Husker_Power
Starter
Coaches concentrate on talent, not numbers.
It's Husker football, so naturally there are worried parties, even in May.
Still more than eight months until national letter-of-intent signing day, it's not so early in the process that some who closely follow recruiting are showing anxiety.
They worry about the heights and weights of the defensive linemen, the 40-yard dash time of a running back, the number of scholarship offers made by other schools to Nebraska's five known commitments for the 2009 class.
You know who's not worried? Nebraska assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator Ted Gilmore.
Whatever perceptions there might be about Husker recruiting don't really matter to the receivers coach.
"The only perception that matters is those guys that are in that office, sitting there watching the tape and doing their evaluations," Gilmore says.
Having five commitments at this point in the recruiting process puts Nebraska in the company of most schools, but still, there are those who get concerned when they take a look at what some of the bullies of college football are doing.
Did you see Texas has 18 commitments already?
Yeah, and USC has 10 — all "4 stars" and "5 stars."
"It's a process. You never know when a kid you're going to recruit is going to put his hand up or not," Gilmore says. "Obviously, there's some places out there, because of the talent in their back yards, that might have more (recruits) than others. But there's no need for us to panic. There's a lot of days left in this recruiting calendar."
Husker head coach Bo Pelini has said he's not interested in star rankings, just getting good football players. That's not to say Nebraska coaches aren't after some heralded recruits, too. But one thing they've shown early on is that they're not afraid to trust their eyes and extend scholarship invitations to kids not on the national radar screen.
Just look at Nebraska's most recent recruiting class and a scholarship given to safety Mason Wald, out of Birmingham, Ala. The other school courting Wald was Samford.
It didn't matter to Husker coaches. They saw someone who could play. Sign him up.
"You just want to find ballplayers and guys that have great character, great intangibles," says Jeff Jamrog, NU's associate athletic director for football operations. "Those are the things you can't measure. Because everyone's doing it right now, just measuring height, weight, 40 speed, all these things that you can measure. And in the end, what really separates talent are those intangibles that you can't measure.
"Some of that stuff of who really has offers out and all that? A lot of kids who say they have offers, they don't. There's so much misinformation out there. It's a marriage, and in the end it's who you feel good with."
Certainly, patience is required to judge a recruiting class. Jamrog reminds that Tom Osborne's teams that went 60-3 during his last five years were made up of guys from recruiting classes that were usually ranked 20th or worse.
Jamrog and Gilmore say there are no set number of commitments they'd like to have by fall camp.
"We just want to see that we're thorough on the process and we get the class we want," Jamrog says. "And if it ends up taking until Feb. 4, it takes until Feb. 4. Most important is you just get the right ones that are a good fit for your program."
And while the focus is heavy on prep players, Husker coaches will still keep a lookout for any potential help that may be found in the junior college ranks.
"We'll scour the country, we'll still look at junior college players," Jamrog says. "And if there is a certain position where we need upgraded to a point where they have to play immediately, we may go the junior college route on a certain position."
Coaches will be able to see plenty of prospects next month when about 1,200 to 1,300 kids roll into Lincoln for football camps.
Recruiting season is in its evaluation period until May 31. Assistant coaches can visit prep prospects during this time, but head coaches can't.
Some have argued this rule provides a disadvantage to new head coaches who weren't able to meet recruits last year and now can't visit their high schools during this evaluating period to gather information.
Gilmore says he doesn't think the rule hurts Nebraska.
"I think where the head coach has an effect more than anything is locally, in-state. And, obviously, those kids know who Bo is."
The recruiting process has accelerated dramatically since Gilmore got into coaching 14 years ago. It was always competitive, but it's become more fast-paced, scholarships sometimes even being offered to babyfaced underclassmen.
"It's the times that we're in, dealing with the Internet and different things like that," Gilmore says. "Whether it's an early-signing period, I think that's something they have to seriously look at. Honestly, I think it's ludicrous some kids are getting offered as sophomores and juniors and haven't even played a lick their senior year. I think you're rolling the dice when you do that, quite honestly."
Link
It's Husker football, so naturally there are worried parties, even in May.
Still more than eight months until national letter-of-intent signing day, it's not so early in the process that some who closely follow recruiting are showing anxiety.
They worry about the heights and weights of the defensive linemen, the 40-yard dash time of a running back, the number of scholarship offers made by other schools to Nebraska's five known commitments for the 2009 class.
You know who's not worried? Nebraska assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator Ted Gilmore.
Whatever perceptions there might be about Husker recruiting don't really matter to the receivers coach.
"The only perception that matters is those guys that are in that office, sitting there watching the tape and doing their evaluations," Gilmore says.
Having five commitments at this point in the recruiting process puts Nebraska in the company of most schools, but still, there are those who get concerned when they take a look at what some of the bullies of college football are doing.
Did you see Texas has 18 commitments already?
Yeah, and USC has 10 — all "4 stars" and "5 stars."
"It's a process. You never know when a kid you're going to recruit is going to put his hand up or not," Gilmore says. "Obviously, there's some places out there, because of the talent in their back yards, that might have more (recruits) than others. But there's no need for us to panic. There's a lot of days left in this recruiting calendar."
Husker head coach Bo Pelini has said he's not interested in star rankings, just getting good football players. That's not to say Nebraska coaches aren't after some heralded recruits, too. But one thing they've shown early on is that they're not afraid to trust their eyes and extend scholarship invitations to kids not on the national radar screen.
Just look at Nebraska's most recent recruiting class and a scholarship given to safety Mason Wald, out of Birmingham, Ala. The other school courting Wald was Samford.
It didn't matter to Husker coaches. They saw someone who could play. Sign him up.
"You just want to find ballplayers and guys that have great character, great intangibles," says Jeff Jamrog, NU's associate athletic director for football operations. "Those are the things you can't measure. Because everyone's doing it right now, just measuring height, weight, 40 speed, all these things that you can measure. And in the end, what really separates talent are those intangibles that you can't measure.
"Some of that stuff of who really has offers out and all that? A lot of kids who say they have offers, they don't. There's so much misinformation out there. It's a marriage, and in the end it's who you feel good with."
Certainly, patience is required to judge a recruiting class. Jamrog reminds that Tom Osborne's teams that went 60-3 during his last five years were made up of guys from recruiting classes that were usually ranked 20th or worse.
Jamrog and Gilmore say there are no set number of commitments they'd like to have by fall camp.
"We just want to see that we're thorough on the process and we get the class we want," Jamrog says. "And if it ends up taking until Feb. 4, it takes until Feb. 4. Most important is you just get the right ones that are a good fit for your program."
And while the focus is heavy on prep players, Husker coaches will still keep a lookout for any potential help that may be found in the junior college ranks.
"We'll scour the country, we'll still look at junior college players," Jamrog says. "And if there is a certain position where we need upgraded to a point where they have to play immediately, we may go the junior college route on a certain position."
Coaches will be able to see plenty of prospects next month when about 1,200 to 1,300 kids roll into Lincoln for football camps.
Recruiting season is in its evaluation period until May 31. Assistant coaches can visit prep prospects during this time, but head coaches can't.
Some have argued this rule provides a disadvantage to new head coaches who weren't able to meet recruits last year and now can't visit their high schools during this evaluating period to gather information.
Gilmore says he doesn't think the rule hurts Nebraska.
"I think where the head coach has an effect more than anything is locally, in-state. And, obviously, those kids know who Bo is."
The recruiting process has accelerated dramatically since Gilmore got into coaching 14 years ago. It was always competitive, but it's become more fast-paced, scholarships sometimes even being offered to babyfaced underclassmen.
"It's the times that we're in, dealing with the Internet and different things like that," Gilmore says. "Whether it's an early-signing period, I think that's something they have to seriously look at. Honestly, I think it's ludicrous some kids are getting offered as sophomores and juniors and haven't even played a lick their senior year. I think you're rolling the dice when you do that, quite honestly."
Link
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