Self Imposed Sanctions

[ColoradoHusk]

No one answered my question. Max out what numbers? We will be at 85 scholarships just like every other school by the time fall camp rolls around.

Yes, NU will be at 85 scholarships by giving the available schillings to walk-ons and possibly grad transfers (although I will believe that one when I see them come to NU). But, this is not great practice, because if you are able to fill a scholarship with a recruited athlete, I think you should do so.

 

NU had room to get to around 25 in this class, and fell 5 short of that number. I know there were some last day decisions, but the program should manage the recruiting process to where they get closer to the max number of schollies in each class.

 

People continually railed on Bo for this practice, and it seems like the same people are now giving Riley a pass because he is seemingly bringing in better recruits.

[TJ Alum Husker]

can't we still pursue/sign JUCO's as well?

[commando]

 

No one answered my question. Max out what numbers? We will be at 85 scholarships just like every other school by the time fall camp rolls around.

Yes, NU will be at 85 scholarships by giving the available schillings to walk-ons and possibly grad transfers (although I will believe that one when I see them come to NU). But, this is not great practice, because if you are able to fill a scholarship with a recruited athlete, I think you should do so.

 

NU had room to get to around 25 in this class, and fell 5 short of that number. I know there were some last day decisions, but the program should manage the recruiting process to where they get closer to the max number of schollies in each class.

 

People continually railed on Bo for this practice, and it seems like the same people are now giving Riley a pass because he is seemingly bringing in better recruits.

 

I know.....lets fire Mike for not getting 25 recruits. right?

[Red Five]

 

 

No one answered my question. Max out what numbers? We will be at 85 scholarships just like every other school by the time fall camp rolls around.

Yes, NU will be at 85 scholarships by giving the available schillings to walk-ons and possibly grad transfers (although I will believe that one when I see them come to NU). But, this is not great practice, because if you are able to fill a scholarship with a recruited athlete, I think you should do so.

 

NU had room to get to around 25 in this class, and fell 5 short of that number. I know there were some last day decisions, but the program should manage the recruiting process to where they get closer to the max number of schollies in each class.

 

People continually railed on Bo for this practice, and it seems like the same people are now giving Riley a pass because he is seemingly bringing in better recruits.

 

I know.....lets fire Mike for not getting 25 recruits. right?

 

Can you point out where anyone is saying that he needs to be fired?

[Red Five]

can't we still pursue/sign JUCO's as well?

 

We can. But most have already signed. Only 2 of the top 50 are shown as available. And if we are going to sign a late juco (which is just a lottery ticket), I would have rather taken another HS player.

 

http://247sports.com/Season/2017-Football/RecruitRankings?InstitutionGroup=juniorcollege

[Mavric]

No one answered my question. Max out what numbers? We will be at 85 scholarships just like every other school by the time fall camp rolls around.

 

You should generally max out to 88 guys on signing day because it's pretty likely that you'll have some natural attrition in the next few months - guys don't make it to campus, guys leave early, guys transfer because they don't like their spot on the depth chart, etc. Right now, we're at 83. Yes, we will fill in but that's been a criticism for many years that we don't get as many guys as we could and then we're way short when the attrition happens. Chances are pretty good that you'll have a scholarship or two to pass out even if you max out on signing day.

 

In this case, knowing there is a small class next year, I can see the argument for not going all the way to 88. But I don't think 83 was making the best use of our resources.

[QMany]

Any ideas on off-season attrition (transfer or graduation)? Adam Taylor, Zach Hannon, and Dwayne Johnson are Redshirt Juniors that haven't cracked the two-deep.

[QMany]

Here is a discussion between three respected members on this issue a few years ago:

 

 

 

By my count, there are 78 scholarship players right now. But I added Burtch to my list when Pelini said he would be on scholarship this spring so 77 could be correct as well.

Off the top of my head, Avery Moss, Aaron Curry and DeAndre Wills all left the team somewhat unexpectedly since (basically) the end or the last recruiting cycle, meaning there hasn't been a chance to replace them through recruiting. Also, Jay Guy, Toby Okeyemi and Tyler Evans didn't return for their fifth seasons. Those weren't necessarily unexpected but I don't know how far ahead the coaches knew that for sure to be able to recruit a replacement.

There is another thread with speculation about which walk-ons will be getting scholarships. I think it's fair to count Burtch as a scholarship player as he was a regular contributor last year and the coaches had obviously decided well ahead of time that he would get a scholarship. Burtch plus the three unexpected departures is 81. The other three would make 84. So it's fair to say we were a little short. The degree is up for debate.

There are always unexpected departures. Going into the season with 82-83 leaving room for a couple walkons is perfect IMO. Every once in a while we'll hit that 80ish mark. Anything below that is pretty concerning to me, and it's happened a few times under Bo. USC, and all their sanctions...still is only capped at 75. So we've essentially self imposed almost an equal reduction as the NCAA placed on USC.

How Bo wouldn't know about Guy, Okeyemi, and Evans before the end of last years recruiting is a little beyond me. He likely has that conversation with every senior on the team, and probably again after the regular season giving him a couple months to recruit the position. They would communicate that too him, I'm 100% confident. It only hurts the team not to. So why those spots weren't filled is bizarre.

I don't think we can continue to brush this off as though it doesn't have an impact because we fill them with walkons that weren't going anywhere anyway. Being 6-8 short every year, when our competition is 2-3 over is too big of a gap. It's the difference between having a guy like Mike Shoff on the roster providing depth at OL, or another DT or two (Bazata), or a DE (Ott). It's in the trenches where we lack numbers, and it's there where we most often miss on recruiting. The numbers are the only way to solve that, and we aren't using them. It's my biggest issue with Pelini's recruiting. It's not so much the lack of talent in the individual, it's the lack of talent on the team because we lack the #s.

Agree with you on this. We are consistently in the high 70s. We need to be around 82-84 coming out of fall camp, and that's not including injuries, and then 2-3 walkons earning scholarships a year to get us to 85. Bo needs to do a better job of keeping us in the low 80s. 2-3 players can make a big difference in depth, like Ott and Bazata, or look what happened with Leroy Alexander, a lowly 2 star.

IMO we need to oversign by one or two every class to help keep up with the transfers that will happen. Would get us right where we need to be when the season starts 82 83.

We are at 80 for next year with 12 recruits committed for the 2015 class so we can sign 5 more right now. Would like to see us sign 18-19 total with over signing. Wouldn't be mad at all if Bo pushed it to the limit and we signed 20. There will be a few transfers in the spring and we'll be right back to 85. Put history shows us Bo hasn't taken advantage of the over signing. I really hope in a small class he does it this year.

 

 

It depends on whether we start the season with the numbers we have now or experience normal attrition.

[Huskinator]

I've come to the conclusion that people will be unhappy regardless of the situation. We get mad if we don't go for top talent and we are pissed when we go for them and miss. We missed by two scholarships. Get over it, it's not going to make or break our season.

[Mavric]

Those three (Taylor, Hannon, Johnson) won't surprise me at all. They're all seniors so they could have been a reason to take more in this class but won't matter for next class.

 

I've heard rumblings that we could lose a RB - Wilbon would be my guess.

 

Barnett seems to have been passed by some freshman so he wouldn't shock me. Rumors that Decker might not stick around.

 

And it won't surprise me if Tanner Lee wins the job in spring if POB transfers.

 

I don't know that very many of those are likely. But I think they're all possible and won't surprise me if they happen.

[Mavric]

I've come to the conclusion that people will be unhappy regardless of the situation. We get mad if we don't go for top talent and we are pissed when we go for them and miss. We missed by two scholarships. Get over it, it's not going to make or break our season.

 

Fortunately those aren't the only two options.

[Oade]

I would have preferred a bigger class (around 25). Yeah there might have been lower ranked guys brought in, but you never know about a guy until they get on campus.

 

I don't think a team can have too many bodies on the o-line, d-line and secondary. Many people criticized Bo for not signing the maximum number of players, and Riley deserves similar criticism.

 

I agree that we need to target the +3 limit going forward, and Riley deserves similar criticism going forward, but I think it is two-fold. We want the +3, but if the +3 aren't good enough recruits, then I'm ok with saving it. Also, not to be an apologist, but next year is Riley's first true NU class in my eyes- in terms of his staff recruiting players only to NU over the course of 3-4 years. Look at Sarell for example, maybe we would have landed him if Riley and Cav had been developing relationships to NU for that extra season rather than to OSU (small gripe, but notable imo). Its not uncommon to see an up-tick in recruiting for any program or staff during their 3rd full season of recruiting.

[RedDenver]

No one answered my question. Max out what numbers? We will be at 85 scholarships just like every other school by the time fall camp rolls around.

As long as we're at the 85 limit, then I'm good. Then use the +3 oversign if you get a few players who want in on signing day.

[ColoradoHusk]

 

No one answered my question. Max out what numbers? We will be at 85 scholarships just like every other school by the time fall camp rolls around.

As long as we're at the 85 limit, then I'm good. Then use the +3 oversign if you get a few players who want in on signing day.

 

Yes, but correct me if I'm wrong, aren't we currently at 82 or 83? I guess we had a last minute flip and other signing day decisions not go our way, but that's why you plan to over sign by 2-3 recruits.

[bugeater17]

We also have a tendency to red-shirt a fair amount of players which will naturally keep our classes per year smaller. I'd rather keep the 2 schollies and give them to a surprise transfer, JUCO, or deserving walk-on (which can then be used in next years class).