ESPN: Nebraska's recruiting success in California is only getting started

[zoogs]

I actually don't think Nebraska's inroads in California are nearly as new as the article makes it sound. But Cali is a strong recruiting target right now, and it's great!

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

Remember, the smart kids will travel across the country and around the world to attend Ivy League schools because it's good for their career.

Nebraska is still a good career destination for football.

We might lose a couple kids who can't afford the trip, and that's too bad.

We might lose a couple who get homesick, but maybe we need guys made of stronger stuff.

But if guys from sunny Southern California who have the chance to go anywhere come to Lincoln, Nebraska and BRAG about it on social media....

Nothing but good.

 

[Red Five]

Seems like we're giving a big middle finger to Texas.

I don't think that's entirely fair. The fact is that all of recruiting is really about relationships, so you should absolutely go where you have relationships. My only question is what efforts are being made to develop relationships in the B10 region. I'm sure there are efforts; would just be interesting to get some specific insights.

This staff got Butler (OH), Miller (IN), and Spielman (best football program in MN) from B1G country. We also go Farniok (SD), Bryant (MO), and Alexander (NJ) from the fringes of B1G country. Toss in Raridon (IA) and Brokop (IL) and that is over 1/3 of our class.

 

[Saunders]

Seems like we're giving a big middle finger to Texas.

I don't think that's entirely fair. The fact is that all of recruiting is really about relationships, so you should absolutely go where you have relationships. My only question is what efforts are being made to develop relationships in the B10 region. I'm sure there are efforts; would just be interesting to get some specific insights.

This staff got Butler (OH), Miller (IN), and Spielman (best football program in MN) from B1G country. We also go Farniok (SD), Bryant (MO), and Alexander (NJ) from the fringes of B1G country. Toss in Raridon (IA) and Brokop (IL) and that is over 1/3 of our class.

I think hitting those regions hard, along with jettisoning dead recruiting weight (Hughes), will really help things. Assign Parrella to the home state, and let him go nuts.

 

[commando]

Seems like we're giving a big middle finger to Texas.

I don't think that's entirely fair. The fact is that all of recruiting is really about relationships, so you should absolutely go where you have relationships. My only question is what efforts are being made to develop relationships in the B10 region. I'm sure there are efforts; would just be interesting to get some specific insights.

This staff got Butler (OH), Miller (IN), and Spielman (best football program in MN) from B1G country. We also go Farniok (SD), Bryant (MO), and Alexander (NJ) from the fringes of B1G country. Toss in Raridon (IA) and Brokop (IL) and that is over 1/3 of our class.

Wouldn't the Nebraska kids also count as players from the BiG region?

 

[BigRedBuster]

Seems like we're giving a big middle finger to Texas.

If we are getting kids from California, why is that giving the middle finger to Texas?

 

[Comish]

ESPN Junior 300 QB Tristan Gebbia’s commitment to Nebraska, on Monday, gave Cornhuskers head coach Mike Riley his third ranked commitment from the state of California.

Riley has had previous coaching stops at USC and with the NFL’s San Diego Chargers, as well as his most recent stop as head coach at Oregon State. It’s that past success in California combined with the current opportunities at Nebraska have made the Huskers an intriguing program for recruits on the West Coast.

Nebraska director of player personnel Ryan Gunderson says that California is a priority for the staff as well as some of the bigger talent producing states across the country, mainly because of Riley’s notoriety and the opportunity to secure top talent.

http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/ncfrecruiting/on-the-trail/insider/post?id=76045

How predictable was it for the hollow "anchor" to muse right at the beginning about why someone would "trade in the Southern California lifestyle for cornfields"...?

Is there not some other cliche that could be hauled out of the ESPN bowels and dusted off, just to at least approximate some sense of originality...?

 

[C N Red]

Riley needs to hit the state of Texas like he is Cali. He has had some good plays at OSU from Texas so I know he can get them to NU as well.

I don't know how deep his connections are in Texas, but his Cali ones are well-documented and probably deeper than anywhere else in the country. Outside of the 500-mile radius, I don't care where the recruits come from so long as they're the best we can get for the roles we need filled.

I would think they have to be fairly deep. He has a second home(maybe first now) down there. I also believe he did camps and stuff in the past down there.

 

[Enhance]

Yeah, but it gets hard to recruit top offensive linemen if the four years of hard work will not be preparing them for NFL careers.

Nebraska has been all about the college game, and I get that, but a college specific offense can sometimes hamstring itself.

And it's not like high school teams don't pass the ball. If all you can do is get forward push, maybe some left sweep pull, you might not be the athlete you need to be even in college.

Productivity is the key over draft picks, which is why I've long argued that the X&O's are actually more important than the Jimmies and Joes (though having both is ideal).

I'd need some research, but I wouldn't be surprised if the top 10 offenses in the country each year during the past 4 years didn't actually have a ton of OL drafted from a % perspective. For example, Baylor has had only 2 linemen drafted during the past 4 years (one 4th and one 5th rounder, and neither were particularly highly touted recruits).

I'd be interested in seeing that information, too. I did a quick check, and of the 25 or so offensive linemen prospects for this year's draft, about 4-5 come from schools that produced top 10 offenses. So, about 1/5 (again, this may not be 100% accurate as this was a very quick check If anything, my estimate is conservative). This also doesn't go back 4-5 years.

But, offensive line is also a huge pool to choose from. Excluding how many are actual draft eligible, there are about 600 starting offensive linemen in division one football every year. That's much higher than the available RB or QB pools, for example.

That's a much smarter/quicker methodology than I was thinking and probably better proximates the importance of NFL talent versus productivity.

To the second paragraph, it'd be interesting to see the % among top offenses that produced NFL RBs and QBs. You didn't mean excluding, though, did you? I'd guess that there are probably 260 draft eligible linemen ever year (pretty much a pure guess, but I'd think 2 senior starters across D1 plus a handful of guys from the other divisions.

Yes I intentionally said about 600 because it would take quite a while to figure out just how many of them are actually draft eligible, applying for the draft, interested in NFL careers, etc. Going solely off the prospects available in this draft (25), and the total number of offensive linemen starters (about 600), then about four percent of linemen have a chance to make an NFL team this year.

 

[cm husker]

Only 25 OL were drafted this year? I didn't realize it was that low... crazy.

 

[Elf]

Seems like we're giving a big middle finger to Texas.

If we are getting kids from California, why is that giving the middle finger to Texas?

Why does it have to be a middle finger at all? Why can't we just be glad we are getting good recruits regardless of where they are from?

 

[theknife]

Seems like we're giving a big middle finger to Texas.

If we are getting kids from California, why is that giving the middle finger to Texas?

Why does it have to be a middle finger at all? Why can't we just be glad we are getting good recruits regardless of where they are from?

According to Rivals, we have 24 offers in the state of Texas and 34 in California, so it's not like we aren't recruiting hard in both states hard.

 

[Elf]

Seems like we're giving a big middle finger to Texas.

If we are getting kids from California, why is that giving the middle finger to Texas?

Why does it have to be a middle finger at all? Why can't we just be glad we are getting good recruits regardless of where they are from?

According to Rivals, we have 24 offers in the state of Texas and 34 in California, so it's not like we aren't recruiting hard in both states hard.

Well there ya go. Apparently we aren't giving Texas the middle finger, not that Texas doesn't deserve it.

 

[BigRedBuster]

Hey...I'll be the first to admit I've given Texas the middle finger before.....but not as far as recruiting.

 

[krc1995]

I don't have a rivals account but it appears to me that we have one, maybe two recruiting targets in 16/17. It kinda of figures with coaching staff the emphasis is in California. I hate to not keep a moderate presence in Texas due to the amount of talent per capita there. Maybe I'm wrong and please correct me.