Pro-Style offense. A lot of I formation or off I stuff but they could spread it out and go shotgun 4 wide when needed. It helped that they had a good IB and QB. Omaha North last week ran mostly I formation power football with Jordan Strong (if that kid had been in shape all year and their line was healthy they wouldn’t have lost as many games as they did). Grand Island was spread gimmicky stuff, Fremont ran read option spread stuff, Papio was the same as Fremont and Bellevue West is just a well-oiled machine that did whatever they wanted but it was mostly shotgun single back spread stuff (Oregon without the QB run game but that could have just been against Westside) Millard North still runs their triple option stuff. Other than that I don’t know what the other teams in the state are doing.

[FrankWheeler]

Is Dirk (or anybody else?) upset that we didn't get David Oku in 2009 and took Rex Burkhead instead?

[Landlord]

Is Dirk (or anybody else?) upset that we didn't get David Oku in 2009 and took Rex Burkhead instead?

 

 

 

David Oku is still one of the most bizarre recruiting sagas that has ever existed, and he never turned into anything, so no, of course not.

 

 

He can't even count as an in-state recruit. He was originally from Texas or Cali or someplace far, but moved here his senior season because he knocked up a girl on his recruiting visit. Or something like that.

[Mavric]

 

Very good article and something many fans have been saying for a very long time.

 

There is more talent here than what Callahan and Bo believed or were willing to work to find.

 

Can put a lot more names under the "gave" a scholarship to a local kid who never produced compared to the ones who go on to produce at other schools

 

 

This is the problem. It makes for a good article when you can point out all the examples on one side of the coin and ignore the other side.

 

It's complete revisionist history to say that Callahan didn't give enough scholarships to Nebraska kids. The obvious miss was Woodhead but it general, it would be far more accurate to say he gave out too many than not enough.

 

Native-Nebraska Scholarship Signees Since 2002 (as far back as Rivals goes):

2002 - Matt Herian, David Horne, Mark LeFlore, Kurt Mann, Jay Moore, Gory Timm, Dane Todd

2003 - Andy Birkel, Tierre Green, Josh Mueller, Bo Ruud, Brandon Teamer

 

2004 - Andy Christensen, Cortney Grixby, Mike Huff, Clayton Sievers, Ty Steinkuhler

2005 - Zach Potter, Robert Rands, Jeff Souder

2006 - Ricky Henry, DJ Jones, Ben Martin, Corey Young

2007 - Jared Crick, Niles Paul

 

2008 - Sean Fisher, Micah Kreikemeier, John Levorson, Collins Okafor, Baker Steinkuhler

2009 - Cole Pensick, CJ Zimmerer

2010 - Jake Cotton, Tyler Evans, Bronson Marsh, Andrew Rodriguez

2011 - Daniel Davie, Ryne Reeves, Zach Sterup, David Sutton

2012 - Sam Cotton

2013 - Josh Banderas

2014 - DJ Foster, Luke Gifford, Mick Stoltenberg

 

2015 - Michael Decker, DaiShon Neal

 

You can look at 2004 and 2008 when we took more Nebraska kids in transition years and see how many of them actually turned in to contributors. During Callahan's years only about one Nebraska kid turned into a contributor out of each class. Pelini usually got a couple out of each class and he didn't take as many.

 

Dirk found 14 who he says should have been Huskers. There's close to 20 in the names above that you could argue probably "shouldn't" have been. And I'm sure there's twice that many who people said at the time should have gotten a Husker offer but didn't and now nobody remembers who they were.

 

It's easy to say on the back end and say what someone should have done. I'd like to have as many Nebraska kids as possible. But the fact remains that the state really only produces 2-3 legitimate D1 prospects each year. Even Dirk's numbers back that up. So you try your best to get those 2-3 kids and live with the results.

[NUinID]

There have definitely been too many misses. The fact that Drew Ott, Nathen Bazata, and Harrison Phillips are not playing for Nebraska right now is wrong. All three of those guys would be there if they would have got an offer. Ott and Bazata weren't even offered and they slow played Phillips so bad that he went elsewhere. All three of those guys are or were starting for very good football teams at the beginning of the year.

 

The Prater twins were slow played and offered late. They went to Iowa one was all conference and the other lettered a couple of times.

 

You are not going to get every kid. Harlan Gunn and Trevor Robinson were not going to come to Nebraska. Gunn always wanted to go to Miami and Robinson's dad was not a Nebraska lover. But to outright pass on good FB players like the three I mentioned is stupid.

 

There was definitely something wrong with BP's evaluation process. I hope that MR fixes that.

[Red Five]

The article oversimplifies recruiting Nebraska kids. Its easy to see who we should have recruited looking back with 5-10 years of hindsight.

 

We recruited Robinson, but he chose ND. Similar to Harland Gunn was going to Miami not matter what.

 

For every Ott there is a Tyrone Sellers.

 

And what about Collins Okafor or Micah Kriekemeier type guys? Kids we brought in from Nebraska but never came close to seeing the field.

 

edit: Mav lays it out pretty well above.

[Waterloohusker26]

The article oversimplifies recruiting Nebraska kids. Its easy to see who we should have recruited looking back with 5-10 years of hindsight.

 

We recruited Robinson, but he chose ND. Similar to Harland Gunn was going to Miami not matter what.

 

For every Ott there is a Tyrone Sellers.

 

And what about Collins Okafor or Micah Kriekemeier type guys? Kids we brought in from Nebraska but never came close to seeing the field.

 

edit: Mav lays it out pretty well above.

 

Bingo

[FrankWheeler]

I'd like Dirk to pick out the Nebraska kids that are going to make it to the NFL in this class so we can make sure we get them on the team. Should Alec Cromer be offered as a tight end? Is David Engelhaupt the next Kyle Emanual or he is Bryson Studnick?

 

Which unranked running back is going to make it to the NFL?

 

(I have nothing against Bryson Studnicka, he seems like he turned out to be a solid player for Wyoming, but the point still stands.)

[Red Five]

Need to reinstitute county scholarships IMO

[Touchdown Tommie]

I just do not agree with the article. As stated above, you can call out the coaching staff after the fact with guys like Ott and Woodhead. Ott going to Iowa is A LOT different than Woodhead ending up at Chadron State...every single D1 program missed on him.

 

You can never win with the in state guys. The question comes back...why is this kid not getting a scholarship or why are the coaches using a scholarship on a 2 star in state kid vs a 3-4 star out of state kid.

 

There are obvious ones, but it is a crap shoot just like any other recruit!

[Pedro Guerrero]

I think putting Bates in there as a miss is laughable. He got a sniff in the NFL as a WR. He was a QB coming out of High School and if my memory is correct he only wanted to play QB out of High School. I’m also pretty sure Nebraska wanted him as an athlete will the promise he would get a chance at QB but no guarantee he wouldn’t switch positions.

 

How many current kids from in state start for FBS schools besides Nebraska? Christian Hagan from Westside is the kicker for Northern Illinois. Nebraska wanted him to walk on (took Brown on Scholarship instead) but NIU offered and scholarship and he went there instead and you can’t blame the kid for that one. I’m sure there are a whole mess of kids at Ohio and maybe Wyoming as well and he mentions Ott and Phillips.

[NUinID]

 

 

Very good article and something many fans have been saying for a very long time.

 

There is more talent here than what Callahan and Bo believed or were willing to work to find.

 

Can put a lot more names under the "gave" a scholarship to a local kid who never produced compared to the ones who go on to produce at other schools

 

 

This is the problem. It makes for a good article when you can point out all the examples on one side of the coin and ignore the other side.

 

It's complete revisionist history to say that Callahan didn't give enough scholarships to Nebraska kids. The obvious miss was Woodhead but it general, it would be far more accurate to say he gave out too many than not enough.

 

Native-Nebraska Scholarship Signees Since 2002 (as far back as Rivals goes):

2002 - Matt Herian, David Horne, Mark LeFlore, Kurt Mann, Jay Moore, Gory Timm, Dane Todd

2003 - Andy Birkel, Tierre Green, Josh Mueller, Bo Ruud, Brandon Teamer

 

2004 - Andy Christensen, Cortney Grixby, Mike Huff, Clayton Sievers, Ty Steinkuhler

2005 - Zach Potter, Robert Rands, Jeff Souder

2006 - Ricky Henry, DJ Jones, Ben Martin, Corey Young

2007 - Jared Crick, Niles Paul

 

2008 - Sean Fisher, Micah Kreikemeier, John Levorson, Collins Okafor, Baker Steinkuhler

2009 - Cole Pensick, CJ Zimmerer

2010 - Jake Cotton, Tyler Evans, Bronson Marsh, Andrew Rodriguez

2011 - Daniel Davie, Ryne Reeves, Zach Sterup, David Sutton

2012 - Sam Cotton

2013 - Josh Banderas

2014 - DJ Foster, Luke Gifford, Mick Stoltenberg

 

2015 - Michael Decker, DaiShon Neal

 

You can look at 2004 and 2008 when we took more Nebraska kids in transition years and see how many of them actually turned in to contributors. During Callahan's years only about one Nebraska kid turned into a contributor out of each class. Pelini usually got a couple out of each class and he didn't take as many.

 

Dirk found 14 who he says should have been Huskers. There's close to 20 in the names above that you could argue probably "shouldn't" have been. And I'm sure there's twice that many who people said at the time should have gotten a Husker offer but didn't and now nobody remembers who they were.

 

It's easy to say on the back end and say what someone should have done. I'd like to have as many Nebraska kids as possible. But the fact remains that the state really only produces 2-3 legitimate D1 prospects each year. Even Dirk's numbers back that up. So you try your best to get those 2-3 kids and live with the results.

 

 

You and I must view guys that contributed differently. I think all the guys I put in bold above contributed to the FB team pretty well. You and I both know that a 50% return on recruiting is about what to expect and by my figuring in that group about 36 of 46 contributed to the team.