Saunders Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 LINCOLN — Let’s say you’re a Nebraska football junkie who carved out a little time Saturday to see if NU’s new-and-improved recruiting operation could make some major hay at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. You’d read the previews — either in The World-Herald or from one of the guys who do a good job covering NU recruiting — and figured the Huskers had at least one commit — slot receiver Jamire Calvin — and could get more. And when Nebraska got shut out — when a clearly emotional Calvin picked Oregon State out of nowhere — there’s a decent chance you found a message board, Twitter profile or email account on which to vent. I heard from many of you — and I read a few of the meltdowns on message boards. But the most thought-provoking email I got — even if I disagree with some of it and will rebut portions later in this column — came from Husker fan Clint. He said he sent his email to a few media outlets. I think it articulates what a number of fans feel about the ongoing talent gap debate, and how coach Mike Riley intends to close it by cultivating his decades-seasoned California connections. http://www.omaha.com/huskers/football/recruiting/mckewon-huskers-can-t-let-shutout-deter-them-in-recruiting/article_32d56ca8-5baf-5d6e-9328-a89c366f8789.html 2 Quote Link to comment
Saunders Posted January 9, 2017 Author Share Posted January 9, 2017 This part still kills me... Nebraska is 4-8 against Iowa and Wisconsin combined since joining the Big Ten, and 0-4 since Riley took over. Until that changes — expect fans like Clint to be skeptical about whether this recruiting strategy works. Let’s start with this: NU doesn’t have a talent deficiency to Iowa and Wisconsin. Perhaps the Badgers, because their linemen traditionally get a little underrated by the recruiting services, but certainly not Iowa, and certainly not 30 points worse than Iowa. So whatever talent Nebraska does or doesn’t land is going to have to beat the Hawkeyes and Badgers. Soon. ...... Iowa couldn’t care less about its recruiting rankings, which is good, because Iowa doesn’t have good recruiting rankings. Nebraska could sign seven mid-level three stars in the rest of the class — which would disappoint Husker recruitniks — and NU will still do better in the rankings than Iowa. At some point, it’s worth asking how those two teams, with modest reach in recruiting, beat Nebraska on field — consistently. Consistently as in, NU is 1-6 against these teams since 2013. 2 Quote Link to comment
TonyStalloni Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 Where Iowa and Wisc tend to beat us are on the O and D lines. They both have had very good O linemen which has negated our decent D lines. We have had a few good O linemen but not all 5 at one time and there has been no depth to plug in when injuries happen. Our O line class last year I hope brings back the parity we need but it may not show up this year. Recruiting on the D line needs to improve....especially at DE if we want to get into the BIG West picture. I think our skill positions will be ok. 2 Quote Link to comment
BRV920 Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 No real mystery here. Both teams have a offensive identity that can recruit to. They find big lineman that can run block and teach to how to pass block. I don't think a lot of people understand how hard to is going to be to recruit to Riley's 50/50 balanced offense. We will pretty much have to have NFL caliber players at every position on offense to make it work properly. Not saying it can't be done here but even USC struggles with this and they have huge recruiting advantages over us. 3 Quote Link to comment
Saunders Posted January 9, 2017 Author Share Posted January 9, 2017 Where Iowa and Wisc tend to beat us are on the O and D lines. They both have had very good O linemen which has negated our decent D lines. We have had a few good O linemen but not all 5 at one time and there has been no depth to plug in when injuries happen. Our O line class last year I hope brings back the parity we need but it may not show up this year. Recruiting on the D line needs to improve....especially at DE if we want to get into the BIG West picture. I think our skill positions will be ok. It's not like they are recruiting tons of blue chip linemen, it's just that they develop them better than we do. 1 Quote Link to comment
Enhance Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 To Saunders point, I agree. I don't think Nebraska is in a position to wait for great recruits to come along in order to start being successful. Schools like Wisconsin and Michigan St. have competed for and won Big 10 titles with less "talent" than Nebraska, and they do it through their identity and development. Nebraska's coaches are going to have to prove they can do more with less, and then I think the on field success will breed improvement in the recruiting arena. Quote Link to comment
kchusker_chris Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 Where Iowa and Wisc tend to beat us are on the O and D lines. They both have had very good O linemen which has negated our decent D lines. We have had a few good O linemen but not all 5 at one time and there has been no depth to plug in when injuries happen. Our O line class last year I hope brings back the parity we need but it may not show up this year. Recruiting on the D line needs to improve....especially at DE if we want to get into the BIG West picture. I think our skill positions will be ok.It's not like they are recruiting tons of blue chip linemen, it's just that they develop them better than we do. If only we could hire one of their line coaches away from them - that would really change our line play I bet. ....oh wait, we tried that. Quote Link to comment
kchusker_chris Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 ...they do it through their identity and development.^ this It's easier to recruit and develop to an identity versus continually trying to be "multiple" Quote Link to comment
BRV920 Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 To Saunders point, I agree. I don't think Nebraska is in a position to wait for great recruits to come along in order to start being successful. Schools like Wisconsin and Michigan St. have competed for and won Big 10 titles with less "talent" than Nebraska, and they do it through their identity and development. Nebraska's coaches are going to have to prove they can do more with less, and then I think the on field success will breed improvement in the recruiting arena. Don't think Michigan State is going to be in the conversation again until they find a DC and another NFL caliber QB. 1 Quote Link to comment
Mavric Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 So an entire article explaining why it's hard to recruit to Nebraska. Interesting..... 1 Quote Link to comment
Nebfanatic Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 People talk about us not having an identity but Riley taught Wisconsins HC most everything he knows? We have an identity and it is similar to most of the teams in the Big 10 frankly. At least in terms of what Riley wants to do. If anything Riley is taking us more towards the Big 10 mold than Bo ever was. PSU and OSU have done different things on offense than what the Big 10 is used to but if you look at the scheme we want to run offensivly anyway it is very similar to Wisconsin, Iowa, MSU, Michigan, ect. Quote Link to comment
BRV920 Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 People talk about us not having an identity but Riley taught Wisconsins HC most everything he knows? We have an identity and it is similar to most of the teams in the Big 10 frankly. At least in terms of what Riley wants to do. If anything Riley is taking us more towards the Big 10 mold than Bo ever was. PSU and OSU have done different things on offense than what the Big 10 is used to but if you look at the scheme we want to run offensivly anyway it is very similar to Wisconsin, Iowa, MSU, Michigan, ect. Maybe Michigan State but not a lot in common with the others. Those teams are all running teams first and foremost. Quote Link to comment
teachercd Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 So an entire article explaining why it's hard to recruit to Nebraska. Interesting..... Was it Beck or Els that said that a few years back and they were crucified for it... Quote Link to comment
Igetbored216 Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 So an entire article explaining why it's hard to recruit to Nebraska. Interesting..... What are you getting at? Quote Link to comment
Nebfanatic Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 People talk about us not having an identity but Riley taught Wisconsins HC most everything he knows? We have an identity and it is similar to most of the teams in the Big 10 frankly. At least in terms of what Riley wants to do. If anything Riley is taking us more towards the Big 10 mold than Bo ever was. PSU and OSU have done different things on offense than what the Big 10 is used to but if you look at the scheme we want to run offensivly anyway it is very similar to Wisconsin, Iowa, MSU, Michigan, ect.Maybe Michigan State but not a lot in common with the others. Those teams are all running teams first and foremost. and so are we. Look at the stats not off perception. We run nearly an identical scheme to Wisconsin, maybe because Chryst learned what he knows from Riley Edit: ok if you look at the stats you will find Wisconsin does run significantly more but that bring said it doesn't change that our schemes our very similar Quote Link to comment
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